For the last two years, residents of 21 households in Chinpu village of Khengkhar, Mongar, have been waiting for the water pump to be installed in the in their village.

With financial support from the government, the community constructed two water tanks and connected it with electricity in 2016. They also fetched the pumping machine that year.

Villagers say that each household contributed 40 days labour to complete the work to bring the machine from Udari chiwog, carry cement from Tongla chiwog to the water source and to construct the tanks.

They said they also connected pipes for about 700 meters from the water source.

A villager said that although all works completed in 2016, work to install the water pump has not yet been done. “We don’t know why it was not installed.”

The villagers said they keep reminding the gup and gewog administration about it but to no effect.

Khengkhar gewog officials said that it was not installed because there is no proper electricity supply at the water source, which is located below the village and no operator to operate the machine.

Officials said they would install the pump it soon.

Villagers are left with no option but to depend on rainwater as their main source of drinking water.

Chinpu village is located at the top of the mountain, which is about 2km away from Udari chiwog and the gewog centre road.

The villagers depend on maize as their main crop and also cultivate potato.

A villager, Rinchen Namgay, 29, said they depend on rainwater for cooking, drinking, washing clothes, which they collect every summer.

He said the government provided them with syntax tanks in 2007 to store water.

Another villager, Ugyen Lhundup, said they collect water from a source which is located an hour and a half walk downhill from the village from March to May every year.

In Mongar dzongkhag, there is an acute water shortage in Kengkhar gewog and some parts of Jurmey gewog.

Kengkhar Lower Secondary School received water from a pumping machine last year. However, within a year after the machine was installed, the machine got damaged due to limewater.The gewog bought a new water-pumping machine and installed it.

Of the five chiwogs in the gewog, there is an acute water shortage in Chinpu, Nanari and Tongla chiwogs.

Gewog officials say the villages are located in places where there is no water source.They also said that gewog and dzongkhag officials, studied the water source to install pumping machine for Tongla chiwog.

Tashi Phuntsho, |Mongar