Water crisis troubles Bojini in its reconstruction

Sindhupalchowk, April. 28: Bojini in Chautara Sangachowkgadhi Municipality–13 of Sindhupalchowk district has a severe water scarcity.

Forty seven families are reconstructing their houses, which were completely damaged in the devastating Gorkha Earthquake 2015. The quake not only turned their houses into ruins but also ate up the remaining sources of water in the village.

But the crisis of water has not deterred the villagers from reconstructing their settlement, named as 'Ekta Basti', but they have joined their hands and building their houses one after another.

Ram Bahadur Shrestha, who was busy in erecting the wall of his house above the lintel, said that they waited enough to get water facility and now using tankers to deliver water required to build their house.

"The government has set the deadline of receiving the second installation of house reconstruction grant by the end of this fiscal year. We are in a haste to construct our houses," he said.

The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) recently extended the deadline of collecting the second tranche of the grant by the end of the current fiscal year.

According to him, the community has found a way to reduce the transportation cost by transporting the construction materials for multiple houses at a time.

"You have to pay the full transportation cost to a truck even if you carry materials only for your home while the truck can carry materials for multiple houses at the same price," he chuckled.

Yam Raj Giri, an inhabitant of the neighbouring village who was assisting Shrestha in construction, said that he was supporting Shrestha as the latter had offered his labour while rebuilding his house a couple of months ago.

He stated that all the villages around the hills are under the shortage of water.

The water is pulled up with the help of a machine from a spring, about 100 metres down the village. But as the water is not sufficient for house construction and other activities, locals hire tankers to fetch water.

Pancha Maya Shrestha shares her grievances, "I have completed the reconstruction of my house except the roofing. You can't imaging the hardships that we went through to manage water."

The Newar community here is working at war footing to build their houses with an aim of developing their village as an integrated settlement.

They want immediate government support for water supply management in the village.

Construction of about half of the houses in the village has been completed while others, except two families, have started the reconstruction of their houses damaged in the quake.

All the houses in the village were completely destroyed in the tremors, and people have been living temporary shelters for the last three years.

People here are building their houses quite fast despite water crisis, said Bhakta Bahadur Giri, a mobile mason, deployed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The development partner is providing technical assistance in the district to support people in rebuilding their houses.

Giri is looking after 89 houses in Thulo Sirubari cluster, under which Bojini lies.

"JICA engineers and mobile masons visit the construction sites and recommend people about the quake resistant house construction measures," said Madhu Sudan Baral, District Project Coordinator of JICA's housing reconstruction programme.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 29 April 2018.