Progressive village falls to ruin after death of inspirational figure

DHANUSHA, March 10: Madhubasa, a village in Pushpalpur VDC of Dhanusha district, was known far and wide for its progressive approach to development. There was a time when the village had no shortage of water sources and every household boasted of taps that dispensed government supplied water. To discourage open defecation, the villagers have built public toilets at various places. Also, the local community used to organize cleaning campaigns twice a week to keep the roads and surroundings neat.

At a time when people of most districts in Nepal were relying on kerosene lamps, locals of Madhubasa village already had access to electricity. Impressed with their relentless quest for development, foreigners had nicknamed the village “Top village of Asia.”

Locals of Madhubasa vividly recall how their village had been some 25 years earlier. Today, the village is no more than a shadow of what it used to be.

The village is facing drinking water scarcity. Polluted rivers and dirty environment has made the surroundings look terrible and unwelcoming. Naked hills surrounding the village have increased its vulnerabilities to landslides and other disasters.
Long gone are the days when the locals built toilets with their own initiatives. At present, NGOs have to spread awareness in the village about the importance of having a toilet at each home. Janaki Women Awareness Society (JWAS) recently launched the campaign and enforced the villagers to implement it.

According to Ambika Lama, a social worker affiliated to JWAS, less than 25 percent of the households in the village have toilets. But she said their efforts to make the village Open Defecation Free (ODF) zone have started to pay off as people are now starting to build toilets.

But the problem of water shortage cast dark shadow of the future of the village. “We are starting to worry that we may need to leave the village for good due to scarcity of water,” said local Shambhu Bahadur Kyapchaki.

The village had seen most of the developmental work when Indra Bahadur Kyapchaki, the father of Shambhu, steered the village back in 1970s. The villagers followed his instructions on developmental works and he had successfully converted the place into one of the most envious villages in the country.

However, after Indra Bahadur’s death in a bus accident in 1988, the village began to fall apart.

The time has changed. Outsiders now teach the same villagers basic things like washing hands with soap and building toilets. According to Shambhu, the village now feels like it has lost somewhere. “People here were already aware and progressive around two decades ago. But now, it seems we have fallen far behind even as other have advanced,” he said.