There are about 1,000 households living in Kudu Phat on the banks of the Bheri River in Bheri Municipality-13 of Jajarkot. The residents of the settlement have not been able to consume water from the Bheri River, which is 100 meters away. ‘Neither irrigation facilities nor drinking water,’ said local Ambika Prasad Acharya, ‘We have to make up our minds by looking at the Bheri flowing nearby. We have been facing drinking water problems for generations.’

According to him, Tej Bikram Shah, who won the National Panchayat membership in 2043 BS by putting forward an agenda including bringing drinking water to the village, later became an assistant minister. After him, his son Govinda Bikram Shah became the chairman of the District Development Committee and a member of the House of Representatives in 2056 BS. Nepali Communist Party (NCP) candidate Shakti Bahadur Basnet, who has won three elections to the House of Representatives from Jajarkot, has once again pledged to solve Kudu's drinking water problem through a large-scale drinking water project, while the manifestos of other party candidates also mention the same thing.

Along with drinking water, irrigation facilities have also reached Chaurjahari in Rukum West on the other side of Kudu. But local Amar Budha said that the residents of Wariko Kudu have been facing drinking water problems for years. According to him, only annual crops are grown in Kudu due to lack of irrigation. He said that he is now disappointed with the assurances given by the candidates who come to seek votes.

The work of the Chhahari-Kudu drinking water project was taken forward 4 years ago to solve the drinking water problem. But the plan, which cost 4.2 million rupees from Bheri Municipality, 200,000 rupees from the Large Watershed Office, and 400,000 rupees from the Drinking Water, Irrigation and Energy Development Office, is still incomplete. ‘Even if the budget is allocated and invested in the project, it is like pouring water on sand without monitoring,’ said local Ramkrishna Giri. ‘First, the budget does not come, and even if it does, the work is not of high quality.’

Bheri Municipality Mayor Chandra Prakash Gharti said that the local government alone has spent about 9.8 million rupees for Kudu drinking water, but it has not been completed yet. According to him, Bheri Municipality has spent 4.4 million rupees two years ago to extract water through deep boring in the Kudu health post premises. He said that the drinking water problem of Kudu has been solved to some extent through that plan.

Drinking water problem is also big in Bhur, Jagatipur, Chiprena, Kalegaun, Rimna, Rawatgaun and other areas on the banks of the Bheri River. Congress candidate Khadak Bahadur Budha said that since clean drinking water has also been included in the party’s central manifesto, there will be no shortage of budget this time to solve the drinking water problem of Jajarkot.

In 1980, Chandra Shamsher's younger sister, Queen Balkumari, had protected the Budbudi forest and installed 11 drinking water taps to supply drinking water to Khalanga, the district headquarters of Jajarkot. But as the forest area decreases every year and the spring dries up, the people of Khalanga have been facing drinking water problems for almost a decade and a half, said former ward chair of Bheri Municipality-4, Khamwajung Shah. Although it was proposed to declare the Budbudi spring area as a conservation area to solve the drinking water problem for the district headquarters, the federal government ignored it, said ward chair of Bheri Municipality-4, Basanta Prasad Sharma.

The Babai River flows near the house of 55-year-old Bhola Prasad Budha of Ghuiyawari, Kalimati Rural Municipality-7, Salyan. He has a 2-bigha field 40/50 meters away from the Babai River. But due to the lack of irrigation facilities, the field becomes barren in winter, and about 100% of the village's water is lost. He said that 50 households have been facing water problems for years. According to him, the locals consume polluted water from the river throughout the year. ‘Leaders use this river to do politics by saying that they will bring water, electricity and irrigation,’ he said. ‘Due to lack of irrigation, our produce is not enough to eat for even 3 months.’

Bhadra Bahadur Gharti of Kalimati Rural Municipality-2, Kochhate is also annoyed with the candidates who come promising water. He said that since it is a hilly settlement, we have been facing water shortage for generations. ‘We are forced to drink water in a hurry due to shortage,’ he said. ‘For years, we have been forced to get up in the middle of the night and go for an hour to the Ghati Khola spring below to fetch water.’ According to him, they are forced to carry water on their backs, while women and children spend their evenings and mornings carrying water. He informed that in the village, which has about 70 families, 8/10 families leave the village every year due to water shortage.

The project to pump water from the Bheri River to the provincial capital Birendranagar, which was a main agenda in previous elections, has just started in Surkhet. The work of pumping Bheri has started with 80 percent investment from the federal government, 13 percent from the provincial government, and 7 percent from the municipality. For which, the Chinese company 'Xijiang Termes International Economy and Technical Corporation' has taken over the responsibility of carrying out the first phase of work at a cost of Rs 3.5 billion. The candidate from Surkhet-2 has given priority to this project even now.

