Naikot VDC - Kankali

The following day I set out on my own with Nirjul from WaterAid Nepal to visit a project in a village in Naikap VDC. Naikap is in the North West part of Kathmandu and the village we were visiting, Kankali, was identified in the VDC as having some of the poorest water and sanitation coverage, and some extremely economically marginalised people, with 79 households in total classed as 44 very poor households, 29 poor households, and 6 medium poor. WaterAid and one of our urban partners, UEMS (Urban Environment Management Society) had been working there since late 2010. Before the project, 25 households in Kankali did not have access to any sanitation facilities and used to go to the toilet in the surrounding bamboo bushes. We travelled through busy Kathmandu to the outskirts, and then our jeep began winding further and further uphill. I looked back as we made our journey upwards, and could see the whole Kathmandu valley behind us – the deep bowl of the valley with the sprawling city inside it, and hills and mountains in an almost perfect ring around it, with settlements scattered right up the hillsides. As we made our way along a bumpy track to Kankali, it felt a bit like we were back in the hills, but for the expanse of the city below. We had a warm welcome from the community and were led into a tiny little stone office building on a hill. The walls were covered with pictures of the implementation of the project work here – people grinning as they constructed new water distribution tanks and used the newly refurbished tap stands. An animated discussion followed, where we were told all about the project in Kankali. UEMS had designed an integrated water, sanitation and hygiene project in the area and implemented the project with funding support from WaterAid in 2010/11. The water part of the project centred around the improvement of lift and gravity flow system, rehabilitating one collection tank and one distribution tank and building one new distribution tank, and rehabilitating six village tapstands and one new one.  A gravity flow system that has existed in Kankali since 1982 with the support of another INGO was insufficient – as the area became more urbanized the water source dried out around 6-7 years ago and since then water collection was down a steep, rocky path.  

We spoke to the chairman of the village committee and he told us that as the main water source was downstream, and had been so unpredictable in terms of when there would be water there, often women and children had to collect water at night. He told us that more than once, children had been attacked on the path by tigers and bears. Although we were just out of the city, the area was quite thick with forest and I could see how this path could be dangerous at night, but I was shocked to hear this. He told us of his frustration that they had to pass tapstands on the way down the path, but that these hadn’t worked for years.

A lady in the group called Sunita then spoke to us about the start of the project. She was quite young, around my age and incredibly animated as she spoke. As I glanced around the pictures on the wall, I could see that she was in the vast majority of them – helping deliver the hygiene training, building the tanks. She told us that one person from every household in the village had attended training on hand washing, water hygiene and chlorinating water before distribution. The community had appointed one ‘Commander’ per every five households to ensure that this training was acted upon. Once training was underway, the community came together to contribute the initial 10% of the project cost, and now each household collects 50 rupees per month for the maintenance fund for the water and sanitation facilities. She beamed as she indicated to each of the photographs on the wall. I asked her how lifestyle and behaviour had changed in the village. She beamed at me again. The most important thing, she said, is that behaviour HAS changed. Women used to spend an hour long round trip, plus time for queueing, to collect water. They had to go with their children at night often to ensure they would even get any. Now, the collection is within a 15 minute round trip from each house, and there is enough water day and night for cooking, washing, drinking and cleaning. Sunita pointed to the walls again, and told me that there are now hygiene education posters everywhere in the village – she laughed as she said that the children watch over you to make sure that you wash your hands carefully.

It was the middle of the day, and incredibly hot in the village office, despite the cool stone walls. We sat and chatted for another half an hour or so with some drinks, and then I was shown out of the building and down the steep path that we had been discussing. Stones slipped under my feet as I navigated my way down, and the trees loomed over me. I couldn’t imagine being here at night, as I looked deep into the forest in case of a tiger or a bear… I was taken down to the newly rehabilitated distribution tank which fed the new tapstands in the lower part of the village. It was an extremely impressive structure. We then had a walk back up, higher and higher to each cluster of homes perched on the edge of the hill to the newly constructed tank in the pictures. It was incredible to see the end result of the community’s hard work in action as we followed the flow from the tank to see each of the tapstands. Again, it astounded me to think that these tapstands had existed without functioning. I’d been really impressed and inspired throughout the whole trip so far by the amount of community commitment to training caretakers for the ongoing maintenance of the work, but here I was able to see the real difference that this makes, and how integral it is to a sustainable working project. It was amazing to think that, were these tapstands to break, this community would now have the knowledge and expertise to repair them and keep the water supply flowing. After hearing the horrendous stories of what some people in the village had suffered on their journeys to collect water in the past few years, it felt strange even walking down this path and I could only imagine what an incredible change and comfort it must be to the parents not having to send their children down there, to the husbands knowing that their wives were safe collecting water, and knowing that they were in control of maintaining the source. The work here really had changed the lives of the whole village.

As we walked around each cluster of houses, I could see that this area was unlike any I’d visited before. The houses balanced steeply on each hillside and seemed extremely small and crowded. A yard in each cluster contained washing and cooking facilities, work tools, animals and everything the people living in each cluster used in everyday life. I could see how keeping each area clean was extremely important here, and again everything was now spotless. Sanitation wise, the project here focused around the construction of 25 new pit latrines. As we visited each part of the village, I was proudly shown each latrine; all spotlessly clean and accessible to each house.

