Head. Locals of Gola-Maksur of Golbazaar Municipality-1 and 3 had to walk for half an hour to fetch water from a well. However, 60 households have been directly benefited from the completion of the Gola Muksar drinking water project.

“Earlier, we had to take a bath in a single tap,” recalls local Sunmaya BK, adding, “Now we have taps in our homes. He still remembers the moment he had to wait for hours for a pot of water. The drinking water crisis was not new in this settlement, which has a majority of indigenous and Dalit communities.

Sanju Shrestha, another local, said, “When the well started drying up, there was chaos. The water source in the village was almost exhausted after the flood swept away an old well near a local stream. The District Water Supply Office (DWSO) has constructed a tap worth 10 houses but has been shut down due to lack of fuel. The project depended on generators until the village did not have electricity.

As a solution to these problems, the Gola Muxar Drinking Water Project was taken forward in partnership with Golbazaar Municipality, Wealth Hunger Hilfe and Sabal Nepal. Prem Gagan Thapa Magar, chairperson of the drinking water consumer committee of the project, said, “The provision of safe and reliable drinking water in the settlement after five decades has made life easier for all of us.” He said that the distribution of drinking water to the villagers has been started since last December.

Elaborating on the need of the project, Devesh Kumar Chaudhary, coordinator of Sabal Nepal, said, “We understood the needs of the locals, included the community and focused on the goal of ‘one house, one tap’. ’

According to him, the total cost of the project is Rs 3,726,269. The project was completed with the help of Rs 2,510,269, Rs 1.216 million from the municipality and voluntary labour from the locals. Mayor of the municipality Shyam Kumar Shrestha said that the municipality aims to provide water to the people by addressing the deepening water crisis and this project is an example of that.

The project includes three tanks of 10÷,000 liters each, a total storage capacity of 30,000 liters. Locals said that after the distribution of water, they have been relieved from the situation of hesitation even when they come to the village.

Treasurer of Sabal Nepal, Aayush Shrestha, said that the project is expected to become an example for other localities. “We want to make such projects an example of sustainable development by collaborating with the community,” he said. ’