Sadhbaba Lake encroached by a local in Dhangadhi

Dhangadhi: There are dozens of natural lakes within the Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan of Kailali. Only a few of them has water now, most of the lakes are occupied by people. A recent example of this is Sadbaba Lake in the village of Devriya, ward number 7 of the sub-metropolitan city.

However, now the lakes natural beauty cannot be seen. Sadhbaba Lake has become a victim of the government's negligence and encroachment. Concrete physical structures are being built by encroaching the lake and destroying it. Jung Bahadur Rana, a resident of Devriya, said that he did not know who is building the concrete structure in the lake. "There was a lake here before. Now pillars are being buried in the lake.

We don't even know who bought or sold the surrounding land," he said. According to the residents of Devriya village for decades, the area of ​​Sadhbaba Lake was huge in the past. But now, after being affected by encroachment, not only the area of ​​the lake has shrunk, also 56 pillars have been buried to build a solid physical structure hence the lake is getting smaller. Some concrete and crude structures have been built on the land in and around the lake. It was also found that the encroachment of the said land and it's selling took place on the encroacher's accord. Currently, the problem of flooding in Dhangadhi is getting worse.

One of the main reasons behind increasing the problem of flooding is encroachment of canals, rivers and lakes. But the sub-metropolitan city is silent even when a few people occupy the public lake and build a solid physical structure. A group of two/three people are encroaching the lake and the land surrounding it and openly buying and selling it. The sub-metropolitan, which has adopted a policy of retrieving encroached public land along with rivers and lakes, also needs to pay special attention to this.

Moti Rana, Ward President of Ward No. 7, said that he was aware of the encroachment of the lake. "We have decided to return the encroached rivers, lakes and public lands. Government property cannot be used by any person." He said. Not only the Sadhbaba lake in Devriya village of Dhangadhi, most of the other lakes are in the possession of some people. Therefore, the stakeholders say that the sub-metropolis needs to pay attention to this as well.