The people of Koenchhoeling under Khamdang Gewog in Trashi Yangtse are worried that they might not be able to cultivate paddy this year. Locals claim that falling boulders from the highway widening works blocked their irrigation channels.
They say there is abundant water from the source but it never reaches the paddy fields.
While some of the farmers have cultivated the paddy saplings, some did not even cultivate thinking that they won’t be able to transplant paddy.
Until a week ago, the fields were also filled with fallen boulders. But even after clearing the boulders from the fields, without an irrigation channel people cannot transplant paddy.
Nado, from Koenchhoeling, shares his frustrations, “If there is no water, it is useless to carry out paddy works. There are a total of six irrigation channels, and all of them are blocked. The boulders are so big that we are not able to clear manually. We need machines to clear it.”
Similarly, Dorjila, from the same village says “If the channels are not blocked, we will be starting paddy transplantation by now. We have informed them from the beginning itself and they assured us they would not let the boulders fall in the channels. ”
However, the Gewog said that the contractor agreed to provide financial support to the farmers to clear the boulders filled in the irrigation channels.
“When the widening works started we have requested the contractors to take care of the boulders since there are irrigation channels below the road. They said they are not able to control few boulders, but later on, when we went to see, the fields were also filled with boulders,” Norbu, the Khamdang Gup, said.
“About four irrigation channels are blocked. When we discussed, the contractor agreed to do the clearing works. Considering that the channels might again get blocked since the widening works are underway, the clearing works are not carried out for time being.”
With most of the paddy fields belonging to 47 households in the area being affected, farmers are worried about their sustenance for the next one-year.
