Since the commencement of the De-Suung National Service Water Project last year, many villagers in remote areas across the country have been reaping the benefit. Today, it is the villagers of Brongshing and Mokhoma villages under Gomdar Gewog in Samdrup Jongkhar who received reliable and adequate drinking water. 56 households are benefited.
DeSuups constructed water taps, three reservoir tanks and installed pipes. More than 50 DeSuups worked tirelessly for around three months to provide reliable drinking water to the villagers.
According to the residents of Brongshing and Mokhoma villages, until today, they did not have enough drinking water for around five years.
“Now we can cultivate more vegetables. Previously, forget about feeding water to the animals, sometimes we don’t have enough drinking water. Now we are grateful as we have sufficient water,” said Tshering Choden, a resident.
“We have been struggling a lot due to water scarcity. But now the water is at our doorstep,” said Thinley Zangmo, another resident.
“If the work was awarded on contract, it will take time to complete. Firstly, we have to pay them in advance to buy materials and they may take almost a year to complete it. Whereas the DeSuung water project provided the service within no time,” said Sonam Tshering, the Gomdar Gup.
Today, after the completion of the project, villagers are all smiles as they will now have enough drinking water.
Moreover, with this kind of project, DeSuups are also equipped with various skills.
“Many people assume that we just need to fix pipe while supplying water. But it is not like that as there are different types of pipes. I learned about fitting the pipes and more importantly, I learned about how to socialize with the people,” said DeSuup Kinley Rabgay.
“After acquiring the experiences from this project, we are hopeful that we can use the knowledge for other villages,” said Kinley, another DeSuup.
According to Samdrup Jongkhar district administration, the project’s estimated budget was Nu 3.7 M. However, DeSuups completed the work at a cost of Nu 1.8 M.
With the completion of this project, the De-Suung National Service Water project has completed nine water projects in the country so far.
Kinley Wangchuk, Samdrup Jongkhar
Edited by Tshering Zam