We worked our way higher and higher up each cluster of houses to see the whole village. We stopped at another of the tanks and looked out over the whole of the Kathmandu valley – the scenery from the top of the hills was breathtaking. Walking up and down the hill just a few times had been exhausting, but one man from the village pointed and suggested we go higher. Nirjul explained that they wanted to take me to a monastery on top of the hill. A half hour steep climb later, in front of us appeared a huge newly-built monastery. We were led to the gate where the monk who answered the knocking explained that it was a closed monastery and we wouldn’t be allowed in. To my surprise, the people who had accompanied us up the hill from the village explained to the monk that I was a visitor from London and asked if we could look around. After a bit more talking and pointing at me, the huge gates were opened and we were led in. The head monk greeted me and took all of us (there were still around 15 of us) into the main temple in the monastery. He explained that it had been built here on the hill in 2008. Many of the people from the village had not been inside before, so we walked around together. It was extremely grand, new and colourful, and a world away from the village just steps below it. I looked out from the top viewpoint to see the village below me, and the vast Kathmandu valley in front of me. The monk talked to us about life in the monastery, and I caught two young monks, no older than around ten, peering out at us from behind a window. They giggled and ducked away as I caught their eye. I felt completely honoured to have been shown around the monastery, and we spent a while walking round, spinning the prayer wheels and talking. It felt great to be able to share this with the people of Kankali, after seeing each of their houses and their lives below. As we were leaving the monastery, the head monk gave me a piece of paper with his email address on it, and asked me to keep in touch. He turned to me as we left and said that the main principle of learning here at the monastery was to be content with life, and to be content with what you have. I could see the thinking behind this, but as I looked back around the people around me, I wondered how different their lives would be if they had stayed content with the situation they lived in...? Not being content with having to give their children dirty water, with having nowhere to go to the toilet, with having treacherous journeys down a path at risk of being attacked by wild animals just to survive – not being content with all of these things was the start of the project here. It was a difficult one to even begin to understand and form an opinion on, but I knew that the combined work of WaterAid, UEMS, and the community themselves in making these changes had resulted in a much brighter future for the people of Kankali….

Walking down to the old water source with the people of Kankali

A new tapstand, with cleanliness report on the side, Kankali



A housing cluster in Kankali

A newly constructed tapstand, Kankali

Jhaukhel

The next day, we headed out to visit one of WaterAid’s peri-urban projects in the Bhaktapur area a few miles from Kathmandu. We were told that the area that we’d see was a typical suburban town – ten years ago access to these towns would have been really difficult and it is only in recent years that some areas have received improved access to water and sanitation. We visited the region of Jhaukhel – a VDC made up of several villages spilling over into each other to make a town on the outskirts of Kathmandu. I could see why this was classed as a peri-urban project, as although there were a lot of dwellings, the surrounding area was full of fields and lots of people were outside working on the land outside their houses. The water and sanitation project throughout the district had been initiated in early 2010 and was due to run for three years, with plans for a range of improvements. The water supply in the area is poor – around 40% of the households have some access to a private tap but others depend on conventional sources, which are rarely safe. In one cluster of houses, it was found that only 7% of people had access to a piped water supply. Around 87% of people in the area have access to a toilet, but when a survey was conducted it was found that the sanitary condition of most of these is very poor, with some parts of the community having around a third of people not being able to access a useable toilet.  I chatted to the staff from ENPHO as we made our way to the area, and found out that almost a third of the population of the area suffer from diseases that can be related to poor WASH access – from diarrhoea to dysentery and even pneumonia from poorly sanitised kitchen facilities.

The first cluster of homes we visited was called Mallepati. It looked like a big old fashioned house, but I later found out that this was home to a number of families all living together – around 10 families.  We were shown through to the back of the house to a cluster of newly improved latrines. The area behind the housing had previously housed a few latrines that were not often used and had to be emptied by hand. With only a limited number of toilets, when they were full and needed to be emptied, they were often left and open defecation was common.  Now there is around one toilet per family. WaterAid’s partner in the area ENPHO provided the ring, pan and cement and then the new toilets were constructed 3 months ago, after community members had been trained in maintenance and also attended workshops on health and hygiene management. All toilets were then built in a week.

I asked one of the women if there had been an improvement in their health in the last few months since the build and she said that before, the temporary latrines had been dirty and often make the children sick. Now, the permanent structures are secure and easy to keep clean – they are safe and easy to use. She said that the direct issues are not so different just yet in terms of health, but what she can see is a huge behavioural difference. The families take pride in the latrines and understand the link to their health. She beamed as she told me how happy she was to have the toilets.

We then walked down a little further into the town, where we stopped at another house to visit an Ecosan toilet. I’d never seen one before and the structure of it was really impressive, how the waste is divided into compartments, with each compartment securely sealed off once it is full and then dried out to make compost fertilizer. The lady who showed us around her toilet had recently trained on an ENPHO project locally as a health volunteer and told us how she had visited each household in the cluster with hygiene and health information. It was incredible to again see the commitment right across the community to take the health and sanitation issues seriously.

