Gajamaya Tamang became the first to take advantage of a village development committee (VDC) offer of Rs 30,000 in grant for digging wells in the parched village and the villagers have been following suit after she succeeded in striking water. [break]
"We had to walk for half an hour for a pot of water. But now that we have dug a well with the VDC´s assistance, fetching drinking water has become easy," says Tamang, a resident of Padampur-3 Pipriya.
The villagers offered to work for free and Tamang donated Rs 500 as the amount provided by the VDC proved not enough. The well has made life easier for 17 households in her locality and inspired other villagers to follow her example.
"No one had turned up to take the money till last year. But after Gajamaya dug a well, 22 other wells are being dug in the village," village secretary Buddhi Prasad Lamichhane says. The VDC provides the amount, which has now been increased to 35,000, to consumer groups, and five of the 22 groups are led by women.
Till 15 years ago the village, which was translocated from the middle of Chitwan National Park to the outskirts of the forest to the north of Ratnanagar, could be reached only after crossing the Rapti river. The newly settled villagers had difficulty finding drinking water.
After a drinking water project failed, the 14,000 villagers were facing an acute scarcity of water. Water could not be found even after digging 30 feet, and no one dared to dig a well at his own expense. But once Gajamaya succeeded in finding after digging 36 feet, the villagers have been eager to emulate her.
There is still a long way to go, though. As secretary Lamichhane says, even now hardly 15 percent of the villagers have easy access to drinking water.
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