PANCHTHAR: The Tari Kulo irrigation system in Shivadovan, Kummayak Rural Municipality-4 in Panchthar, has remained damaged for over a decade, leaving once-fertile farmland barren and disrupting the livelihoods of local farmers.
The system was first affected during the opening of the Tamor Corridor road track nearly ten years ago, and the damage has never been fully repaired.
While blacktopping is progressing in other sections of the Tamor Corridor, the road track in Shivadovan is opened and left incomplete year after year.
This repeated excavation has continued to damage the Tari Kullo irrigation canal, which was once the main water source for farmers in the area.
The construction company responsible for the road has been regularly digging and dumping soil as part of track opening and leveling work.
These activities have repeatedly filled the canal with debris, severely impacting the irrigation system. Local resident Purna Bahadur Sambahamphe said that despite several attempts to repair the canal, the work has never been completed properly.
“The one-and-a-half-kilometer canal used to irrigate the fields of over a dozen families in Shivadovan,” he said. “The government had allocated Rs. 1.5 million and the construction company contributed Rs. 200,000 for repairs.
A concrete canal was built, but every year when the road track is reopened, it gets buried under soil again. There has been no long-term solution.”
Another local, Lalit Bahadur Sambahamphe, explained that farming has virtually stopped in the Shivadovan fields, which lie at the border of Phidim Municipality and Kummayak Rural Municipality.
“We used to grow up to three crops a year. After the canal was damaged, we were barely able to grow maize. Now, even that has declined,” he said.
With the land left uncultivable due to the lack of irrigation, local farmers have lost their main source of income. “We now have to buy everything except firewood and water,” Sambahamphe added.
The surrounding agricultural areas of Phidim Municipality-4 Sarkhande, Phidim-9 Lumphabung, and Kummayak-4 Ranigaun have also been affected, with fields turning barren.
Phagendra Kumar Sambahamphe, Ward Chairperson of Kummayak Rural Municipality-4, blamed the construction company for not completing work on time. He said the rural municipality allocated Rs. 250,000 in the current fiscal year 2081/82 for irrigation canal repairs, but no work has been carried out so far.
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