Int’l Water Day: Stone spouts, ponds face extinction in Pokhara

-Basudev Poudel
Pokhara, March 22: The ancient stone spouts and ponds in Pokhara and its adjoining areas are no longer in existence.
The senior citizens have expressed their displeasure and concerns to the extinction of the stone taps and lakes that used to be the good water source for the people’s livelihood in Pokhara till some decades ago.
Jagat Bahadur Tamrakar, 90, of Bhairabtol in Pokhara said stone taps and ponds were also the entities to identify this city in the ancient time.

He said stone taps were constructed in a dozen sites in Pokhara circa 1976 BS during Rana regime.
Such stone taps were built in Bagar, Bindabasini, Ramkrishnatol, Bagaletol, Ganeshtol, Jalpamai and other locations.
People used to fetch water from the same taps in the past but they no longer exist at present, he shared.
Laxman Dhoju, 72, of Mohoriyatol of Pokhara also said that the history of Pokhara is directly associated with the stone taps. “The entities linked to city’s ancient properties of the city should not be vanished in the name of modernity and development,” he said.
One can easily identify the dates of such stone taps’ construction as some stone inscription are still available in the town.
Besides stone taps, many ponds in the town have disappeared completely, local Rajkumar Chulyau said.
“Pokhara was named from the pond located in Nalakomukh area in the past,” he added.(RSS)