WaterAid enables the world’s poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education. These basic human rights underpin health, education and livelihoods and form the first, essential steps in overcoming poverty.
This report outlines the £10,000 funding link between Hydro International and WaterAid in Nepal during 2008/09. After launching a corporate partnership with WaterAid in June 2007, Hydro International has been involving employees in helping us to progress our vital work in Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world where lack of access to water and sanitation poses a serious threat to health.
As well as helping to provide safe water and sanitation, integrated with health and hygiene education for people living in the peri-urban village of Lubhu in the Laltipur district of the Kathmandu Valley, Hydro International’s contribution will also help those living in the city of Lalitpur who will benefit from the results of an ongoing study in to rainwater harvesting. Funding will also go towards the provision of programme support by WaterAid Nepal.
Programme objectives 2008/09:
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene education in Lubhu, Laltipur
- Provide increased access and control over improved water supply and environmental sanitation services
- To explore and promote appropriate options and innovations on technical, financial, social and institutional aspects of urban water supply, sanitation and hygiene facilities
- To enhance the skills and knowledge of local partners on issues of water, sanitation and hygiene service delivery to the urban poor and to build capacity for future sustainability
- To improve the information systems of our partners by enhancing practices on publication and documentation of projects
Rainwater Recharge in Lalitpur, Kathmandu Valley
- To enhance sustainable yield in areas where over-development has depleted water resources
- To find out the favourable conditions for groundwater recharge through rainwater harvesting
- To improve the quality of existing ground water through dilution by harvesting rainwater
- To improve the water supply from the wells through well rehabilitation
The £10,000 funding link from Hydro International’s employee fundraising will enable 1,800 people to gain access to a supply of safe water and 450 people to gain access to adequate sanitation during 2008/09.
Nepal lies landlocked between India and China, rising from the lowland Terai plains up to the peak of Everest in the Himalayas. A decade-long violent conflict between Maoist, Monarchist forces and political parties has claimed more than 13,000 lives and damaged the social and physical infrastructure of the country. On 28 May 2008, Nepal became a Federal Democratic Republic when the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly overwhelmingly voted for the abolition of the country’s 240-year-old monarchy. The country now has an historic opportunity to show that it can deliver effectively better governance, infrastructure and basic services, as well as greater social justice.
WaterAid began work in Nepal in 1986 and has continued despite the political instability and conflict. Our activities with six partner organisations are vital as without safe water to drink and somewhere hygienic to go to the toilet, childhood ailments like diarrhoea are killers. Annually, a third of all deaths in Nepal are children under five, half of which are due to diarrhoea. Water-related diseases are common but the causes are shrouded in superstition for many of the population
Although it is estimated that 84% of people have access to water, in hill areas distances to water sources are great. These statistics don’t take into account that wells are often highly polluted and the quality of water is affected by arsenic. 46% of the population do not have access to sanitation, spreading disease through unhygienic living environments. Overall sector performance is hindered by structural and institutional barriers and a lack of effective sector coordination. The political transition period provides a conducive environment for water and sanitation to become a priority.
Ensuring the quality of water sources is a major challenge.
WaterAid and our partners use arsenic detection and mitigation methods to keep wells safe. Falling water tables and ground water pollution pose additional challenges to providing water and sanitation services to people in Nepal.
The extreme topography determines the areas which can be accessed and the methods used to ensure safe water and improved sanitation. Technologies are appropriate to local conditions, affordable and easy
8 out of every 100 children will die before reaching age five
Life expectancy is just 62 years
42% of the population live on less than $1 a day
The adult literacy rate in Nepal is 49%
WaterAid’s aim is to improve the lives of poor people through its work with partner non governmental organisations (NGOs), which in Nepal are: Nepal Water for Health (NEWAH), Lumanti, Environment and Public Health Organisation, Urban Environment Management Society, Centre for Integrated Urban Development, and NGO Forum.
WaterAid Nepal’s key aims during 2005-2010:
- Directly help 31,000 more people gain access to water and 44,000 more people gain access to sanitation and hygiene education every year by 2010.
- Support and strengthen local partner organisations to ensure at least a further 32,000 people gain access to safe domestic water and 33,000 to sanitation every year by 2010.
During this period WaterAid will increase its focus on sanitation. It is estimated that only 27% of the Nepalese population has access to a latrine. This means that in many cases the potential life changing benefits of a clean water supply are being undermined by ill health caused by an unhygienic environment. Further efforts are needed to build latrines and to provide education on good hygiene practices.