UML candidate Kulmani Devkota has mentioned in his manifesto the agenda of completing the Bheri pumping work on time and solving the drinking water problem of Birendranagar, while Congress candidate Narayan Kumar Koirala said that he will complete the Bheri pumping work as soon as possible without letting there be a shortage of budget for it. Kamal Lamsal, associate professor at Madhya Paschim University, said that the candidate is trying to take advantage of the project that has already been started by making it an agenda.

Ramesh Adhikari, chief consultant of the Bheri Pumping Project, informed that physical progress has reached about 14 percent in the project that started in Bhadau last year. The main reserve tank is being constructed in Amritdanda, Birendranagar Municipality-11, about 7 kilometers from the Bheri River. The project, which is operated using pumping technology, is targeted to be completed in 2027.

According to the Provincial Planning Commission, nearly 15,000 households in the Surkhet Valley are deprived of drinking water. ‘We are more worried about when tap water will come than who to vote for in the elections,’ said Kalpana Bista of Birendranagar Municipality-6, ‘Even during the rainy season, water comes only once a week.’ She says that the problem has not been solved for decades even though drinking water is the main agenda of the leaders in every election.

The Jhupra Comprehensive Drinking Water and Sanitation Organization, built in 2057 BS, is currently distributing drinking water in Birendranagar. Nearly 300,000 people live in the Surkhet Valley. But the organization is providing drinking water facilities to only about 25,000 households.

There is a big problem of migration due to lack of drinking water in Karnali. Surkhet Chaukune Rural Municipality-5, which was home to about 200 families a decade ago, now has only about 80 families. There are 10-12 wells throughout the village, but none of them can be filled with more than 2 jugs of water a day, said 80-year-old Nanda Jaisi, “Moreover, we cannot even drink water to quench our thirst.” She complains that it is difficult to provide a family of 10 with 2 jugs of water, so she worries about water day and night.

There are 18 wells in Rekcha. Out of them, 12 wells dried up in the last week of Magh. Local youth Jiten BC said that the wells are gradually drying up as the drought worsens. According to him, a watchman has been appointed to monitor the water supply in Rekcha. The watchman himself takes turns supplying two jugs of water to each household. The locals give one part of wheat to the watchmen who are posted from Poush to Asar.

3 years ago, the construction of the lift drinking water project was started in Rekcha with an investment of Rs 12.6 million with the investment of the provincial government. But the project is stalled due to the lack of electricity facilities. Rural Municipality Chairman Khadak BK said that the drinking water project is stalled due to the lack of a road to reach the source of electricity transformers. ‘Roads and electricity facilities were also necessary for this project to be implemented,’ he said, ‘At least Rs 5 million is required to build a road up to that point, we have not been able to allocate that budget yet, which has stalled the drinking water project.’

Nepali Communist Party candidate from Surkhet-2, Jhak Bahadur Malla, claimed that if he is elected, the drinking water problem throughout the constituency will be solved within a 5-year term. ‘Settlements including Rekcha are more affected by the problem of drinking water than anywhere else,’ he said, ‘The right to clean drinking water is also a fundamental right of the people, and our party is committed to ensuring that right given to the people by the constitution.’

According to the National Census-2078, only 35.64 residents of Karnali have access to drinking water facilities. Of that, about 96.5 percent of the households have not been tested for water purity. Out of 366,037 households, only 130,465 households have access to drinking water facilities through a managed drinking water scheme. The remaining 235,000 households are forced to consume drinking water from alternative sources, while 4,276 households are still forced to use river water for twelve months.

Nutritionist Hari Devkota said that the availability of safe drinking water will help in sanitation and healthy living and help control water-borne diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, and dysentery. According to him, this will help reduce child mortality and maternal mortality rates as well as increase the average life expectancy. ‘The residents here do not have access to clean water,’ he said, ‘other facilities are a distant memory.’ The provincial government’s Ministry of Water Resources and Energy Development has stated that about 1,600 drinking water projects in Karnali have been abandoned due to lack of budget.

According to Gopal KC, the administrative head of the Provincial Planning Commission, the provincial government has allocated about 2 billion rupees for drinking water this year. He said that the drinking water problem in Karnali is serious due to lack of distribution-oriented settlements, geographical remoteness, unorganized road construction, climate change, deforestation, settlements being above and springs below. About 26 percent of Karnali has a snow-covered area. Where 1,459 glaciers cover an area of ​​1,023 square kilometers. According to the commission, about 60 percent of the 500-kilometer length of Nepal's longest river, Karnali, is in Karnali. But all the water flowing from Karnali is being wasted.

Mohan Kumar Shakya, Joint Secretary of the Secretariat of the Water and Energy Commission, said that the water of the 264-kilometer-long Bheri River and the 68-kilometer-long Tila River in Karnali Province is also being wasted. According to him, the provincial government needs to create a suitable water policy and conserve the water of Karnali. There is also a big problem of irrigation in Karnali. Out of the 299,339 hectares of cultivable land here, only 38,033 hectares have irrigation facilities. Due to this, Karnali has been facing food dependency for years, said Sunil Limbu, spokesperson for the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives.