Installation of Water System in Nepalese Village

Namaste Everyone...my name is Phillipa Wilson and over the years, since the awful earthquakes that shock Nepal in April 2015, myself and my yoga classes, family and friends, have been raising money for various projects in Nepal, initially to give help to those who lost family, land and homes. Since 2016 we have concentrated on one village as I have really good links with it, and we have helped rebuild homes, put roofs on others, install solar lighting in all the homes, set up a women project for making of reusable sanitary towels, and educating the women on their personal health in this area; and this is now self sustainable; and latterly we've been sending money for food during the pandemic.

At the end of a trek in 2019, I was chatting to our sirdar and he mentioned that in his village, (the Dalit part, which is the lowest caste in Nepal), that they had no permanent safe water supply. It means that on average, each household spends three hours a day finding water and bringing it back to the house. It really is not a good situation and he was saying how the supply is getting further away each year.

Being an ex Severn Trent Water employee, I contacted a couple of people I know with contacts within Water Aid, thinking they would be able to help us ... since the village can supply knowledge and labour. However, Water Aid in Nepal have no funding for new projects! I can't tell you how frustrated this made me...but I had promised I would try and sort it for them. Little did I know how much a task it would be!!!

So, by the Spring of 2020 we had a full blown project proposal - 70 pages of it. If you would like to read it it can be found on my website here But basically, once installed it will serve 41 homes, each will have its own tap and it will help nearly 300 people have a safe, secure and clean water supply. It will provide much needed employment during the construction and there will be ongoing employment to keep it maintained. It will mean children and women will no longer have to spend time carrying water, which means more education time and more time in the fields growing food (they are subsistence farmers). Overall it will mean better hygiene and especially for the women. It will make life so much easier for them all.

The challenge to me (us) is raising the money required...£33000. We have come along way and already have £22000 but need that final push. Work will start this October as once again the pandemic means there will be no tourists and therefore no trekking work. This project goes so much further than just bringing a clean water supply into the village.

If you would like to hear more about the people or village or even think about visiting once we can again get to Nepal, please do get in touch. They are such wonderful people and so supportive of one another. If you would like to give your time or expertise in any health or education related field that would also be wonderful...I did hope that there could be some sort of on going two way support through this.

The photos below were taken during the survey for the project proposal.

Thanks so much for reading so far!

Much love for all your support.

Phillipa