There is acute shortage of drinking water at Yoeseltse Gewog under Samtse Dzongkhag. People have to walk a kilometre away to fetch drinking water almost every day. Although the issue is not new, yet there had been no solution so far. For ages, people have been walking for hours to fetch drinking water from the nearest streams almost every day, while some have also started harvesting rain water for drinking.
Our reporter, Karma Wangdi, long queue of empty jerry-cans lying outside almost every household is a common sight in Yoseltse village in Samtse. “We have been contributing labour for safe drinking water for about two years now, but so far we have no access to safe drinking water from the government supplied water tap,” said Choden, a resident of the village.
Meanwhile, Yoseltse Gup, Ganga Prasad Limbu, said the Gewog is working on a safe drinking water project, which will make it possible to supply drinking water to the villagers. They are now carrying out source development work at the water source, which is about five kilometers away from the village. A gabion wall and MS gate for clean flow of water at intake water reservoir is also being constructed.
He added once the project is complete, it will solve the age-old problem, and benefit the villages in the Gewog. The Gewog has a total of about 520 households.
