In the past three years alone, over 150 families have moved out of ward no. 1 in Kurule Tenupa after finding it hard to get any drinking water. Dozens more families have already deserted other wards of the VDC. Hundreds more are also mulling a similar move. [break]
"Everyone is abandoning our village," said Ganesh Karki, 45, of Kurule Tenupa-1, whose elder brother Lilam recently migrated out, adding, "I am also trying to bat my way out." Lilam tried to sell off his land and house before leaving the village. But no one came forward to buy.
"Who would buy land in a village where people do not have even a bucket of potable water, let alone water for irrigating their crops?" asked Ganesh. His brother´s fields are lying barren. No one has shown any interest in cultivating the abandoned fields.
According to Bishwa Nath Dahal, VDC secretary of Kurule Tenupa, 36 families have obtained migration certificates in the past one year alone. In this same period, only three new families have settled into the village.
"The intensity of the problem is much worse than what our rough data shows," Dahal told myrepublica.com. "Most of the migrating families have not been able to sell off their property, which means they are yet to come to us for migration certificates."
The migration has hampered development work in the village. "Until a few years ago, dozens of people could easily come together for construction work," Ganesh Basnet, 52, of Phalametar in Kurule Tenupa-1, said. "Now, hardly a few turn up if we need to build something."
According to Basnet, 14 families have left from Phalametar alone. Not fully satisfied with his mango farming, Basnet had built a water mill last year. But it could not come into operation due to the shortage of water. "I wasted my money," he said.
Kurule Tenupa is cut off from the district headquarters of Dhankuta. People going there need to cross the Tamor River, which swells up on rainy days, with the help of a twin rope contraption. Local villagers cannot take their produce to nearby markets as there is no road link.
There is only one secondary school. And the lone sub-health post cannot deliver adequate services to all the people scattered throughout the village.
"We have no roads, no adequate medicine, and no quality school," Basnet said. "We can endure all these hardships. But how can we live without water?" The water crisis was not so unbearable until some three years ago. But in recent days, almost all the water sources have dried up.
Inhabitants of Kurule Tenupa rely for water either on the Tamor River, which flows alongside the village, or on Chhahare ravine, which is almost dry. To reach either source, villagers walk down and then up for hours.
"It is tough," Purna Bishwakarma, 53, of Kurule Tenupa-1, said. "Besides, the water we get from these sources is not suitable for drinking."
According to Bishwakarma, the villagers quite often suffer outbreaks of communicable disease in the rainy season. And, they need to go all the way to Dhankuta bazaar to buy a single packet of re-hydration powder. "We foresee the entire village becoming empty in the near future," he asserted.
When Lalit Ghimire, 40, of Kurule Tenupa-3, was a child, there were two ravines flowing close by his house, and these never dried up even in the dry season. Now, he requires at least two hours to fetch a bucket of water. "I am a tad lucky that I am getting a little water," he said. "Dozens of my fellow villagers have already left to settle somewhere else."
Ghimire says that he needs to wait for hours at times to fill his water vessels. "I have spent scores of sleepless nights to get water," he said. He has to take turns with his wife staying awake all through the night to get water.
Not that there has not been any attempt to provide water to the locals.
When Dr Baburam Bhattarai was Finance Minister, Hemraj Bhandari, a Maoist constituent assembly member from Dhankuta, provided Rs 3 million for a water project in Kurule Tenupa. However, the project appears to be in limbo as there is no feasible source of water to be tapped in Kurule Tenupa.
Similarly, the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DoWSS) has allotted Rs 275,000 for a drinking water project. District Development Committee, Dhankuta has also promised to help this thirsty village. But local people´s patience is running out.
"We cannot wait for government succor any longer," Ghimire told myrepublica.com. "We need immediate action."
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