Inmates face acute shortage of water in Rukum West

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT,Rukum West, May 23: The inmates in one Rukum West jail have been suffering from a dire drinking water shortage for a week now. Along with the jail, the district headquarters Musikot Khalanga and other markets have been reeling from the scarcity.  

Acting Chief District Officer Prabesh Badhuwal said that the prisoners were facing difficulties due to lack of drinking water. The jail has sought help from neighboring houses for water to be used for drinking, toilet use and cleaning, he added. 

A direct water pipeline has been connected to the jail from a spring. But after it dried up with the onset of summer, the problem of water shortage emerged. 

Anil Budha of Musikot Municipality-1 said that the water flowing through the supply pipe has stopped flowing since last week. The scarcity is so severe in cities that people are forced to go to the streams in Shahid Maidan and Tatela to fetch water. Students, employees and traders in Khalanga have also been affected. Students have complained that their study has taken a hit as they have to allocate time and effort to fetch water. 

The Musikot Khalanga Drinking Water and Sanitation Consumer Organisation, which is distributing drinking water in the headquarters, the supply of drinking water was affected due to problem in the main pipeline. According to Mahendra Gautam, general secretary of the organisation, the water pipeline got broken at multiple places by the debris – produced during road and district post office building construction – thrown on and around the pipeline. As a result, water supply problem has appeared in Khalanga Bazar, Jail, Seri village, Salle Pipalneta, Rawalbara, Dhangichaur, Maath and other areas of Musikot, he claimed.

During the construction of a unified office building, road construction and construction of some people's houses, the water pipe line was damaged after the soil was dumped randomly. Gautam said that there had been a delay in repairing the pipeline since the raw materials had to be ferried from Kathmandu. He said that the organisation, which distributes water to 1,056 houses in Musikot, was working to fix the problem as soon as possible.