BENI: Residents of Beni Bazaar, the district headquarters of Myagdi, are facing a drinking water shortage after floods and landslides damaged the water supply pipeline earlier this month.
Heavy rainfall and landslides during the second week of October damaged the supply system, significantly reducing the amount of water reaching the town and leaving residents struggling to meet their daily needs.
Ramesh Giri, chairperson of the Beni Drinking Water and Sanitation Users’ Committee, said Beni requires more than 20 litres of water per second, but the current supply has dropped to just eight litres per second.
The committee supplies drinking water to around 25,000 people in 1,200 households across wards 2, 7 and 8 of Beni Municipality, Giri said.
The rain-triggered disasters damaged a 14-kilometre pipeline that carries water from the Dandakharaka and Rithakharaka spring sources in Ward 8 of Annapurna Rural Municipality. The pipeline, which previously supplied 22 to 25 litres of water per second, has remained out of operation for about a month.
With landslides threatening sections of the pipeline along the Khoriya and Khareni hillsides in Beni, the committee has begun laying a new three-kilometre pipeline along the Dallepipal–Kalipul–Beni Ring Road and through the Darbang Bus Park area to restore the water supply.
As the existing system struggles to meet demand, residents of Red Cross Marga in Beni Bazaar have begun collecting water from private sources.
According to Giri, an estimated Rs 147 million is required for immediate improvements to the water supply system, while a long-term plan to upgrade the project would cost around Rs 700 million.
Last week, committee officials submitted a proposal to Sunil Lamsal, minister for infrastructure development, seeking funds to reconstruct and upgrade the drinking water project.
Lamsal, who visited Beni Bazaar last week, pledged to arrange the necessary budget and rebuild the project through a contract-based process, according to the committee.