Drainage brings relief to farmers

19 June 2009

The Department of Roads in Pemagatshel is completing about 1.67 km of box drain on Gonpasingma- Ngangmalam farm road in Zobel Gewog. This is expected to benefit a part of Ngangmalam village from the monsoon rain water which collect on the farm road and empty into different parts, causing soil erosion on lower part of the village.

According to the Deputy Executive Engineer of the Roads sub-division in Pemagatshel, Nar Bahadur Gurung, the drains were only within the stretch of one to three km of the 8.41-km farm road. The drain, which has a flowing capacity of about 7000 litres a second, will empty the water on the inhospitable side of the village. “While the present drain will prevent rain water from overflowing into one part of the village, there is a need for a proper drainage system in the entire stretch of the road that zigzags through the entire side of the mountain slope,” he said.

The drainage system is being built as a deposit work of the Agriculture Ministry with a fund of Nu 3.5 million.

Sixty-year-old Duba from Ngangmalam village said he felt a sense of relief seeing the drainage system almost complete. “The present stretch will benefit almost half of the 87 households in the village and many of us believe that work will continue till the last stretch of the road,” he said, hopefully.

Zobel Gup Dorji Wangdi stressed the need of the drain on the entire stretch of the farm road. He said that a proposal for it had been submitted to the government. “We have even proposed that the constituency development grant be used to construct drains on the remaining stretch of the farm road since it is the most pertinent issue facing the gewog,” he said.

Many people still believe that, while the farm road has brought tremendous benefit to the potato farmers, lack of proper drainage has contributed to soil erosion which even threatened parts of the village in 2005. This prompted a massive five-day land management campaign involving over 400 people from all walks of life in July 2006.

While the gewog wait for funds, the recently concluded GYT passed a resolution asking the beneficiaries to construct about 100 metres of drainage to protect one of the most vulnerable houses belonging to a 63-year-old farmer. On several occasions, his house, located right on the edge of a U-turn, was inundated by rain water flowing from the road. “The beneficiaries will construct this drain before the monsoon,” assured the gup.

“We have also provided a diversion Hume pipe on another U-turn where another house was under threat of being washed away,” he added. The Gonpasingma-Ngangmalam farm road was built in 2004 with a fund of Nu 5.7 million.

By Gyembo Namgyal

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