Restored: Sisney water connection works in Dorokha

Rajesh Rai | Phuentsholing

Dorokha town residents now have access to drinking water from a nearby source at Bangay.

The town residents had been facing the problem of drinking water for some time but it got aggravated during the lockdown.

Although the town has been connected with water from Sisney since 2016 and 2017, people didn’t get water because of repeated management problems.

The source has enough water with a storage capacity of 40,000 litres but since the source was 8kms away, people often faced problems in carrying maintenance and repairs. And rapid development works in Dorokha often damaged the connectivity. Drungkhag had entrusted the management of the water to its users’ group.

During the lockdown, residents of 12 households used their own pipes and brought water from the nearby source at Bangay, as a temporary measure.

However, villagers of Tarigang, who were also using the same source, disrupted the connection. They even cut the pipes.

Dorokha drungkhag and the gewog settled the matter yesterday and brought water to the town.

Dorokha drungpa, Karma Jurmi, said the connection from the temporary source at Bangay has been formalised between the communities.

“Town people can use the source during the lean season.”

Town residents said the water problem is solved for good.

A resident, Deepak Mukhia, said there is plenty of water now.

“We would like to thank the drungkhag and drungpa for the immediate measures taken despite the lockdown.”

The drungkhag also restored the connection from Sisney. The work to rectify the defective pipelines at the source, which was damaged by GC road construction was initiated.

Drungpa Karma Jurmi said the water supply from the Sisney is fairly sufficient if not for the management problems amongst the users.

“With the rapid pace of development, the number of water users increased and so the distribution lines,” he said, adding that the management of water supply without dedicated plumber then became a daunting task.

He also said that the water users’ group had enough funds in their accounts, explaining it was only due to the lack of skilled plumber that the water supply often became inconsistent.

For now, only some minor rectification works along the distribution points are left, which is expected to complete today.

After the rectification works are completed, the drunkghag will hand over its management to the users group for further management.

“We will also go around to ensure regulation of tap points in all the houses,” the drungpa said.

However, the users’ group will have to work and carry out proper management for consistent water supply. The users’ group currently has a caretaker.