Jhaukhel is one of the first communities in the area to focus the WASH work on particular marginalised groups within the community. There are almost a hundred disabled people living throughout the VDC and the infrastructure to support these people is not sufficient to allow most of them access to a safe toilet. A big part of the first year of the project has been to assess the needs of these people in the community and work out some solutions.

Another area that has been identified for improvement in the area is school sanitation. We made our way to Sundarthali (meaning ‘beautiful place’) where we arrived at the local secondary school. It was a public holiday, so the school was quiet, but the Principal Shyam had arrived to show us the work that had been newly completed there. He proudly led us through the courtyard to a brand new boys toilet – with around ten urinals and a toilet cubicle. It was sparklingly clean, and Shyam told us that a cleaner visits every day to restock with soap and keep clean. He then led us over to the girls sanitation block, where there were two separate toilets. He was eager to show us the left hand one, and when he opened the door there was a small slot on the left hand side. He explained that this fed through to an incinerator, so girls could use this toilet to dispose of their sanitary pads. He was overwhelmingly proud to show us this, and I was quite overwhelmed too when I thought of the difference that this would make. Shyam told us that before the changes, there was just one toilet for use by all 100 students, boys and girls. He explained that before the incinerator, the girls simply did not come to school when they had their period, and missed out on a huge number of lessons. I thought about how fantastic this small intervention was. To be able to ensure that girls could stay at school, with confidence and stay healthy and clean at the same time was amazing to see. Shyam even said that before the new toilets, if a child had a stomach bug – often caused by drinking unsafe water – they would miss a lot of school. Now with the brand new clean toilets, they come to school to use the toilet – as it provides them a safe and clean place to go. Now, three out of four schools in the district have the pad incinerators, and the Department of Health and District Education Office have replicated this in the surrounding area with their own funds.

We made our way to the next part of the VDC – a short drive and then a long walk along a steep and bumpy path. It felt a little like we’d made our way into the countryside again, although I knew we were just a few miles from the big city. We arrived at Dhanda Gaun to a reception of waving, smiling children, who became a little shy as we approached. This community is a dalit community – or ‘untouchable’ – made up of the lowest social caste of people. It was incredibly obvious that this was the case as we looked closer. The children wore torn clothes and the houses were small, dark and crowded.  A path behind one house led to some newly constructed steps – down an extremely steep hill to a kuwa – a local spring. ENPHO had built the steps just three months ago to give safe access to the water source. We walked down the steps towards the source – there must have been almost 200 steps and even they were incredibly steep. I looked at the surrounding hill and realised how dangerous it would have been to walk down beforehand – I couldn’t even imagine how it would have been if the ground was wet or slippery. We reached the bottom, and found some women from the village washing their clothes in one side of the spring. The other side was protected for drinking water collection. They smiled to us as they told us about how much better it was to be able to walk down the steps, and how they worried less about their children making their way up and down the path.  A young teenage girl called Muna had stayed by my side all the way from the top. As we gathered at the bottom of the steps she placed her hand in front of my face and talked quickly in Nepali. Translated, it turned out that as one of the older children, Muna was often the one responsible for walking up and down the path. It was too difficult to carry a basin or collection pot on the route back up and she had regularly fallen and hurt herself. She’d even broken her fingers a few times. She held onto me and smiled as we made our way back up the steps. I thought about the things I had to worry about when I was twelve or thirteen and it made me incredibly sad that Muna had this huge responsibility, and angry that she had hurt herself so often. I’d written in lots of WaterAid200 emails about people in Nepal having to climb steep paths for water, but not fully appreciated how this could affect girls like Muna. I hoped that the construction of the new path really had made a change to her life and hoped that there were better things to come for her.

As we made our way back up the steps, I was almost out of breath. I’d consider myself pretty fit, but the combination of the steep stairs and the intense heat really took it out of me. I had no idea how anyone could manage to do this carrying anything at all, never mind a huge heavy pot of water.  We chatted more to the group of children, and the two oldest told us that they had formed a child club to spread health and sanitation messages throughout the surrounding area. We spoke to a nine year old boy, Roshan, who had been to every household in the village to ask for a 2 rupee donation. The people had then used this money to buy paint to paint a health or sanitation slogan on each of the walls. I asked him what his favourite one was and he replied earnestly ‘Stay clean and let’s not open defecate.’ I imagined what would motivate or inspire a boy of the same age in the UK. There were no computer games, no days out for Roshan and what he displayed in maturity and awareness of the water and sanitation issues facing his family and his community was far, far beyond his nine years. It was humbling, touching and completely inspiring.

The family in the house cluster in  Mallepati

The ecosan toilet

The school Principal and newly constructed boys toilet block

Muna and her family at the water source at the bottom of the newly built steps

WaterAid Nepal staff, Surbagayh with Roshan, who painted hygiene slogans on houses

The newly constructed steps

One of the painted slogans

Muna, Roshan and their sisters show us the new steps down to the water source

The school block, with newly constructed girls toilet block in the foreground

The route to Kathmandu...

