Udaypur, October 11: A remote village here which struggled for clean drinking water for three decades has found the piped water supply, thanks to Gorkha Welfare Trust (GWT), the organization of the retired Gorkhas which made it possible.
The drinking water project in Bhorle, Triyuga Municipality -16, came to completion with financial and technical support from the Dharan-based office of GWT.
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The villagers had no other option than to drink the muddy water from a nearby stream for over three decades, since the drinking water ditch was destroyed by the earthquakes in 1990. The locals in 2017 made an appeal to the ward office, which then started the drinking water project with technical and financial assistance from GTW. “The project that started in April 2019 has been completed and handed over to the community on Saturday,” said Man Bahadur Rai, the ward chief.
The project was accomplished at a much lower cost than initially estimated. Of the Rs 3,906,124 estimated cost, only Rs 3,526,118 — of which Rs 2,085,443 was contributed by GTW and Rs 1,440,675 was raised from consumers — was spent, according to Rai. The new project supplies water to around 39 taps across the village, benefiting the locals as well as the students and teachers from Bhorle Secondary School. A total of 103 women, 121 men, and 336 students have benefitted from the water project, according to Krishna Bahadur Subba, the project manager at GTW.
“The village, choking with thirst for decades, has found water to drink,” said ward chief Rai, thanking GTW for making it happen. He also made an appeal to the people to maintain and preserve taps and use the resource sustainably.
The project was handed over to the community on Saturday, amid a function attended by Ambika Thapa, the provincial parliamentarian and NCP leader, ward chief and officials from GTW. Thapa pledged Rs 250,000 for the upkeep of the project from the provincial constituency development budget.
