Rain water harvesting ends water woes
By DEV KUMAR SUNUWAR
KATHMANDU, April 21 - Until a few days ago, Gita Bishankhe, housewife of Jyamirkot-8 of Lalitpur (15 km away form Kathmandu), always had to wake up very early and walk 30 minutes down to the next village to end up in a long queue. All this just to get a bucketful of water. This was her routine throughout the year.
"But it has all changed now," says Bishankhe. It has changed not only for her, but for all 52 households of Dalits in the village, thanks to rainwater harvesting.
Life for this Dalit community has become much easier ever since Dalit women of the village combined their efforts to convince donors to set up a rainwater harvesting system.
Previously, all the locals of Dalit community were using highly contaminated water filled directly from a stone spout for drinking and other household purposes. The spout is located half-an-hour walk away. The Department of Water Supply and Sewerage had made the spout functional with a view to ease their water woes some six years ago, but it soon became defunct due to lack of maintenance.
However, this time, locals are certain of not having to face such a problem as they had to before. They have formed a users' group and each member of the group has been entrusted with the complete care of the system. "Now, none has to face the agony of water shortage nor discrimination while fetching water," said Durga Sob, the president of Feminist Dalit Organization (FEDO), an NGO which assisted the community in installing the system. "It is a lesson to be learnt that even illiterate and underprivileged community members, by themselves, can bring the change as per their needs."
Two water tanks of 340 square meter each have been installed in 10 houses, with each tank collecting about 21,000 liters of water. That water is connected to every household of the community through a pipe.
It was a joint effort. The FEDO supported the re-installing with Rs 20,000, NGO Forum and UN Habitat provided technical help and training to locals in maintaining the system, and the locals volunteered with masonry work and contributed between Rs 100 and Rs 150 from each household.
"If a similar system is replicated in other areas which lie on the outskirts of a city, it can bring an end to the scarcity of water in their communities," said Prakash Amatya, executive director of NGO Forum which played a major role in re-installing the rainwater harvesting system.
Source: The Kathmandu Post, 22 April 2008.Â
KATHMANDU, April 21 - Until a few days ago, Gita Bishankhe, housewife of Jyamirkot-8 of Lalitpur (15 km away form Kathmandu), always had to wake up very early and walk 30 minutes down to the next village to end up in a long queue. All this just to get a bucketful of water. This was her routine throughout the year.
"But it has all changed now," says Bishankhe. It has changed not only for her, but for all 52 households of Dalits in the village, thanks to rainwater harvesting.
Life for this Dalit community has become much easier ever since Dalit women of the village combined their efforts to convince donors to set up a rainwater harvesting system.
Previously, all the locals of Dalit community were using highly contaminated water filled directly from a stone spout for drinking and other household purposes. The spout is located half-an-hour walk away. The Department of Water Supply and Sewerage had made the spout functional with a view to ease their water woes some six years ago, but it soon became defunct due to lack of maintenance.
However, this time, locals are certain of not having to face such a problem as they had to before. They have formed a users' group and each member of the group has been entrusted with the complete care of the system. "Now, none has to face the agony of water shortage nor discrimination while fetching water," said Durga Sob, the president of Feminist Dalit Organization (FEDO), an NGO which assisted the community in installing the system. "It is a lesson to be learnt that even illiterate and underprivileged community members, by themselves, can bring the change as per their needs."
Two water tanks of 340 square meter each have been installed in 10 houses, with each tank collecting about 21,000 liters of water. That water is connected to every household of the community through a pipe.
It was a joint effort. The FEDO supported the re-installing with Rs 20,000, NGO Forum and UN Habitat provided technical help and training to locals in maintaining the system, and the locals volunteered with masonry work and contributed between Rs 100 and Rs 150 from each household.
"If a similar system is replicated in other areas which lie on the outskirts of a city, it can bring an end to the scarcity of water in their communities," said Prakash Amatya, executive director of NGO Forum which played a major role in re-installing the rainwater harvesting system.
Source: The Kathmandu Post, 22 April 2008.Â
