Residents of Samdrup Jongkhar town will have to wait a few more months to receive reliable drinking water. This is because the construction of the water and sewerage distribution network has not yet been completed, missing its first deadline. Currently, only about 75 per cent of the work has been completed.
More than 900,000 litres of water are supplied from this water treatment plant to the residents of Samdrup Jongkhar Toed and Bar constituencies.
However, residents do not receive enough water due to pipe leakage. The existing pipelines are four decades old.
“Right now, we receive water in the morning from 7 to 8. During that one hour, we store the water and clean the house. In Samdrup Jongkhar, it is important to have reliable water, without water we are not able to do anything,” said Tashi Tobgay, a resident.
“The water is not enough and we have been facing water shortage for many years. Without water, it is difficult to maintain cleanliness,” said Kinzang Lhaden, another resident.
To address the problem, the construction of the new water distribution network began in November 2020. It was supposed to be completed by this week, but the work is still not complete.
The new water distribution line will be connected to the existing water treatment plant.
According to the contractor, the delay in completion was due to several lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Samdrup Jongkhar Thromde administration has provided a time extension until April next year to complete the work.
“During the COVID-19 situation, we were not allowed to come outside and work. This has delayed the work. For sewerage, we have to do trenching and during the pandemic, the work progress was affected. For water distribution, we have completed the household connection work. We have not yet started the work like installing fire hydrants and chambers. We will start it this week,” said Chojay Wangchuk, Project Engineer of Chimmi RD Construction.
For now, the construction of the reservoir and more than 20 kilometres of distribution line are completed for the water distribution network.
And for the sewerage, more than five kilometres of the main distribution line has been completed.
The construction company said that they are trying to complete the work by the end of this year.
The construction work is being carried out spending more than Nu 137 M. It is funded by the Asian Development Bank.
Kinley Wangchuk, Samdrup Jongkhar
Edited by Tshering Zam
