A new drinking water project has raised the hopes of Chaurjahari residents in Rukum (West) of being free of the drinking water crisis they have been reeling under for the past few decades.

Chaurjahari Municipality residents have to wait for hours in communal drinking water facilities to fill their jars.

“We have to face a lot of hardships because of a lack of water supply in our homes. With the new project reaching completion, we hope to be relieved of this problem,” said Bhadrulal Jaisi, a local.

The drinking water project will source water from the Bheri river using water-lifting methods and supply water to 1,645 households of the municipality. A 1,050-metre-long pipeline and a reserve tank have been installed to facilitate the supply of water.

The federal government’s plan to carry out a drinking water project in the municipality came about after the ward numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the municipality were threatened by an impending drought.

Bijayashwori-Chaurjahari Drinking Water and Sanitation Consumers Organisation started the project’s construction work in July 2018. Only five percent work of the drinking water project remains to be completed, said the organisation’s officials.

“The project will be completed soon. We will have enough water to supply to each household in the municipality,” said Tej Bahadur Batala, chairman of the organisation.

According to Batala, each household that is to receive the water facility will be asked to contribute Rs 5,000 for the project, install a tap and donate labour for the maintenance of the facility.

The federal government had awarded the project’s contract to CAB Construction Company at Rs 160 million. “We are planning to hand over the project in mid-April, around four months before the set deadline. Around 95 percent of the work has already been completed,” said Prabir Dangi, a representative of the contractor company.