The next day I woke early - it was my 27th birthday! The sun was shining brightly through the thin curtains and as I popped my head through them and out of the window I could see the little town of Surkhet starting to wake up too, with people opening up shops and setting up stalls.. Home felt very far away as I thought back over the previous few days. 

We headed for a breakfast meeting with some of Western Nepal's local government officials - prominent officers for education, health and public engineering amongst other things. The meeting was formal, and conducted in Nepali, so Parus sat at one end of the table with Kate and I to explain what was happening. There was a lot of talk about the great work that NEWAH had been doing in the region, and the need for coordination and cooperation between the government bodies and NGO work. The health official talked with a smile about the 7 VDCs that NEWAH work in in the area and told us that NEWAH is well renowned and well thought of. It was quite difficult for me to follow the discussion, but later Parus mentioned to me that this example of collaboration was quite rare - if this meeting had been called by WaterAid Nepal or NEWAH five or so years ago then the officials wouldn't have attended. One thing that was extremely clear was that the issue of safe water and sanitation was being taken seriously at a local government level. Pressure at this level can only be achieved by partner organisations such as NEWAH and I felt really fortunate to have been able to witness such a meeting - it gave me a fantastic first hand view of how our advocacy work could put pressure on all of the stakeholders needed to make our work successful. Back in the jeep and on the road again, Tom talked about the model of school-led sanitation that had also been mentioned - this originated in Nepal and has now been rolled out worldwide across other WaterAid work. This happened because of the strength of the collaboration between local NGOs, WaterAid and the government - a fantastic working model that really is changing lives. 

We made the four hour journey back to Nepalgunj, down the bumpy, windy roads again. At lunchtime we stopped in a local restaurant - it was incredibly hot. We settled down to eat but Parus and Dinesh had vanished. A few minutes later they returned with about a dozen big bunches of red flowers and the biggest birthday cake I have ever seen. It was incredible! I felt really emotional as we tucked into lunch as I thought back over the last few days, about Guara, about Laxmi, about Nigel and quite overwhelmed by it all. 

After a quick stop off at the NEWAH regional office to meet the whole team (and share the cake) we headed back to the airport for our second Himalayan flight back to Kathmandu…. A long day of travelling done, Tom, Kate and I had a quiet, reflective dinner. It was unlike any birthday I'd ever had. 

The next day, we headed into the WaterAid Nepal office in Kathmandu. It was really interesting to see the office and how it differed to the one in London. We had a great day meeting the staff, learning about their roles, their objectives and their plans for the future. I met up with the Urban project team, who explained that they had arranged two more days of project visits for the rest of my time in Kathmandu. Project plans in hand, I headed off for an early night to read more about what was to come…. 

With Tom, Ashu, Dinesh and Parus from NEWAH and Kate (and my birthday flowers and cake!)

Palate

We sat under some shady trees to eat some lunch before making a trip onwards to the next project site we would visit – Palate. 

As we pulled into the village, I could immediately see that this was different to what we had seen before in Dhaneri or Lamidamar.. No rolling hills or terraced fields in immediate view, but more of a village centre, with a small square in the middle and rows of shops and houses lining the thoroughfare. In a strange way it was almost like an old fashioned wild west town – lots of wooden houses and a dusty road leading uphill into the distance. The crowds gathered as we arrived, with everyone curious to see. 

We were again shown to a room where we were greeted with garlands and many ‘Namaste’s and the conversation between Dinesh and the Committee began. This time, the mood of the meeting was quite different. The community have formed their Committee and the project agreement has been signed. Work is now beginning to take place in Palate – with caretakers and sanitation masons now trained, and the first of the improved toilets starting to be built. The Users Committee told us that they were proud to have just delcared themselves ODF (open defecation free) but that this was proving to be extremely difficult without a reliable and accessible water source, as some people did not use toilets because of the amount of water that would need to be brought down to the village to flush out and keep them clean. At present, collecting water can be up to a two hour round trip, with long queues as the population here is dense. One lady told us that even getting up at 6am, to go and put her water pot in a long line of queuing collection pots, that some days her family still wouldn’t have any water until 10am. There are two standpipes in the village that were installed around 20 years ago, but the community was not trained in maintaining them, and they are now polluted and water flow through them is extremely poor. People often walk through the trees uphill to collect water from unprotected springs instead. The situation here was so completely different to the villages we’d visited so far. 

As we talked more, it became apparent that the community were extremely concerned about the water flow to the village in the future. Previous government other other NGO interventions had brought some water to the village of Palate, but was unreliable. The Committee were looking for assurance from NEWAH that this would not be the case again. As Dinesh explained more about why this would not be the case, I began to see again the incredible power and value behind educating, training and empowering the community themselves to take ownership of this issue. It’s simply not just a case of building toilets and taps, and knowing the fantastic way that WaterAid works with our partners in communities like Palate did give me hope for the future for this community.  

