Locals are still facing water shortages as the project to provide clean water to 1,562 households in the Hilihang rural municipality area has stalled due to the inaction of the committee.
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The Tamor Large Lifting Drinking Water Project, which was launched with the aim of providing clean drinking water to the residents of Hilihang Rural Municipality of Panchthar, which is listed as a dry area, has been left stranded. It has been 5 months since the completion of the project and its handover to the Consumers Committee. The project has been stalled as the committee has not progressed with the work to be done.
The project was launched on 11 Baisakh 2078 with the aim of providing clean water to 1,562 households in four wards. The total cost of the project is Rs 155.1 million. The construction contractor has already constructed a structure to bring water from the source of the Tamor River to the tank through the substation. GRD Construction had poured water into the tank on 1 Asar 2081 after completing the project.
The company had handed over the project to the Consumers Committee after completing its responsibilities. The taps connected to the project had been running for the entire trial period given to the company. ‘After the contractor company returned, the remaining work could not be done,’ said Binod Kharel of Hilihang-2.
After the test period ended on November 1, the company’s representatives returned and handed over the project committee. According to local Rajkumar Basnet, neither water has come to the connected taps, nor has the work of connecting taps to the remaining households progressed. As per the agreement between the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage and the construction company, there is a provision for 90 percent of the project cost to be shared by the government and 10 percent by the consumer committee. The condition was that the consumer’s share would be 9 percent labor contribution and 1 percent cash contribution.
But out of the 1,562 beneficiary households, only about 300 households had taps installed by mid-November. The work of connecting more than 1,200 households has not even started. As the officials in charge of the project have not taken up the work, we still have to carry 10-15 jugs of water daily to make a living,' says Ratna Ghising of Kuwapani, Hilihang-2.
According to locals, the office bearers of the consumer committee, which was formed on the basis of party division when they took office, have now become inactive. They allege that although the committee is responsible for mobilizing consumers for labor donations and collecting the necessary amount, no initiative has been taken in that direction.
Ganga Bahadur Chauhan, chairman of the Tamor Large Pumping Drinking Water Consumer Committee, claims that the electricity bill for bringing water from the Tamor River through a lift system is high, but the fee collected from the consumers is low, making it difficult to manage.
'We had to hire employees to operate the water,' he said, 'We also had to pay the electricity bill and we could not move forward with the project because we were worried that we would not be able to meet the office operating expenses.' But consumers and public representatives do not agree with Chauhan's argument. They say that the project has been stalled due to the negligence of the committee, which should have completed the work before the construction company completed the work.
Hilihang-2 Ward Chairman Bhim Bahadur Hembya says that the project has been stalled due to the inactivity of the consumer committee. ‘The construction company was responsible for building the infrastructure from the source to the tank and pumping water,’ he said, ‘that was completed almost two years ago.’ He said that although the responsibility of connecting taps to households and providing water has not been completed yet, the consumer committee has been responsible for this.
