Two years ago, road widening works of Samdrup Jongkhar- Trashigang highway has left Narphoong chiwog in Gomdar Gewog without drinking water supply. The village is still suffering.
Villagers say road widening work has damaged water pipes along the cliffs and had caused shortage of drinking water in their village. They have been facing shortage of drinking water for about two years and according to project DANTAK official they haven’t repaired the water pipes immediately since road widening work is still going on.
DANTAK official says they supply water to the village through water tanker trucks and says they will repair it once the widening work is complete. However, the water supplied is not sufficient for the 20 households of Narphoong village.
“They have been providing water to us if they don’t provide we don’t have water at all to drink but the amount of water they supply is not enough. It is not sufficient for half of the household also,” Sangay Tenzin, a farmer from Gomdar Gewog, complained.
And without sufficient water villagers depend on rainwater during rainy season and some villagers fetch water from nearby pond, which is about a kilometer away from the village.
“Without water we are facing many problem like in drinking, washing and more. We depend on rainwater and sometimes fetch water from the pond,” said Thinley Pelzom, a farmer from the same village.
“The road widening damaged our entire water source and pipes and we are left without water supply. So I fetch from the pond every day,” Melom Zangmo, also a farmer from the same village, said.
Meanwhile,the Gomdar gup Sonam Tshering says despite repetitive request to repair water pipes and tank, Dantak has not repaired it, and now gewog administration has kept budget of ngultrum five hundred thousand to repair water tanks and pipes. He said the gewog will repair it within 2020.