After the meeting, we headed up the hill where we saw the project implementation in action. One huge water storage tank for private household tapstands has now been constructed, as has a huge covered storage pool which will pipe water down the hill to the school. Next to this, a whole family was at work constructing a tank that will collect water that will feed into shared village tapstands. From adults to young children, each of the family was mucking in – mixing and laying concrete to complete the construction. It’s a race against time at the moment to get this finished before the monsoon rains start. Again, by providing the materials to build the solutuions but placing emphasis for the build on the village themselves, members of the community are becoming skilled in this area and have a greater understanding of the whole process. This also encourages safe sanitation practices, as so much work has gone into the project that everyone has a commitment to making this work in the long term. 

From here, we were asked by the villagers if we wanted to go to see the source of the water – a half hour climb even further up the hill. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to understand the whole process. We started out along a tiny narrow path, winding along the hillside and then clambered over rocks, through the riverbed and then up and up… on our hands and knees scrambling up terraced fields and along tiny paths. It was exhausting. I couldn’t help but think of our ‘Climb for Water’ WaterAid200 website – I’d not fully appreciated how true and how difficult that could be. 

When we finally reached the source, there was a small pool at the top that people were bathing and washing clothes in. I was astonished to find that, although most people collect the water further down the hill, some of the villagers who live higher up in the village climb up to the top to carry out their daily washing and bathing. This was then the same water that was flowing down the hill, that was collected at different points downstream by others from Palate. 

We headed back down the hill via a scenic route – there is no way we could have climbed down the steep way we came. I kept thinking of how difficult this journey would be carrying anything at all, never mind a huge water pot… 

We reached the bottom and the village gathered round for tea and biscuits. I was interested to find out a bit more about how some members of the community felt about the implementation of the project here, which is due for completion in December later this year. One lady told us that in establishing the committee there they were thinking of their children and that they had experienced tremendous difficulties in the past. Once clean water access has been delivered to Palate, then the project focus will shift to building improved latrines for every household. At present, most only have access to temporary toilets. 

We met Laxmi – a lady who four months ago some colleagues of ours had met. She had told them about how she was in debt because she had taken out loans to pay for medical treatment for her family who kept getting sick because of unsafe water. When we talk to Laxmi about how she feels about the project here she becomes animated and it’s clear to see that she is hopeful for the future. It’s difficult to belive the life she lives with three children, a husband away working and the huge burden of living not being able to provide her family with clean water at the age of just 28. It was my birthday the following day and I would be 27. It was so hard to comprehend how different our lives could be. 

 On the walk down the hill, Kate and I had been given Nepali names by Ashu – I am now Fulmaya which means ‘flowers’ and Kate is Junmaya which means ‘the moon’  - the crowd gathered around thought this was hilarious as we introduced ourselves in Nepali, and asked for an English name each. A Laura, Brenda, Sarah, Sally and Barbara later, we were asked to give the committee chairman a name. His actual name sounded a bit like Nigel, so we went for that. There were excited screams and laughter as we all sat around and called out ‘Nigel!’ and laughed. It was completely surreal but a really heartwarming interaction. We then had our pictures taken with all of the villagers, again to much laughter and joking around – until it was time to leave and the children gathered around the jeep as we clambered in to make the dusty journey back to Surkhet. 

As we pulled away from the village and I looked back at the smiles and the waves, I hoped with everything I had in me that the future would be bright for the people of Palate. Seeing the changes at this stage of the project really did bring home to me that WaterAid, along with our partners are transforming, and saving lives.

Kate and I with Laxmi (in between us), and people of Palate

At the water source from the top of the hills - Chairman Nigel in the foreground

WUC chairman looks on over the water tank construction

Greeting for Dinesh, me, Kate and Tom as we arrived in Palate

Family working on the tank construction, taking a break in the heat

Palate

Lamidamar

We left Surkhet early the next morning and climbed higher into the hills… We passed lots of villages along the way, getting further spread out as the road narrowed. The scenery was incredible, with more and more rolling hills and rice terraces round each corner. Our jeep bumped and jostled over the rocky paths as we approached the site of the visit – Lamidamar.

We walked for around ten minutes down a track to the start of the village. The houses were a little closer together than in Dhaneri and the land was greener and less arid. There are 132 households in Lamidamar and the surrounding area – the majority of which are classed as poor or very poor and they are very spread out within the ward, which was one of the biggest challenges when implementing the project here. This project site was classed as completed in September 2011, and I was interested to see the differences, if any to that of an ongoing project. In the time that the project was completed, there were 25 tap stands constructed and 100 improved latrine constructions – as well as training for 5 sanitation masons and 5 water supply caretakers, mainly women. There were also 25 community health volunteers trained.

