A flood destroyed over 12 acres of paddy fields and nearly 9 acres of dry land belonging to 22 households in Shawa and Somshing villages under Gangzur Gewog in Lhuentse. The flood occurred on the night of July 17.
Farmers also lost the recently renovated water mill and three oxen during the flooding. A suspension bridge in Somshing Chiwog which connects Dungkar and three other Chiwogs of Gangzur was also damaged. The flood also destroyed electric poles and fencing in Shawa.
A team from Dzongkhag and Gewog Administration yesterday visited the affected areas to assess the extent of damages caused. The assessment report was submitted to Lhuentse Dzongkhag today.
Meanwhile, the affected farmers are worried and remained helpless.
“I lost my 16 decimal land to the floods. The floods also washed away several fields belonging to my neighbours,” said the village Tshogpa, Sonam Tshering.
“An acre of my field including both dry land and wet land was damaged,” said Karma Tenzin from Shawa village. “I am thinking that government would compensate us and provide land replacement.”
But Gangzur Gewog Agriculture Extension Supervisor Kinley Wangdi said, it is unlikely to get crop compensation.
“Until now, there has been no system of compensating crops damaged due to natural calamities from Ministry of Agriculture and Forests,” he said. “However, we are providing seeds to the farmers from the Gewog promotional programme,” he added.
Shawa village is one of the remote villages in Lhuentse. Paddy and maize are the staple crops for the farmers there.
