Due to the shortage of irrigation water, the people of Jibjo-Yuesakha chiwog in Punakha are worried that they will not be able to cultivate paddy on time, this year.
The village, despite having a reliable source of water for irrigation, is not getting a constant supply of irrigation water. This is because the 10-kilometers long irrigation water pipes installed in 2013, ruptures or burst frequently affecting the supply of irrigation water to the village.
For a long time, residents of Jibjo-Yuesakha have been using the Tshokimo stream as their irrigation water source for agriculture. However, today, without a sufficient supply of irrigation water, vegetables and crops in the village are all drying. Likewise, farmers worry that the lack of water could force them to abandon paddy cultivation as well.
“We cannot say that we have successfully cultivated with sufficient water even once after reaching the water in 2013. We are always suffering as the irrigation water gets stopped from the middle of our works. We have to go and repair the pipe almost ten times in a year,” said Tshering Dorji, one of the residents.
“Though we have full support from the agriculture department we could not cultivate the winter cereal crops such as wheat, mustard, and vegetables due to shortage of irrigation water. Likewise, even the growing plants are drying now,” said Kinley Tenzin, the Tshogpa of the village.
“Our fields are still lying idle and could not plow it due to no water. All the potato plants have been affected by pests and chili plants might have grown well this time if there was enough water. But, even chili plants have been affected by pest now,” said Namgay Bidha, another resident of the village.
The constant rupture of the irrigation water pipe is also posing threats to the students of the Wolathang Primary School which is located just below.
“The water pipe above our school frequently breaks. And in summer, it damages our school’s agriculture gardens and playground. Likewise, there are also chances that a few of the classrooms will get damaged if this continues. Moreover, our students are all small and it is risky if the water pipe burst from straight above the school,” said Namgay Thinley, the Principal of the school.
The gewog administration spends a minimum of 70,000 ngultrums every year for the maintenance of the irrigation water pipe.
“We are spending money every year for the pipe repairing. We have spent around seventy thousand to eighty thousand ngultrums in 2017 and 2018. Likewise, we have spent eighty thousand to ninety thousand ngultrums in 2018 and 2019, and we are expecting even more amounts in 2020 and 2021 said Tawla, the Toedwang gup.
However, the problem is expected to be resolved soon as the gewog administration now plans to procure a permanent pipe-joining machine.
“We have kept some budgets for this year as well, and will call the experts to repair the water pipes soon. We have all discussed and decided to complete the repairing works within two weeks. We have also discussed the matter with the foreign minister and ordered one pipe-joining machine as well,” added the gup.
Likewise, the gewog administration has also identified few villagers who will undergo the machine operating training once the pipe-joining machine reaches the village. The Jibjo-Yuesakha chiwog currently has around 70 households with more than 200 acres of agricultural land.
Spending around Nu 70 M, the current irrigation water pipe was laid in 2013 with support from the Government of India under the Small Development Grant.
Changa Dorji, Punakha
