Of the 12 districts of Lumbini Province that require Rs 10.92 billion 24 million for old drinking water projects, no work has been progressed due to a zero budget in the current fiscal year.
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The Anildhar Lift Drinking Water Scheme was launched in Bhairavsthan, Ribdikot Rural Municipality-4, Palpa in 2064/65. This scheme, which was launched with the aim of providing clean drinking water to about 1,000 households, has not been completed for 19 years.
26 percent of the work of the scheme is still pending. Work has been done in four phases in different places in Bhairavsthan. The work of branch line extension and service tank construction in the scheme has not been completed. The work of electrification and distribution line is also pending, said Consumers Committee Chairman Tul Bahadur Adhikari.
According to him, electricity transformers, poles and other equipment were brought and placed two years ago. The electricity line has not been extended to the water tank. Apart from this, Chairman Adhikari said that a lot of work has been done. According to him, the project started years ago could not be fully operational due to lack of budget. A budget of Rs 13 million is required to complete the scheme.
According to Sanjeev Adhikari, engineer of the Drinking Water Division Office, Palpa, there is no budget in the current fiscal year to complete the plan. ‘There has not been much progress in the plan in recent years because the budget is small,’ he said. He said that due to the lack of budget in the current fiscal year, no work has been done on any plan in the district under the federal conditions.
Due to the lack of completion of the plan, locals are now forced to go to rivers and streams in drought. Parbati Bik, a housewife from Bhairavsthan Masure, Ribdikot Rural Municipality-4, said that due to the shortage of drinking water, it is difficult to even get enough water.
The work of the Baughagumha Drinking Water Scheme in Baughagumha Chherlung, Tansen Municipality-13, is almost abandoned. According to Consumers Committee Chairman Devi Prasad Bhattarai, only 50 percent of the work of the plan that started in the fiscal year 2071/72 has been completed. ‘The budget was being allocated gradually,’ he said, ‘now we are disappointed as there is not even a single rupee in the current financial year.’ When the plan is completed, 900 people of Chherlung will benefit. But now, he said, while the work of tanks, distribution lines and other works is pending, the budget has not been received.
There are 26 such plans in Palpa alone that have not been completed due to lack of budget. 368 drinking water projects in 12 districts of Lumbini Province have been stalled for years. Some were started two decades ago. Such plans have not been completed due to lack of sufficient budget allocation.
The federal government has not shown interest in completing these projects, which were handed over to the provincial government after 2074 BS. Consumers are complaining that they will be stalled in the coming days as they are not even a priority of the provincial government.
Recently, as the mains in the upper areas are drying up, the problem of drinking water is becoming serious even in the hilly areas. Som Bahadur Karki, ward chairman of Ribdikot Rural Municipality-4 Bhairavasthan, says that most of the gravity-operated projects have now had to be replaced with lifts. He said that the structures built for the projects whose cost was estimated 15/20 years ago have also started to deteriorate. According to him, the attention of the Finance Minister, the Speaker of the Province, and the people's representatives of the district was drawn to the project last year. But he said that not a single rupee was allocated in the budget in the same year that attention was drawn.
According to Gunanidhi Pokharel, head of the Lumbini Province Water Supply and Sanitation Division, about 10 billion 924.6 million rupees are required to complete all these projects. Not a single rupee has been allocated in the budget for these projects in the current fiscal year. This is because it should have come from the federal conditional grant. He said that it is difficult to say when these plans will be completed due to low budget allocation every year.
These projects, which were started before 2074 BS, are being implemented gradually under the Lumbini Provincial Government with federal grants. He said that due to non-allocation of budget for these projects, the province's 'One House, One Stream' campaign has also been stalled.
Some of the materials of the projects that have taken 10/15 years to complete with little budget allocation for years are lying idle on the streets. Even the projects that have been prepared to send and complete a small budget for a long time have come under pressure due to lack of budget allocation in the current fiscal year.
For this, the Lumbini Provincial Water Supply and Sanitation Division as well as the provincial government have been repeatedly requesting the federal government for budget allocation for such projects.
According to Division Chief Pokharel, there are 26 incomplete projects in Palpa, 42 in Banke, 27 in Pyuthan, 45 in Rupandehi, 23 in Gulmi, 28 in Arghakhanchi, and 28 in Nawalparasi West. Similarly, 26 projects are yet to be completed in Bardiya, 14 in Rukumpur, 16 in Rolpa, 34 in Kapilvastu, and 59 in Dang. He said that the availability of treated, i.e. safe drinking water in Lumbini Province is 7 percent, while 74 percent have access to basic drinking water.
