Switching household appliances on or off has been posing a great threat to those living in Gunsal and Lakhanpur of Dorambha Rural Municipality, where leakage of power has compromised people’s safety.

With the local community’s initiative, electricity had been connected to houses in the villages about four years ago. Seven persons have already lost their lives, and dozens have been injured so far due to leakage of high voltage over the cables while supplying power to the villages.

In the first incident, three persons lost their lives in the rural municipality two years ago. When they went to switch on or off the lights, they got electrocuted due to leakage of a high voltage current. Lately, two persons in Lakhanpur were injured due to electric shock. They are undergoing treatment in Kathmandu.

Dorambha Rural Municipality Chair Kamansingh Moktan said, “In fact, the negligence during electrification of villages has put people’s lives at risk here,” he said, adding they had also conveyed their concerns to the energy minister recently.

Under community electrification, Nepal Electricity Authority connects electricity to houses, provided that the local body concerned and consumers take initiatives for the same. It was under the same provision that NEA had connected power to a few villages in Gunsi, Dorambha and Tokarpur. The electrification that was carried out under the pressure of locals has now become a threat to them.

It is the community concerned that has to manage all the poles and wires for electrification. The NEA office only gives transformers. “As the electrification process was completed using low-quality wire and anything that could be used as an electricity pole, there is now a great risk to our lives,” said Prajwal Shrestha of Gunsi.

On his part, NEA Ramechhap distribution centre chief Binod Adhikari clarified that the threat wouldn’t be over until the community managed to replace the power supply line. “There are some 2,000 electricity poles and wires that need to be replaced,” he said, adding that some 700 poles will be replaced this year.

Power had been supplied to Dorambha with an 11kv transmission line brought from Mude of Sindhupalchowk.