WaterAid will also allocate 30% of its programme expenditure in Nepal for expanding urban projects to help meet the rapidly increasing need for safe water and sanitation due to migration from the countryside. This means that many poor people arriving in urban areas often end up in slums or squatter settlements that already have no effective water supply or sanitation services. Our partners will continue their projects using pro-poor policies to identify, target and positively impact on poor and deprived communities.
WaterAid also supports the Federation of Water and Sanitation Users Group (FEDWASUN) - a network with more than with 700 users groups representing 50,000 households - to make the voices of poor people heard by the local governments and service providers at the national level. Through these Citizens Action projects communities develop a fuller understanding of their entitlements to services, gather information on their current situation, and learn about the range of responsibilities for policy and service delivery. People are then supported to hold service providers to account through a process of dialogue, negotiation and action. The aim is to ensure that service providers stick by their commitments and that citizens gain access to sustainable and affordable water and sanitation services.
At the national level, WaterAid and its partners will continue to lobby for more and better financing, with special emphasis on sanitation. We will also call on the water sector to plan their activities in a way that is clear, open to challenge, and responds to the demands of poor people.
Sector Update
The sector has shown significant progress in terms of an increased budget allocation, including a separate budget for sanitation; preparation towards developing a sector wide approach; the drafting of an urban water and sanitation policy and the preparation of a master plan on sanitation.
WaterAid Nepal has played a significant role in all four of these developments. The budget increase of 40% for 2008/09 for example, has been a result of persistent advocacy by WaterAid Nepal and its partners and is the first time in the sector that sanitation has been separately budgeted for.
Highlights from WaterAid Nepal
- WaterAid Nepal’s rural programme based approach has been further consolidated with adoption of a Gender and Social Inclusion approach and implementation of a new health promotion policy.
- WaterAid Nepal has drafted monitoring indicators on water quality and is piloting rainwater harvesting to address low ground water levels.
- The design of a local Capacity Building Programme has been completed to support 10 Local NGOs in 5 districts on service delivery, organizational development and advocacy and a formal partnership with Radio Sagarmatha has been started.
- The WaterAid Nepal- Asian Development Bank joint research on sanitation entitled “Money Down the Pan? Community Level Models for financing sanitation in rural Nepal: A sector review” was formally launched in a knowledge sharing programme organised by the Ministry of Health and will provide critical inputs into the ongoing development of a Master Plan on Sanitation.
- A popular Kollywood actress has been declared as a sanitation brand ambassador by the civil society and is backing the End Water Poverty Campaign, an event featured on major Nepalese television and radio channels.
- Linkage with the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage had led to the production of water and sanitation magazine entitled Darpan. The first issue was published, highlighting case studies of programmes from different institutions.
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene education in Lubhu, Laltipur
In the peri-urban village of Lubhu, about 70% of the total population are living below the poverty line. One of the major concerns in the village is the deteriorating sanitation situation. Few of the households have access to a toilet and the vast majority of the community are practising open defecation.
The absence of a sewerage system in the community has resulted in extremely poor sanitation conditions which are exacerbated by poor drainage and an inadequate waste management system. Some members of the community have begun to illegally connect their toilets to Rajkulo, the traditional irrigation canal that runs along the main road of central Lubhu, and are using it as a sewer line. However, houses connected to this are facing clogging problems due to haphazard disposal of solid waste and low volume of water flowing into the drain.
Those with on-site sanitation systems are facing problems of faecal sludge disposal and it has been estimated that each household produces about 1.5kg of waste which is currently being dumped on road sides, in open areas, and in storm water drains.
Using the contribution from Hydro International, in the second year of this three year project, WaterAid has been working with its non-governmental partner Nepal Water for Health (NEWAH) to change this situation of real need in Lubhu.
As local organisations lack the necessary technical capabilities to manage such issues and people still lack awareness of sanitation matters, building the capacity of the community and the existing local authority is essential to the long term success of the project and will form an integral part of WaterAid’s work in Nepal.
Rainwater Recharge in Lalitpur, Kathmandu Valley
In urban areas municipal water supplies are often unavailable and unreliable. Often residents have to rely on sources such as dug wells and stone spouts to fulfil their needs. However, due to rapid urban growth in recent years discharge from these sources has become severely reduced.
In the dry season, residents suffer from a lack of water, whilst in the monsoon season sewers often overflow. By utilising rainwater harvesting technology to harness this vital resource ground water supplies can be recharged, thusincreasing water availability during the dry season.
