According to Lakshmi Dutta Bista, a resident of Siddheshwar VDC, the source has dried up significantly in the past one and a half years. Tens of millions of rupees have been set aside to help start drinking water projects in villages of Baitadi. [break]
However, sources have started drying up because of drought. The drying up of wells may also have occurred because of the destruction of forests that lie in the foothills of the Mahabharata range.
Another local resident, Hari Bahadur Bista, said that although the project had been started to meet the water requirement of 1,200 families, there is only water enough for 500 families now as a result of the drying up.
Drought has also affected a drinking water project meant for four VDCs of Baitadi -- Gokuleshwar, Dillasaini, Maithraj and Rudreshwar. Started three years ago, Rs 1 million have already been spent on it. However, because of the drying up, an additional cost of Rs 10 million and a further time period of three years may be needed to complete the project.
According to Dev Narayan Yadav, an engineer at the Nepal Water Supply Corporation office, this year only Rs 13 million have been released in order to finance nine projects but the depletion of water sources has rendered the projects meaningless.
Yadav linked the drying up of sources to climate change and warned that further problems lie ahead if the locals did not pay attention to preserve water sources.
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