Mongar beset by water scarcity

4 July 2008

From April till mid June, Mongar faces a water shortage of 1, 75,140 litres a day, with people travelling as far as six to seven kilometers to fetch water. Mongar requires 6, 52,500 litres of water in a day. At present, Mongar has three water sources- two from Yakpugang and another from Korilla.

Restaurants and hotels are bearing the brunt as toilets start stinking and the kitchens are piled with dirty dishes. Jangchuk Dorji, 26, a hotelier, said, “Every day I have to fetch water from Tongshing, which is 10 km away and one trip isn’t enough running a restaurant. I have to make seven trips carrying 100 litres and 500 litres buckets on each trip.”

He added that every year they have to over-come the acute shortage of water, though they pay the water bills on time and feels that the municipality needs to look into the situation for solving the basic necessities, rather than other infrastructure, as year after year the number of buildings rises up. Sangay Dema, 26, a shopkeeper, said, “Without a car, it is really difficult to get water. I have been begging water from those who have cars, but how many time can one go on requesting and begging? So we just cook Maggies for meal. ” Yet families make up for the scarcity by going on picnics. They pack a lunch and travel for about six to seven km, do the laundry, take a bath and have some fun as well.

“The main reason for the water scarcity is that 0.4 litre of water is drying per second per year from the sources, as per the study conducted keeping indicators in the sources,” said the deputy executive engineer of Mongar Municipality.

He cited global warming and the reduction in rainfalls as examples. They resolved that two care-takers will be kept in the water-sources, to keep an eye on deforestation on a payment basis.

In the future, he said they will need 2.1 million litres of water a day and that there will be a very huge water scarcity, as per the rate of construction of buildings in Mongar. “To counter this problem, we have to look into other alternative means,” he said.

There are four sources of water proposed for solving future water scarcity. The proposed sites are Themnangbee, 20 km away from Mongar, Gangola, 10 km away, Kurichelu 15 km away and Namling, 50 km away from the town. Among them, he said that Namling was the best, as it produces 20 litres of water per second and was also relevant in the longer term. But the construction of infrastructure will prove to be expensive, like the pumping machine to pump up the water from Kurichelu, because the elevation of Mongar is 650 meters higher than that of Kurichelu, he said.

Meanwhile, they are still looking at how best they can solve the current water shortage in Mongar.

By Sonam Rinchen

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