Shortage of iodised salt is looming large in Saipal, a rural municipality in the northernmost part of Bajhang district. Local residents say that the Saipal area started facing the shortage due to Salt Trading Corporation Limited’s failure to transport the essentials timely.

“Until last month, we were using the salt that we bought in November last year,” said Motima Rokaya of Dhuli, the northernmost human settlement of Saipal Rural Municipality. “For the past month, we had to borrow from a neighbour.”

As winter deepens, it has started snowing in the region. “It seems we have to go without salt through the whole winter,” Rokaya said.

Rokaya’s family needs around a kg of salt a week since they have to also feed their domesticated animals with salt. The family’s options for salt are now running out. “Even the neighbours are about to finish the salt bought last year,” she said.

Livestock farming is the major occupation of Saipal residents; they mainly rear the sheep, Himalayan goats and chauris that are also offered the salt. Hence, the demand for salt is huge in the region.

It takes three days on foot to reach Saipal from the district headquarters in Chainpur. And every year, Saipal suffers from a shortage of salt, food and other essentials due to delays in transportation. During the winter, the route to Saipal is covered in thick layers of snow while the monsoon season brings disruption to transportation services caused by floods and landslides.

Every year, the Salt Trading Corporation Limited (STCL) signs a deal with a supplier to transport salt to Saipal. This year, the corporation invited a tender on July 19. After completing the tender bidding process, it selected Deuti Bajai Construction and Suppliers to transport salt to the Saipal area. On September 5, the STCL issued a letter of intent inviting the transportation company to sign an agreement. But the agreement has not been signed yet. The transportation company says it could not transport the salt as the agreement was yet to be signed.

“The STCL has refused to sign the agreement on various pretexts,” said Topnarayan Chalise, a representative of Deuti Bajai Construction and Suppliers. “The people’s representatives and the locals of Saipal have urged us to supply the salt at the earliest stating that there is an impending shortage. But how can we transport it without signing an agreement?”

According to him, the STCL has delayed the contract signing stating that a case is pending at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority regarding the supply of salt in Saipal.

In previous years, the STCL completed supplying the salt for Saipal by mid-December. According to Nara Bahadur Dhant, Bajhang depot chief of the STCL, the salt supplied last year will hardly last until January. There will be a shortage of salt in the Saipal area if the essential is not supplied immediately, Dhant said.

A total of 796 quintals of salt was transported to Saipal last year, according to Dhant. “It lasts until this month,” he said. “The situation will worsen unless the salt is supplied immediately.”

Road to Saipal is disrupted whenever it snows in the area. In such a situation, salt can be transported only in March, Dhant added.

The STCL has allocated a total quota of 900 quintals of salt for Saipal in the current fiscal year of 2024-25. Manbir Bohara, chairman of Saipal Rural Municipality, said that it was unfortunate that salt has not been supplied to Saipal even after the approval of Rs4.7 million transportation subsidies provided under the goiter control programme.

“The STCL says the agreement process has been delayed due to a case pending at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority,” Bohara said. “Whatever the reason, we should have salt in the village.”