By Hari Krishna Sharma,
Mustang, Nov 20: Tshering Dhukke Gurung of Dhyegaun, Lo-Ghekar Damodarkunda Rural Municipality-5, Upper Mustang, migrated after water sources dried up.
Just like Gurung, Jhawang Wanchuk, Dindu Gurung, and the other 28 families who are engaged in agriculture and the rearing of mountain goat, migrated to other places.
The residents of Dhyegaun, who depend on agriculture and animal husbandry, have been forced to migrate internally as traditional sources of water for irrigation have dried up due to climate change, which has affected their livelihoods.
Local Dindu Gurung said that currently, six families have migrated to Thangchung to continue their business in search of a water source.
Gurung said, “We have to leave the village due to lack of drinking water and irrigation. Climate change has forced us to move.”
Gurung said that there has been no snowfall in winter and less rainfall in monsoon.
Thangchung village of Upper Mustang.
Although there is sufficient cultivable land, the cultivable land remains barren after the water flowing in the irrigation canals dried up.
Dhyegaun, located at an altitude of 4,000 meters above sea level, is located in the former Surkhang Rural Municipality-9.
The locals in this area had been facing drinking water problems for about a decade and a half.
Ward Chair Gurung said, “Climate change has forced the settlement to vacate and migrate. Years have passed since the victims sought compensation.”
The settlement was expanded to an area of about 500 ropanis for locals who had left the village in the year 2007.
Ward Chair Pasang Gurung said that the affected families were relocated to a new place, which was made possible with the support of the rural municipality, and the new settlement was built with assistance from foreign donors.
Ward Chair Gurung said that the locals are enjoying the new settlement as there is enough land for apple and other fruit cultivation, as well as grazing land for livestock.
Budget allocations are made annually through the ward for the necessary infrastructure and structures in the Thangchung settlement, located on the banks of the river at an altitude of 3,700 meters.
This ward, spread over 574 square kilometers, has a total of 50 households in Tangya, Dhekhola Village, and Purano Dhegaun.
Recently, Mustang has been experiencing irregular rainfall, with floods and landslides in the upper Mustang region, as well as water, land, forest, and wind impacts.
Although various programs have been organized to convey the suffering Mustang has suffered due to climate change, there has been no interest shown at the national and international levels.
-TRN Online