As we reached the meeting point, children gathered around us, playing and laughing. Goats and dogs wandered around us too. We were greeted with a huge welcome by a big group of women from the village, who again gave us garlands and placed the red ‘tikka’ on our foreheads. About seven or eight women offered this to each one of us, and I was completely covered in flowers by the time they had finished! We were shown into the school office building, and sat down to hear their story…

The first thing that I noticed was that the room was almost entirely made up of women and children – with just one elderly man sitting to one side. Most of the men from Lamidamar go to India to work to send money home as there is not much employment opportunity nearby, and only return home once a year.  Chairperson of the water users committee in Lamidamar is a lady called Guara Majhi. Guara is a softly spoken, dignified and clearly well respected chair. She told us that before the taps were installed that the women in the community used to waste hours going to collect water and that there was a high incidence of sickness, particularly amongst the children. There was also a high rate of open defecation in the bushes and trees of the village.

She emphasises to us more than once that collecting water, and managing the communities hygiene and sanitation always falls to women, particularly here in Lamidamar. As water is a women’s issue, it was up to the women to sort it out, she tells us.  Proudly, she then tells us that time spent fetching water per day reduced from 40 minutes to just 10.

We asked Guara how she had come to be chairperson of the users committee. She told us that at the start, she wasn’t confident that she could do it, but that all of the other villagers encouraged her as they knew she had the drive and the influence to make the project a success.  Firstly, she went and met local politicians to explain the conditions the village was currently living with and told them that there was much more sickness and suffering than in other places nearby. When this didn’t yield any results, Guara told us that she had heard that NEWAH, WaterAid’s rural partner had helped another community nearby so she got in touch with them. Following this, a plan was put into place to firstly make a community commitment to the project, and then begin to educate key members about health and hygiene.

After Guara has finished speaking, we also heard from Rana who is the head teacher at the local school, who also seems thrilled and excited by the progress in Lamidamar. Previously, there had been no toilets at all at the school, meaning that children had to go to the toilet in the trees behind the school. It was an extremely hot day in Lamidamar, pushing 30 degrees and we had been told it was to get much hotter through the summer. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the health risks to children going to the toilet in the open behind the school, especially in the heat of the summer. Rana tells us proudly that the school now has four latrines and its own tap stand. She says that children’s behaviour is changing, as they are now aware of safe hygiene and sanitation practices, and that attendance has dramatically improved for a number of reasons – children are no longer needed to help their mothers collect water, they are healthier and do not miss school because they are suffering the effects of drinking unsafe water, and older girls are able to go to school throughout the whole month without fear, embarrassment or risks to their health.

We left the building and wandered past a few of the new tapstands, each sparkling clean and each shown to us with pride. The whole village just seemed to be bursting with excitement about the situation and eager to join in and show us more. We walked down the hill to Guara’s house where we saw her goats, cow shed and an immaculately clean drying rack full of pots and utensils. She carefully washed two large cucumbers and then cut them up and offered them around to us.

After this, it was time for us to make our way back to the jeep. With a hearty round of goodbyes, I thought about what we had just seen as we started out along the bumpy track… What a positive, tenacious, courageous group of women. With WaterAid’s help, they had shown me that coming together as a community to advocate and mobilise change is really possible. I’d not seen the project site before completion obviously, but it seemed that this community really had pulled together to realise an incredible achievement. WaterAid works to encourage communities to take ownership of their water and sanitation issues, and this to me seemed the perfect example of why we do what we do….

I thought about Guara as we drove back to Surkhet. Such a strong woman, actively leading the way on bringing good health to a whole community. I’d hoped to meet some interesting people on this trip, but I didn’t ever imagine I’d meet someone quite as inspirational.



In the village of Lamidamar



A boy collects water from a WaterAid tapstand, Lamidamar

Guara slices a cucumber for us

Guara washing food at a tapstand

The WUC (Guara in the centre)

A family at the tapstand

The village gathers round, Lamidamar

Dhaneri

A few hours later, we arrived at the site of our first village visit… Dhaneri.                    

As we jumped out of the dusty jeep to climb over the hills and down into the village, Dinesh from NEWAH pointed out something alongside the path we walked along – pipes running down from the hills and into the village. It was my first sighting of part of a gravity flow system. When I’d put together some of the information for our WaterAid200 event participants, I’d included a diagram of one of these – water is sourced from high in the hills and piped down into tapstands in the villages, each one not being more than a 15 minute round trip from each house. It was quite overwhelming to get my first glimpse of this in action as we followed the trail of the pipe into the village. We were greeted by the people of Dhaneri with garlands and welcomed into the school office building, where members of the village had gathered to meet us.

It was an exciting time for us to arrive – the village was to be declared ODF (open defecation free) in just three days time. This is an important step on the way to completely safe water and sanitation in a community, as it means that health and hygiene education has reached a stage where the whole community is aware of the health practices needed to be acted on to keep the village healthy.

We sat down to hear from members of the Water Sanitation Users Committee (WSUC) and other members of the community. To quickly explain – the way that NEWAH and WaterAid work with these communities is that in order for any ‘hardware’ work to begin, we have to see evidence of ‘software’ working in the community – so there has to be village commitment to practice safe sanitation and educate others about hygiene. The project start also requires a small financial commitment from each household – in Dhaneri it is 115rs each month (about 80 pence) – to set up a maintenance fund to make the implementation of the tapstands and sanitation blocks sustainable. This fund is also used to train and then pay a small salary to a few members of the committee who become caretakers of the systems.

