After a dozer cut and destroyed a pipe during road construction, locals in Chhatreswari Rural Municipality-1 Sindure in the district have been forced to walk for an hour to get drinking water for the past two months. Due to the delay in connecting the cut pipe, they have been forced to walk for an hour to get local drinking water.

Local women have been suffering from having to walk up and down for a long time carrying a jug for drinking water. If they do not go on time, they cannot fill the spring with water. 25 houses in the settlement have been affected after the water supply in the tap has stopped for two months.

Local Prem Chand said that the construction company did not pay attention to the installation of the pipe cut and destroyed by the local dozer, which had been filling the tap near their house until a few months ago, and the committee was also unable to purchase and install the pipe with its own investment, so they were forced to walk for an hour to get a jug of water. He said that a dozer cut and destroyed four kilometers of pipe two months ago during the construction of the Madan Bhandari Highway. 

‘We had repeatedly requested the construction company. When the company did not show interest, we connected a piecemeal pipe to the tank. Even after installing the pipe, there was not enough water. Earlier, we could fill the tap daily. Now, due to insufficient water, it takes three days. A house cannot fill more than 200 liters of water. Since 200 liters of water is not enough, local women are forced to go to the spring,’ he said. 

Local woman Rita Chand said that it was very difficult to go to the spring in the morning after the tap stopped flowing. She informed that as the heat increased, the water in the spring dried up and we had to wait a long time for a jug of water. She said that now, even if there is no water in the tap, we have to continue paying the monthly fee. 

Chairman of the Drinking Water Consumers Committee, Neem Bahadur Chand, said that since the construction company will not repair it and the committee cannot buy and install four kilometers of pipes, even if we connect a piecemeal pipe and bring water from another source, it is not enough. 

After the demand for the reconnection of the cut pipe, the technical team of the Suswa project working in the municipality came and measured it and said that the work would be done on a 50/50 percent cost subsidy, but the committee could not collect the money, so the work could not proceed, he informed. "After the problem of drinking water in the settlement, the Drinking Water and Energy Development Office had completed the project by bringing water from a spring near Kotmaula at a cost of Rs 4.3 million four years ago. After installing taps in every house, local women did not have to go to wells or springs for water. The problem has been repeated in the past because the pipes cut by the dozer were not connected on time," he said.