In Nepal a project supporting earthquake victims rebuilding their lives has seen an overwhelming response from the people. The project also received huge contributions from the communities, leading to the sustainability of the project.
By Ishwar Rauniyar,Communication, Learning and Documentation Officer, Shelter Support to the Earthquake Affected Communities of Nepal (SEACON) Project
In September, 2016, during my first visit to Makwanpur district in the central Nepal, dozens of women and men were working hard to restore their water resources destroyed by the 2015 earthquake.
The village is part of the SEACON (Shelter Support to the Earthquake Affected Communities of Nepal) project.
It looked like as if the whole village was present to contribute their part of support to get rid of water woes. Some carrying plow and spade were digging to install water supply pipes, others were measuring the intake to protect the source. Mostly women were leading the construction.
“Now, we have to walk at least two-hours to fetch a bucket of water,” Bhawani Pradhan, Chairperson of Dovankhola Water Supply Users Committee said.
“I have cattle, and it’s even difficult to feed them water,” Sakuntala Gopali resident of Kulgaon, Makawanpur district added. “There are times when I had to send my child to school wearing dirty clothes in the lack of enough water.”
However, they were hopeful that their life would change and that in the future they will not have to spend hours to just fetch a bucket of drinking water.
Overflow Pipe
In April 2017, when I re-visited the community people were very happy as they were able to get rid of the water scarcity.
A huge concrete reservoir was built that could accommodate 18,000 litre drinking water and another two plastic tanks with capacity of 500 l and 1000 l. An overflow pipe was also installed in the reservoir.
A small pond was formed from the overflow water with several pipes placed leading to the kitchen gardens of the communities. All the scattered and messed pipelines were protected nicely. New Tap Stands were placed in different parts of the communities.
“Now we have 24-hour water facilities,” Pradhan says. “We have even installed an overflow pipe in the reservoir tank, and people are using overflow water for irrigation.”
The hard work of the community and the project’s support finally paid them back with plenty of water.
“Now that we can access water in our community I don’t have to worry for water to my cattle or washing my children’s clothes. It has made our lives much easier than before,” says Sakuntala.
Community Contribution
The communities haven’t just welcomed the project gracefully, they also contributed more than the project support.
In this particular water scheme altogether 1480,000 rupees were spent, out of which 852,000 rupees were contributed from the community. The total beneficiary of this water scheme is 125 households.
The community’s contribution means providing local materials, including stone, wood, sand and most importantly human resources (labour work).
For long term, Dovankhola Water Supply Users’ Committee is formed; and the committee has already started to raise Rs. 50 on a monthly basis from each household, so that they can use the fund for maintenance.
The community also has hired a watchman, whose work is to reach at the intake at least once a day and assess the situation of pipelines, intake and reservoirs.
“If he finds anything wrong, he immediately informs the committee,” chairperson Bhawani Pradhan says.
It is the same situation in every water scheme site. All the water supply schemes have a users’ committee.
The users’ committees are also oriented by SEACON Project about adopting different measures for sustainability and disaster risk reduction including maintenance, rehabilitation and other disaster related information.
Household Latrines
So is the case with household latrines.
The project has supported 916 households to build earthquake resilient latrines in three districts – Dhading, Lamjung and Makwanpur.
The project provided construction materials and technical support worth Rs. 10,000 and the rest of the budget was borne by the household themselves.
“In addition to the project support, we spent more 12,000 Rs to build this toilet,” says Purna Bahadur Lama, a project beneficiary.
“This is for ourselves, so whatever materials we have, we used them to make it more durable.”
Sustainability of the Project
Either its water scheme construction or household latrines, the people’s contribution are huge. This means the project was able to engage people in the construction very effectively.
Such contribution brings ownership of the people. Once they invest their part of money, it creates more love towards the infrastructure.
With water schemes, there are water users’ committees, those are responsible for maintenance and rehabilitation of the water supply in case of future disaster.
Most importantly, the human resources involved in the installation of pipelines, other plumbing works and construction of toilets were trained by the SEACON project.
This means, the local community people were trained and provided job with the project so that they feel more ownership while constructing water schemes and latrines.