Beni people forced to drink unclean water

GALESHWOR, September 21: As many as 208 households from Bagarphant of Beni Municipality have been deprived of clean drinking water for three months.

The people are therefore compelled to fetch unclean water from streams and wells after the supply of drinking water was damaged by the landslide and floods on June 21. 

The intake of impure water has resulted in common cold among children and elderly people, the locals shared.

The floods in the streams as Maruwa, upper Khanna and Bankhe and subsequent landslides damaged the pipeline supplying water to the villagers.

Although some repair was done, it could not sustain after the rainfall continued causing landslide and flood that further swept away the pipes.

Sabitra Sharma from Beni Municipality-2 of Myagdi shared the plight why alternative management of drinking water was not done although the people here were deprived of clean drinking water for such a long time. The people have accused the Bagarphant drinking water and sanitation consumers' committee of not paying attention to this regard.

There are 28 taps in the village but without water supply forcing people to fetch water from natural well and Myagdi River.

The people here had been using the water installing 28 taps for nine years.

However, the drinking water project chief Krishna Bahadur Karki said recurring rainfall had stalled the progress to resume water supply. This year, both the source of water and pipe were damaged by the floods.

A total of 120 people have been directly impacted with this problem.