Water Scarcity Grips Humla Headquarters as Dry Spell Hits Water Sources

Humla. The district headquarters Simikot bazaar and surrounding areas have been facing a shortage of drinking water for two weeks. The scarcity is due to the drying up of water sources following a lack of snowfall this year. Locals say residents of Simikot Lower Village are forced to walk about three hours to fetch water from the Pinara source.

Local Nain Singh Rawat stated that the water shortage occurred because the storage tank, filled with water brought from the Keukeu source in Thadadunga, Burause, Simikot Rural Municipality-4, failed to fill up. He added that although a large-scale drinking water project operating from the Tangin River in Namkha Rural Municipality-1 was initiated, water crisis began to appear as ice formed intermittently along the route.

Rawat mentioned that in previous years, even with about 10 feet of snowfall, there was no water shortage, but this year, drought has caused most of the sources across the district to dry up, leading to the drinking water problem.

Distribution of Walnut and Apple Saplings to Farmers

The District Agriculture Development Office, Humla, purchased 3,876 walnut and apple saplings from a farm in Jumla and distributed them to 550 farmers at a subsidized rate. Chudamani Pant, Chief of the Agriculture Development Office, informed that the saplings were provided to farmers at a subsidy rate of NPR 275 per sapling.