After the water sources in the settlement dried up, residents of Baniyabasi in Dogdakedar Rural Municipality–2 have been forced to wander all day just for a jar of water. Although a lift drinking water project was initiated five years ago after the traditional water wells dried up, the project has yet to be completed due to a lack of budget, resulting in a severe shortage of drinking water in Baniyabasi.
There is a severe drinking water crisis in the four settlements of Baniyagaun, Kanali, Dhan, Patali, and Baniya. According to local consumer Devraj Joshi, around 1,000 households from these settlements are forced to spend the entire day running around just for a jar of water. To address the issue, the Sudurpaschim Provincial Government had launched a lift drinking water project five years ago with a budget of Rs 3,96,00,000. However, the project has yet to be completed due to a lack of funding. Chief of the Water Supply and Sanitation Division Office, Baitadi, Govinda Prasad Devkota, stated that out of the four schemes being implemented through the office, three are based on lift technology. As these require motors to operate, the installation of electric poles and the laying of wires has been completed. He informed that due to insufficient budget allocation for existing projects, confusion arises every year when work has to be done on newly added projects. As the provincial government assigns new projects from the top level, work is being carried out accordingly.
Local resident Keshav Bhat stated that since budgets for drinking water projects are allocated based on political influence, the residents of Baniyabasi have been subjected to injustice. He expressed his frustration, saying that due to a lack of budget, the lift drinking water project in Baniyagaun has remained incomplete for the past five years, and with no access to water, locals are sometimes forced to go hungry. He added that they have no choice but to walk uphill and downhill for two hours just to fetch a single jar of water, barely managing to cope with the crisis.
In recent times, the haphazard construction of roads using bulldozers in the district has caused most of the water sources to dry up. With traditional wells, ponds and other resources drying up, more than 100 lift drinking water projects are currently in operation across the district. Additionally, work is underway on 51 lift drinking water projects, 24 carried over and 27 from the current fiscal year. It has been found that water sources are depleting due to factors such as climate change, road construction, and forest fires.