Palanta Rural Municipality in Kalikot aims to provide safe drinking water to all households.

During the first village assembly conducted in 2018, residents drafted a plan to supply water to all households within three years.

Last year, the local government received Rs100 million from the provincial government, with which the villagers designed and constructed a central water tank that would supply drinking water Ward No. 8 and 9.

About 400 houses in the two wards have already installed drinking water taps. According to the villagers, last year 207 houses of Ward No. 9 and 915 houses of ward No. 8 had installed water taps. The municipality spent about Rs 500,000 on the project, while the locals paid for the pipeline and other construction materials.

Locals, especially women, are relieved after their houses were connected with drinking water supply. Maanadevi Bam, a local, said, “It’s usually us women who have to manage household needs like drinking water. We had to rely on rainwater or go to the river to fetch water. Around a decade ago, 11 people had died due to diarrhoea caused by impure drinking water,” Bam said. “The supply of clean drinking water will prevent such calamities in the villages.”

Devananda Dhital, Information officer at Drinking Water, Irrigation and Energy Development Office, Kalikot, said, “Every local unit in the district has prioritised to ensure drinking water and sanitation facilities to the locals. The villagers who had been suffering for years from a lack of access to safe drinking water now have drinking water taps in their homes.”

The villagers now hope that other wards in the municipality also receive the facility in the days to come.