First we heard from the Chairperson, Gagan Sunar. I learnt later that he had been a Maoist guerrilla for 5 years and had then returned to the village a few years ago.

He told us some information about the work we had done in Dhaneri – there are now 9 village tapstands and every household has a toilet. There has also been the construction of a new school sanitation block with separate toilets for boys and girls – imperative to keep teenage girls at school. He told us that they had heard about NEWAH through their local DDC and requested help. Between members of the community, they then made a whole village commitment to get the project started. He reported that all tapstands are now working well and that they had conducted world toilet day celebrations in the village. We also heard from the school principal, a lady who talked about the situation in Dhaneri now – she told us that they have enough water and people are clean and well. She smiled as she told us that children’s behaviour is changing now. They have seen their parents make a huge commitment to health and sanitation and they are knowledgeable and eager to contribute.

We then heard from the Community Health volunteer, a young woman about the same age as me. Obviously, I don’t understand the Nepali language, but I immediately got a sense of her passion and commitment to the WASH issue as she talked… She told us how, after her training on sanitation and hygiene, she would go to every house in the village to spread the messages and teach good health practice. She said that at first, they would call meetings to discuss the issues and no one would come, but when people started to learn that making a small contribution to health through sanitation could help to keep them clean and well, she began to feel much more interest. There certainly appeared to be a great deal of interest from this community – the room we were in was packed with the whole village, with everyone wanting to give us their views and tell us their thoughts. She also told us how she remembers the problems in the past with not having access to clean water and that she was determined to keep it that way. She told us of their ‘One household- One toilet’ campaign that had helped to build a toilet in every one of the 41 households in the village.

We asked her if she would make any changes, or if there was anything more that she would want for the future… Parus translated for us that , from the heart, she wants to take the water and sanitation movement as an example, and wants to try to use this model to get electricity for the village. I found this one of the most inspiring things that she said. It was incredible to see first hand water and sanitation being used as the building blocks for other development, and really humbling to see a strong young woman wanting to drive this forward.

We left the office building and were escorted over to the nearest tapstand. It was clean, flowing and the children played – turning it on and off for us with pride to show that it was working. I learned that the women of the village used to collect water from rivers which was difficult for them in and around Dhaneri. The village itself is very hilly, with houses spread out quite a distance from each other and I could see just from looking around me that this would have been an incredibly difficult challenge. It’s just before the monsoon season now, and the rivers are drying out, with water along the riverbeds muddy, and steep climbs to bring it back to some of the houses.

We were shown the newly constructed school sanitation block with pride – it still feels slightly strange to me that people are so proud to show you their toilets, but it also highlights that the issue is out in the open and has been dealt with in Dhaneri.

As we walked around the village and visited the different tap stand points, I could start to appreciate the logistical challenges of piping water to a village like Dhaneri – with the houses so spread out over rolling hills, through rivers and agricultural farming land, it’s a huge challenge to ensure that each household has access to a tapstand within a reasonable distance. As the community also then contribute to the maintenance fund to keep the water flowing, I could also see how there could be issues with fairness and equal access to the water supply. I asked Parus about this, and he said that this can often be an issue, but that actually by giving ownership of the implementation of the tapstands to the committee, a solution is worked out amongst the villagers themselves.

On the way round, Parus pointed out a cow shed to me, and told me a story about how when a woman is menstruating, then she can be made to sleep outside somewhere like this, because it can be thought that she is dirty. She would then not be given any access to safe water to wash, or to drink. He told me that one woman had died of exposure recently in these circumstances. I asked Parus what could be done to challenge such practices in these remote villages and he told me that through the hygiene education given to the communities at the start of the implementation of a NEWAH project, these issues are addressed. The Community Health Volunteer in the village is educated in menstrual hygiene management and women’s health and can then deliver these messages through the community as the project begins. I found our approach to this really inspiring – putting the hygiene and sanitation education element of our work into such a powerful context really made me appreciate the great importance of this part of what we do.

As we wandered more around the village, everyone was so friendly, and seemed so happy. I could really see the impact that our work has had here in bringing this community together and empowering them to make changes in their lives that have brought about access to clean water and sanitation. I think this is the first time I can say that I can truly appreciate that the work that we do is not just building tapstands or toilets, but to bring communities together to access safe water and sanitation and demand what they have the human right to have.

We headed back to the jeep after lots of goodbyes and good lucks and as we left and followed the dusty road back to Surkhet I felt really overwhelmed; trying to take in what I had just seen and looking forward to what would come in the next few days…

The path into the village at Dhaneri - with gravity flow system pipeline running alongside

The community meeting building where we met the WUC

People from Dhaneri at a WaterAid tapstand

The new school sanitation block

Tom at a newly constructed household latrine

A new drying rack to keep pots and pans clean

Asha, a little girl who followed me round on my trip through Dhaneri



Members of the community with Dinesh from NEWAH



On the way to Surkhet.....

