The road is one the most important facilities that people in some parts of the country still yearn for. Today some of them are struggling, having to walk for hours to their village. But it will soon become a thing of the past for the people of lower Moona and Moonawoong villages under Nanong Gewog in Pema Gatshel. About a 3-kilometre long farm road is being constructed and it is expected to be ready by next month.
The farm road construction began last month and it is nearing completion. The road is just about 100 meters away from the village.
It will connect Moonawong village with a road soon. Today, people there walk for almost an hour to the nearest road point.
A resident of Moonawoong, Ugyen Dema said “We face a lot of problems without a road. We have to carry everything to the road point which takes almost an hour. We are not able to market our agricultural produce so we feed our cattle”.
“People here can grow any kind of grains. But without a road, they cannot earn much. In the past, they used horses for transportation but not today. So, most of their farm produce doesn’t make it to the market,” said Gadhen, the Gashigkhar_Tshatshi Tshogpa.
But the farm road is expected to change their lives for good. The Nu 900,000 road will benefit more than 20 landowners.
Many people were living in Moonawoong in the past. But the remoteness of the place forced them to leave their houses empty. Today, they want to return since many still use the land for farming. According to the Population and Housing Census 2017, more than 20% of people have moved to towns resulting in nearly 5,000 empty households in villages. And this number might fall if such facility continues to welcome the villagers.
Thinley Dorji, Pema Gatshel
Edited by Tandin Phuntsho
