The residents of the ward number four of the Swargadwari, which reels under acute water shortage especially during the dry season, are jubilant to see the rain filling their water tanks built for rainwater harvesting. [break]
“People generally store food items for the time of need in the future. However, we are happy to harvest rain to fill the water tanks built for the purpose,” said Basanta Khadka, a local resident. The locals hope that the stored water will make their life much easier during the next dry season.
Under the auspice of the Finnish government, each of 76 households of the village have installed concrete water tanks having capacity of 6,500 liters. Over 395 people and over 600 students from the two schools in the locality have been benefiting from the rain water harvesting. The villagers had demanded rainwater harvesting as there is no any other source to supply water to the village.
According to the program advisor, Hari Upadhayaya, if a person uses ten liters of water per day, the rainwater harvesting can meet the family´s demand for over five months. Tila Khatri, the Chairperson Swargadwari Rainwater Harvesting Consumers´ Committee, informed that each water tank cost 57 thousand rupees while total project cost was around 4 million rupees. The village situated beside the famous Hindu shrine of Swargadwari had been facing acute water shortage for years before the program was launched.
Durga Bahadur Rana, another local resident, says that their hard days over now as they no longer have to toil for hours to fetch water from a distant river.
House wives and students have specially benefited from the rain water harvesting as they were mainly responsible for fetching water from the river.
Related story
‘Myth Buster’: Rainwater harvesting is not just for monsoon (wi...
