Water Shortage in Sarangkot

In some ways, it is strange for me to be discussing about water crisis in Sarangkot. I say that because Sarangkot (and I suspect the entire Sarangkot-Kaskikot-Lumle 20-km ridge) is the rainiest place in Nepal. But I only say that it's strange in "some ways" and not "all ways" because life is full of funny paradoxes. I would go as far as to say that calling paradoxes paradoxes is itself a paradox. The best carpenter, being too busy, doesn't get to make his own wardrobe. God creates, but also destroys, etc. etc.

Sarangkot, like many mountain villages (I use the word "mountain" here to mean "high hills") has water crisis. I think that is the norm. Owing to gravity, water flow down and is easily available in the plains where the river flows and the lake forms and where water table is relatively nearer to the ground. Except for a few mountains, I think Australian Camp atop Kande is an exception, many many mountains in Nepal and, I suspect, many countries have water crises. That is, unless something is done about it. Here, happily, things have gotten better over the years.

My grandmother tells the tales of how she had to wake up at 4 in the morning, walk for an hour to a place called "Budimul" and wait in queue to fetch a jar of water. Two or three members of the house (usually female members i.e. daughter-in-laws accompanying their mother-in-law) would practice this routine every single day. This is the tale of every single household up until 30 years ago in Sarangkot, and like I said, I suspect, in many mountains in Nepal. Then came "pipes" and mortar for constructing reservoir tanks. But in a country as poor as Nepal, limited budget could only do so much. Many mornings before our school time, my sister and I have gone to the public water tap, a 5-minute walk from the house with as many jars as we could carry back and sat in queue with our friends and neighbors, sometimes even fought with them for water. Water was only available between 7 and 8 in the morning, perhaps to make best use of the children in the house who have finished their homework and have nothing better to do than to fetch a jar of water before getting ready. Remember, school starts in Nepal at 10. This water came from a place called Dhampus, 12-kilometer away, in subpar pipes (norm in undeveloped countries) using gravity. In its long, winding route, the pipe would be broken, cut-and-stolen, and many things would happen every now and then. That is to say that even that water supply was intermittent. Sometime water, sometime no water, like my mother used to say requesting tourists to save water. Back then, Superview used to be a 3-room guesthouse without any en-suite bathroom meaning that there was a single bathroom/toilet in the entire property whose water came from a 500-liter black tank directly above the toilet that got its water from men, women and children of the house carrying water from the public tap 5-minute away.

Recently, every household has got its private tap that gives out water every other day for an hour or two when the sky is blue. This water comes, mostly, from a lifting project that lifts using electricity spring water from a place 500 meters below Sarangkot about 5 kilometers aerial distance away. The place is called, "Budimul" which, translated literally, means "Old Spring". The same place where my grandmother had to walk to get water from. In the months after monsoon, the spring shrinks and considerably so in March, April, and May during which we only get about about 200 liters of water once every two days. In monsoon season, while we do save water from our roof for washing and cleaning, we still rely on the Budimul water for drinking and cooking, which is a problem because with monsoon come heavy thunders that usually also destroy the electrical pumps and other machineries concerning the lifting project meaning that we don't get water for how many days who know it takes to repair the damages.

And the elephant in the room is that at Superview currently, we have 17 bathrooms (of which 5 have BATHTUBs). Are you kidding me? Well, why do we have bathtub is for another story. They do have their pros and their cons and especially so in a place like Sarangkot. So when Budimul water isn't enough for us, we use our 30,000 liter reservoir tank and when that gets used up to, we call a truck that brings water from Pokhara (likely from a deep bore well) and dumps to our reservoir tank and charges a lot of money. Around 10 times what it charges in the city. K garne? (A Nepali phrase that translates to saying something like, Ah well, what can we do).

All that is to say that, water is both expensive and precious here. Please save it.

At Superview, for this reason, we do not allow guests to do laundry unless they fully understand how precious water is to us and promise to use only cold water collected before the shower water turns hot. We also request guests to collect this cold water before shower turns hot in the buckets we provide for use in the gardens. Some appreciate this as a gesture of our sustainability measure and some find it a nuisance. However, for us, it's just the way of life up there. We must save water, and it's not that we hate that we have to save water. It's just what it is.