Nepal
Establishing water system committees in the Nepalese villages is only the start of a program to establish village leadership and cooperative undertakings.
These women are participating in a savings and credit cooperative. Micro loan programs are their only access to the resources to improve their economic well being.
Nepal is a small country lying in the shadow of the Himalayas between India and China. While it is famous for Mount Everest and while mountain trekking brings a lot of revenue to the country, most of the people in Nepal live in poverty. Preventable illnesses are widespread, water is often in short supply, and arable land is under great pressure. Politically, it is a new democracy after centuries of being ruled by a monarchy. But this has resulted in growing pains and political instability, which compound its economic troubles.
TSS (Tamakoshi Sewa Samiti) is one of the most respected non-government organizations in Nepal. It works in Ramechhap District (in the eastern part of the country) to alleviate poverty and help rural communities become more self-reliant. TSS helps village groups to organize themselves, manage finances, hold effective meetings, and undertake improvement projects. Their initial strategy is to establish and mobilize villagers to plan, organize, build and maintain water systems. When the water systems are installed, villagers often then choose to install sealed, sanitary toilet systems, which TSS and WNC also help them with. And now, in the present program, villagers are being offered help in installing smokeless domestic cooking stoves, thus dramatically decreasing the incidence of eye and respiratory problems.
World Neighbours Canada has had the privilege of providing financial support for the village water systems, the sealed toilets, and the smokeless stoves that are all installed and maintained by local people with technical guidance from TSS. The people themselves provide all local materials and all of the labour needed. Non local materials such as pipe, valves, cement, toilet pans and re bar, are carried by men, women and children, from the end of the road to their remote villages.
Because the villagers take ownership of the project from the earliest stages of planning and design, and because they are in charge of long term maintenance and repair, the projects are very successful.