Living Earth Institute (LEI) has developed a cooperative project with a local Nepali non-governmental organization, Women Development Service Center (WDSC) , to bring water supply and sanitation services to a village area in the Dhanusha District of Eastern Nepal. The project has been on-going for one year and has included a strong emphasis on education and local capacity building. We are currently moving into the construction phase in 2003. Successful fund-raising for this project thus far has enabled the development of community organization and participation to make this project successful. We have enough funds to complete a third of the overall construction commitments and will be seeking approximately $30,000 over the next year to complete the project goals to serve over 3,000 people.
A local artist's work reflects the impact of the LEI project on village life.There is a dearth of necessary hygienic drinking water and sanitation facilities throughout the rural areas of Nepal. The Dhanusha District is no exception. The cooperative association formed between LEI and WDSC focuses on a project for water supply and sanitation in the Dhanusha district. Using the successful methods of this sustainable development project, other similar projects will be developed and carried out in other rural areas of Nepal in the future.
The past and current practices in the village areas of installing dug wells or boreholes are not technically sound nor hygienically safe. The wells are usually dug to very shallow depths (30-50 feet) in shallow groundwater where they are highly susceptible to bacterial and/or chemical groundwater contamination. Often cow-dung is used during boring as a drilling mud, which causes further bacterial contamination at shallow depths.
In addition, the quantity and quality of groundwater in the area is increasingly at risk. Planned increases in groundwater irrigation will lower the water table leaving many shallow wells dry. Furthermore, due to the increased use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the area, the presence of the contaminants in groundwater has slowly increased, and is expected to increase more rapidly in the future.
Introducing and disseminating a drilling technology that uses environmentally sound practices to produce safe drinking water is one of the important objectives of the project. At the same time assuring hygienic and safe drinking water is of the utmost importance. LEI and WDSC are implementing a solution to the groundwater supply and quality problem by developing a tubewell construction project in the Dhanusha District. This is a well-established drilling method for groundwater development that uses a safe construction and can reach depths at an average of 100 feet. The tubewells use standard drilling mud (to replace the cow-dung method) and are gravel packed, which provides a natural filter and increases the functional life of the well. Over the past year LEI and WDSC has lead the development of capacity in the local community to create Water Users Groups at each well location. The project is scheduled to construct 50 community water supply wells, each serving 5 to 10 households each. Thus, the project will ultimately serve over 3,000 individuals. The labor and materials supplied by LEI for each individual tube well and community well construction is equivalent to $365 USD.
The project includes sanitation and education programs as well. Rural communities generally do not have adequate sanitation systems. The LEI/ WDSC project provides for the construction of community and/or private latrines in combination with the drinking water program. The project includes construction of over 300 individual latrines in the next year (cost to LEI $67 USD each). There is also a strong emphasis on health and sanitation education and community development. Over the past year LEI and WDSC have conduced literacy and income generating skills-development training for rural women served by the project. These education programs are part of a comprehensive effort to assure the success of local participation and ownership as well as long-term project sustainability.
The water supply users have been contributing to the project by providing land for the wells and latrines and by supplying the labor and locally available materials to the project. The villagers are also responsible to operate and maintain the system. Local ordinances have been developed to describe the functions and responsibilities of the individuals in the community, participation requirements, decision-making processes, and dispute resolutions to further assure project implementation and sustainability.
Further project details can be found in the following attachments:
Contact LEI: info@living-earth.org