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Dalits of Shankarpokhari face lack of potable water
SHANKARPOKHARI, PARBAT, NOV 13 - About 150 Dalit families of Shankarpokhari-8, two-hours walk from the district headquarters, have been without pure drinking water for many years. The problem still exists, with a majority of the locals dependent on a single well present in the locality.
Since, the water supplied by the drinking water office is very irregular and there being no other source of drinking water the villagers are forced to use the well water. However, procuring water from the well is an ordeal in itself, as they have to stand in queue for many hours. Every morning there is the inevitable tussle around the well, just to get this valuable water. Such inconveniences have adversely affected their livelihood, contends Buddhi Beka, a local resident.
According to Rajkumar Beka, secretary of the Dalit Public Society, such shortage of drinking water and having to wait for hours in queue to collect water from the well has hampered the daily earnings of the Dalits of this region, most of whom are engaged in manual labour and have to leave early for work. Another reason for the water shortage in this village, according to some of the locals, is the increase in population in their community.
Since this village is situated at some altitude and as per a study of the Drinking Water Office, the nearest source from where water can be tapped is 15 Km away from their village at Daharelek, adjoining the borders of Parbat and Syangja, it is difficult to arrange sufficient drinking water.
Though a drinking water programme was conducted in this village 20 years back, nothing substantial has been achieved in this respect so far. The arrangement of water made by this programme was deemed a failure as the required amount of water would never reach the locals, mainly due to spillage along the way. This drinking water programme had initially been conducted to benefit more than 6000 locals of ward-1,2, 3,5,6,7 and 8 in Shankarpokhari.
According to Pracharya Thakurprasad Sharma of Jeebhuvan Higher Secondary School, even the schools and their students have been suffering immensely due to the shortage of potable water. They have difficulty arranging water for drinking and washing, he added. Some locals are of the view that this problem can jointly be resolved with the active participation of the concerned committee, drinking water office, and the consumers themselves.Posted on: 2003-11-12 08:31
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