Walling. The old irrigation pond at Kataunje of Waling Municipality-13 has been paved. The pond was constructed in 2010 BS with the objective of collecting water from the locals and irrigating it.

Shivaraj Thapa, a technician at the Water Resources and Irrigation Division Office, said the Gandaki state government has allocated Rs 2 million to collect water by constructing the pond in a modern way for irrigation purposes.

“The farmers have been collecting water from the old mate pond for years and using it for farming,” he said, adding, “It will be easier for the farmers who are suffering due to leakage. ’

The pond is 16 meters long, eight meters wide and one and a half meters high. 225,000 liters of water can be collected in the pond. Gateballs and two branch wells have been constructed to open the farmers when they need water. Along with the pond, a 60-meter well has been paved to supply water to the fields.

Chairman of the Users’ Committee, Bal Prasad Dumre, said that the old mate pond constructed by Baubaje has been made pucca and managed through the Kataunje Irrigation and Pond Management Users’ Committee. He said, “Now there will be no problem of wasting water collected in the pond. ’

Water has been brought to the pond through pipes by constructing a dam in a big rivulet 1,150 meters away. Waling municipality has repeatedly contributed Rs 1.1 million to bring water from the rivulet to the pond, said Dumre, chairman of the users’ committee.

The water collected in the pond can irrigate 350 ropanis of land. Farmers, who have been cultivating due to lack of irrigation for years, are happy with the construction of irrigation ponds.