Celebrating water day in drought | RecentFusion.com

By Rup Narayan Dhakal
As I was brushing my teeth in the morning today, I saw a different scene that my neighbors were flocking to my residence to collect water. They were carrying buckets and other utensils in their hands to collect water from our tap. Most of the water tanks in my neighboring were empty and they were here hoping the water for cooking and drinking purpose.

At a time when Nepali have been facing load shedding problem, people from Pokhara, a resort town in mid Nepal have faced another problem of shortage of drinking water. It’s 2nd consecutive day that the Mardi source from where the water comes to Pokhara, have been blocked by the locals demanding the local development and the cash money worth rupees 15 million Nepali rupees.

It is ironic that there has been developed a bad culture of way of strike and bandh in Nepal. People either block a road or come into vandalism instead of taking part in dialogue to fulfill their demands. Same kind of nature has been applied in the case of the water in Pokhara now.

Naya Nepal (New Nepal) is a popular slogan after the declaration of republic in Nepal. If anything negative happens here, people comically like to represent that thing as a phenomenon of Naya Nepal. Some of the people from Pokhara are also terming this state of shortage of water as Naya Nepal.

Pokhara is a valley of 9 lakes and Seti River but we are facing drought here now. I am personally happy that the mountains are cleared after a period of 5 months following the rainfall in this rain capital Pokhara now. But only looking shining snowcapped mountains don’t supply the water in our taps. Pokhara is also a sub metropolitan city and the 2nd largest city of Nepal but why is this problem in water? There is going something wrong due to the crisis of belief between the local people and the consumers Pokhrali.

It is reportedly said that the local people have demanded to blacktop the five KM off-road going through their village and the 15 million rupees to make toilets and other local developments in their village. So, outright the Kaski district administration and the drinking water authority should hold a dialogue to resume the water supply to Pokhara.

Today is also a World Water Day. In 1993 the United Nations General Assembly had declared March 22 as World Day for Water. But it’s a bitter truth that we are celebrating this day with drough and no water, in Pokhara.

Data says that there are more than 0.3 million population in Pokhara and this population has daily demand of 40 million litters water but the regular supply was only half of this quantity. To supply ondemand water in Pokhara, on Friday there was laid a foundation stone at the water source of Pokhara in Mardi up on a new project that has been supported by Japan and Nepal Government. The stone was laid by a minister of Nepal but after theree hours of stone laying, locals blocked the existing water source.

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