We headed out on our first evening in Nepal for a fantastic welcome dinner, with Ashu – the 
Nepal CR for WaterAid  and other staff from WaterAid Nepal. Mine and Kate’s body clocks
were still a bit confused and  a combination of lack of sleep and a huge meal sent us straight 
out for the count as soon as we headed back to the hotel to bed.

We’d already begun to learn a lot about life in Nepal – conversations centred around Nepali 
ethnicity, access to WASH  (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education)  and the upcoming 
political constitution decisions that the people of Nepal are hoping will see the end of years of 
political uncertainty. At present, an interim constitution has sat in place since 2006, and the 
government have already missed four deadlines to agree a permanent solution. The whole 
political process is rife with uncertainty and unpredictability and there are still no locally elected 
government bodies, which is problematic – there is little clarity on who we can work with, in 
what capacity. WAN (WaterAid Nepal) has an advocacy goal of making the government 
accountable for the goal of universal access to WASH by 2017

 I could already much appreciate how against this backdrop of instablility, the work that we do
in terms of education, advocacy and lobbying could have real challenges… I hoped that I’d
learn more on this as the week progressed.

Friday was the start of our field visit, so we were up early – to make the start on our long
journey to a remote part of Western Nepal.  We were going far into the Nepali hill countryside to
visit some AusAid funded projects, accompanied by Parus Thakuri from NEWAH. To explain,
NEWAH is WaterAid’s rural project partner – an organisation that was born out of WaterAid in
the early days of working in Nepal. NEWAH are our service delivery partner and work with
communities in rural areas to establish Water and Sanitation Users Committees. The
Committees are then involved in every stage of bringing WASH to their ward (village) within
their district – everything from spreading the word about sanitation and hygiene through their
community health volunteers, to their caretakers being trained on the maintenance of the
infrastructure that is put in place. More of this to follow for each community we visit…

We left the hotel early as the first leg of our journey was a flight to Nepalgunj in the Western plains – a car picked us up at 6.30am to head for the domestic airport. After a passport drama U-turn  (you do need a passport to fly internally it turns out Kate) we finally set out on the way. It was already incredibly hot and hazy and schoolchildren passed us on the way, starting their day early.

As we drove through Kathmandu, we saw temples dotted inbetween mobile phone billboard posters and there was a clear police and military presence in the air. Back at the airport again, we met up with Ashu and made our way through the terminal to meet Parus and wait to board our flight…

We headed across the hot tarmac towards our little propeller plane. Ashu had organised for Kate and I to sit on the right hand side of the plane so that as soon as we were up in the clouds, we could look over the whole Himalayan range as we headed west from Kathmandu. I’d been warned that this flight could get a bit hairy from reliable colleagues who had done this trip before – but actually it was fine. The views of the Himalayan mountain range to our left, higher than our plane was incredible; the rolling green hills underneath us and then the grassy plains out to the other side really emphasised to me the diverse landscapes of Nepal,  and I started to think more about some of the challenges that WAN face when implementing our work in such a varied environment.

As we made our descent, it was immediately obvious that the land around Nepalganj was completely different to what we had seen before – extremely flat agricultural land spread across the plains, with small houses clustered together. We landed in Nepalganj and it was even hotter than before too, with the mid-morning sun really stifling. We arrived at the same time as a muslim policial official making a visit and crowds gathered with flags and whistles. A big group of muslim women, with their heads and faces covered passed us to greet him. It was so completely different to being in Kathmandu.

Nepalgunj is only 6km from the Indian border and it seems it’s a bit of a half-way town. Many Nepali men cross the border for work, and to me, it felt much more ‘Indian’ than anywhere else I’d been in Nepal, especially  Kathmandu. Apparently it’s a famous spot for BBQ joints… We stopped at a large new-build hotel for a breakfast of masala omelette and coffee and then set of in our jeep on the long drive towards Surkhet. I saw a sign not long into the journey that said Surkhet was 66km away – but the condition of the roads meant that this still took 4 hours; bumping and jolting our way over dusty roads and tracks. The road quickly left the plains behind and wound up and up into the hills. Buses crammed with passengers inside and on the roof passed us noisily – workers heading down into the town to find work. The narrow roads clung to the hillsides and we started to see some spectacular scenery. It was much greener than I’d anticipated, with trees dotted all over, and terraced hills farmed by the small villages we passed through. The jeep commanded quite some attention as it powered through the small dusty towns.

We stopped a couple of hours in to the journey to look out over a river at a huge steel bridge. Ashu told us that much of the new infrastructure now in Nepal is built by China – they come in and build something like a bridge and then India also comes in and offers to do the same. It’s all about political power and control, with Nepal sitting in contested land between the two emerging powers.

While we had stopped, we stretched our legs and decided to use the toilet in the village – no toilet they told us. Sanjay, our driver told us he believes that the village has no access to any kind of improved sanitation and still practices open defacation.  It seemed really strange to accidentally come across this, just randomly as we passed through.  As we left, the big beautiful river flowing behind us, Sanjay turned to us and said ; ‘Look – God gave us the water but not the pipes…’

Kate and Tom in the village with no toilet, with our jeep

Typical scenery on the way to Surkhet