Half-a-dozen irrigation projects in Rukum (East), a district in Lumbini Province, have been in a limbo due to the lack of budget in the current fiscal year which began mid-July last year.

The projects under the provincial government were not prioritised in the current fiscal year, according to the Water Resource and Irrigation Development Sub-Division Office in the district.

“Construction work on the Lift Irrigation Project at Pokhara in Sisne Rural Municipality-9 which began in the last fiscal year has stalled for the past seven months,” said Ghanashyam KC, information officer at the sub-division office. “The project, whose estimated cost is Rs15.2 million and is expected to irrigate around 42 hectares of land once completed, has achieved only 40 percent physical progress so far.”

Krishna Bahadur Khatri, chairman of the consumers’ committee of the project, said that the delay in construction work has added to the vulnerability of the infrastructure, besides increasing the project’s cost.

“Much progress would have been made if we could have continued the work in the current fiscal year,” said Khatri.

Of the five other projects affected by the lack of budget, two are at Bhume Rural Municipality-6 and one each at Bhume-7, Sisne Rural Municipality-4 and Putha Uttarganga Rural Municipality-13, according to KC.

Farmers at Bhume Rural Municipality-6 said they could only hope the irrigation projects will be prioritised and completed in the coming years.

“The delay has only added to our worries,” said Birman Budha, a local farmer.

Only half of the work has been completed in one of the irrigation projects at Bhume-6 which was estimated to cost around Rs12.5 million. The project is expected to irrigate 40 hectares of land benefiting nearly 200 households.

Even the projects near completion have been ignored in the current fiscal year.

Though around 80 percent of the work has been completed in the Magar Khola Irrigation Project, no budget has been allocated for its completion.

“The estimated cost of the project is Rs6.6 million,” said Kamal Budha, chairman of the consumers’ committee of the project. “But there has been no progress in the project in the current fiscal year.”

Buddha echoed Khatri regarding the vulnerability of the structures which have already been made, because of the delay in the project’s completion.

While 70 percent of work at the irrigation project at Sisne Rural Municipality-4 had been completed by the end of the last fiscal year, around 40 percent of work had been finished at the project at Putha Uttarganga Rural Municipality-13, according to the sub-division office.

Yogendra Mahato, chief of the office, said that some of the projects would have been completed in the current fiscal year if they had been prioritised by the provincial government.

“We have already requested twice, in writing, for the required budget,” said Mahato. “We are not very hopeful about getting the amount in the current fiscal year.”