83 and Alone

My daughter told me not to worry when she left.

But I was so worried about something happening to her before I die.

I hope I die before she does.

I am 83 years old.

My name is Daw.

There was plenty of water in the past, but not anymore.

I don't like it.

I really try to fetch water by myself, but sometimes little children will help me out instead.

But I usually work really hard and just get water myself.

Some people are kind enough to assign me easier tasks, while others can be very mean.

So there are many different types of people.

Sometimes my neighbor lets me use some of their water.

Sometimes my neighbor lets me use some of their water.

Since my children are in Thimphu, I live here alone.

So I recite prayers every day.

For Bhutan, the environmental changes are mostly seen in the higher mountain areas, the glacier areas.

Glaciers are receding very fast.

And, I think, there's also, if you look at the temperature over the last three, four years, I think it has risen.

And the rainfall pattern has also changed.

We have reports of springs drying up everywhere across the country.

And that is a concern for us.

Because most of our people, I would say 70 to 80 percent of our people depend on spring water for their drinking water and irrigation as well.

There were many houses when I was a young boy.

Now, people have migrated to Thimphu because of the lack of water.

There are only some illiterate and old people living here because we don'’t like the noisy city.

Once my ritual here is completed, I am thinking about traveling to Thimphu.

My son has traveled to twenty districts, but I have to struggle here by myself.

But I don'’t think badly towards anyone.

I try to be compassionate so that people like me.

My daughter is traveling overseas to pursue her studies.

She hopes to see me alive when she returns.

But I am worried about who will take care of my funeral rites if she doesn'’t return before my death.

I told her to come back soon.

She is good to everyone, particularly the old ones.

I also have a grandson.

And he only speaks in English and never Dzongkha.

People ask me if he is a foreigner.

Sometimes he even says he is a foreigner himself.

I don't understand him when he talks.

But when I told him to speak in Dzongkha, he told me he doesn't know how.

He even complained to his father that Grandpa was upset.

People are moving to the cities because of water scarcity.

Here in Phangyuel, two households have migrated to Thimphu to be with their children in the past year.

It was solely because of water scarcity for drinking and crop cultivation.

If there was water, young people would be willing to come back to rural areas and work here in their fields.

I even discussed it with them.

When I see the increasingly fallow land one year after another, it makes me upset.

We would be fine if we had water.

But with no water, people have to struggle a lot to survive.

We would be fine if we had water.

But with no water, people have to struggle a lot to survive.

And with no money, they have to get loans from the government to survive.

Seeing this makes me really sad.

I am 56 years old.

I am 53 years old.

I just have a father and mother.

Two of us struggle on our own to do the farming activities.

Water has dried up completely both for cultivation as well as drinking.

Before, we could at least cultivate a field with the water that was available.

But now, even when there is labor available, there is no water.

It's very disappointing.

There's not enough water to live here.

Things are expensive, and we have no income.

If we work, there is no water.

Since we grew up here and are illiterate, we have no choice but to remain here and recite prayers.

Everyone else doesn't stay here.

There are many people who have abandoned home here.

I raised my children with the hope that they will look after me when I am old.

But once my son got married, he left.

I'm feeling embarrased, you know.

It's very hard to survive, I guess.

Without water, it's hard for us.

We hardly grow chillis also.

We don't get enough water.

So it's very hard for us.

I hardly see youths coming back to our village and to farming.

I want to become an educated farmer so that I could be a model to other youths.

And I could encourage them to aspire to be in the village.

If there was a sufficient water supply, our village would take just three to four years to improve.

We could cultivate the fallow land and do more land management.

The youths living in the cities would come back within twenty years.

And the population here would increase.

Everything would be better.

I think it's obvious that all of us want a very clean, unpolluted environment for our next generation.

If you can pool all the budget that is spent on weapons and military for one year I believe we can solve the global problem of climate change.

Sometimes people want to fight over water.

But I hardly react as I am not interested in conflict.

I always let people get their water before me, if they want to.

I just recite my prayers every day.