A WaterAid and UN-HABITAT supported study within the Kathmandu Valley has revealed strong potential for ground water recharge in certain areas and Laltipur is one such area of potential. This project aims to select the potential sites within Lalitpur, implement the technology and monitor its success in providing additional groundwater resources.
To ensure the sustainability of the projects, water and sanitation user committee groups will be set up to manage the projects.
Hydro International’s contribution of £10,000 will help deliver the following outputs:
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene education in Lubhu, Laltipur
Water
- Prepare a manual for well cleaning and disinfection
- Provide training on effective well operation and maintenance
Sanitation
- Households with Ecosan toilets to practise nutrient recycling to increase agricultural productivity
- Conduct training on effective operation and management of the neighbourhood water, sanitation and environmental sanitation facilities
Hygiene Education
- Monitor, evaluate and report on behavioural change in personal and community hygiene practices
Advocacy
- Organise a media training workshop and produce a report to disseminate the project achievements and challenges
- Produce learning documents and case studies on water, sanitation and hygiene education activities
Rainwater Recharge in Lalitpur, Kathmandu Valley
- 1 orientation programme for 10 volunteers will be conducted
- Water levels of 50 dug wells will be monitored twice a month to estimate groundwater levels
- 25 existing dug wells and 15 recharge pits will be selected for major recharging and a rainwater harvesting system will be installed. Rainwater harvesting pipes will be fitted in residential homes and rainwater will be filtered through sand and recharge the wells
- Water quality tests will be carried out on drinking water to test the effect of rainwater recharge
- Education, orientation and follow-up training on water, sanitation and hygiene promotion will be conducted in these cluster communities to increase awareness of hygiene practices
Programme Support at WaterAid Nepal
- Funding will also contribute towards staff costs for essential roles to support our partners to improve service delivery practices and influence the sector, such as Programme Support Manager, Planning and Monitoring Manager and Research and Advocacy Manager
For further information about WaterAid’s work in Nepal, please visit www.wateraid.org/nepal
For articles highlighting our work in Nepal featured in the Financial Times Seasonal Appeal 2008 please visit www.wateraid.org/financialtimes
Hydro International is contributing £10,000 towards the total 2008/09 cost of £25,607
The breakdown of costs is as follows:
| Description of Cost | Cost |
| Office equipment | £409 |
| Partner Staff | £8,294 |
| Hardware | £8,005 |
| Software | £9,124 |
| WaterAid staff | £2,500 |
| Total | £25,607 |
The funding from Hydro International will enable WaterAid to provide:
- Professional support and advice on project planning, design and implementation
- Financial assistance to meet the costs associated with the scheme
Community Contribution:
The community will contribute towards these projects by collecting local materials, contributing unskilled labour and also contributing their time for meetings, training and hygiene education.
In 2008/9 the support of Hydro International will enable 1,800 people to gain access to a supply of safe water and 450 people to adequate sanitation.
- £5 pays for a bag of cement to produce a latrine slab
- £15 pays to train two community water technicians to maintain a gravity flow water supply scheme and hand-dug well
- £90 pays for a hand pump for 10 households
- £269 pays for a new well construction
- £480 pays for a health motivator to promote good hygiene practices to 850 people for 12 months
- £1154 pays for a school sanitation block for 200 children
- £2,308 pays for a school rainwater harvesting system for 200 children
- £15,300 pays for a gravity flow water supply reaching 85 households
The impact of safe water and sanitation reaches far beyond the obvious effects on health. Water and sanitation underpin education and livelihoods and form the first step in overcoming poverty, as Laxmi Maharajah’s story highlights.
Laxmi uses the recycled plastic that she collects as part of her role of looking after solid waste on the Water and Sanitation Users Committee to weave baskets and other goods to sell, enabling her to provide her family with a vital source of income.
Here is Laxmi’s story:
“When the committee was formed it was mandatory for three women to be involved out of the 11 people. Sharda was involved and she asked me to be involved as well. Once the committee was formed we allocated roles to each person. Sharda was responsible for the composting latrines and I was responsible for solid waste management.
The water and sanitation committee had already learnt how to mobilize people and form groups and so when the 15 women first met to discuss the waste management they came along and trained us all.
Each one of these 15 women then went to different women’s groups and trained them as well. They went to 30 groups and each had around 22 members. I help people understand how to manage their solid waste, how to recycle plastic by collecting it and training them to make products to sell and also teach people about good hygiene. We teach people about recycling – about dividing things in to biodegradable and non biodegradable.”
Hydro International for their fantastic support of our vital work