Bhutan’s first and largest integrated water supply project is completed and handed over to the farmers yesterday. The project initiated last year in Dangreygang in Semjong Gewog of Tsirang will supply reliable water for drinking and irrigation. It was undertaken as a pilot project under the De-Suung National Service Water Project. Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering inaugurated the scheme.
More than 70 families will have adequate drinking water hereafter. The project worth more than Nu 28 M will also help irrigate over 200 acres of land belonging to more than 570 farmers in the chiwog. Taking advantage of the project, farmers have also revived 14 acres of fallow land this year. Rejoicing the success of the water projects, they are motivated even more to venture into commercial vegetable farming.
“We are grateful for the immense support we received. Now even an elderly person like myself is motivated to take up large scale farming,” said a farmer in Dangreygang.
“Without adequate water supply, vegetables and fruit trees like oranges dry in the winter in affecting its production. But now with the adequate water supply, we are expecting a better income through farming,” added another farmer.
The new water scheme is equipped with an automation system for the efficient usage of water. It will monitor and control the irrigation scheduling through an application from any smartphone. The monitoring and control system is developed by the Druk Holding and Investments’ Research and Innovation Venture Excellence and the irrigation scheduling by the Agriculture Ministry. The relevant gewog officials and beneficiaries have been trained to operate the automated system.
“Firstly, we have to connect our mobile phones to the local Wi-Fi and accordingly we have to set time duration for sprinklers on the app called OpenSprinkler installed on our mobile phones. The sprinklers automatically go off after the required time as we have already set the duration,” said Bal Bdr. Tamang, a farmer in Dangreygang.
At the inauguration, Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering commended the De-suups for their dedication and hard work in transforming the lives of the people in the community.
“You are all fortunate because you got the opportunity to take part in the country’s developmental activities. The most important one is, you have fulfilled His Majesty’s aspiration by rendering your services to execute the water projects. For this, I on behalf of the government, thank all De-suups and the relevant agencies involved in the successful completion of the project,” Lyonchhen said.
With the successful implementation of the pilot water project, De-suups take home pride as they gained valuable experiences from a complex project with integration of technology, unlike other water projects.
“Initially, I had reservations on how we can complete the project. But after joining the project, my fellow De-Suups were all hardworking and our teamwork could complete the project successfully today. We all got a wide range of skills and experiences from the country’s biggest water project. Now we are confident to take up any water supply related projects,” said Tshering Wangchuk, the Project Engineer of the Semjong Water Supply Pilot Project.
“It’s a very good platform and youth should come forward just like us. And the youth out here are spiritually very high and got experiences in many fields like pipe joining, automation part, sensor and in concrete part. I would like to join in another project very soon,” said Pema Zangmo, a De-Suup in Semjong Water Supply Pilot Project.
Water being the most important of all needs, brighter opportunities are well on track and living will get better in the coming years here.
Since its inception in November last year, the De-suung National Water Service Project completed 19 drinking water projects and eight more similar projects are ongoing across the country. The De-suung office is planning to start another project in Jomotsangkha in Samdrup Jongkhar early next month.
Pema Tshewang, Tsirang
Edited by Sonam
