Making life flow a lot easier

Kalpana is a teacher and a mum of two, so she knows about stress.

After the Nepal earthquake, lack of easy access to water piled on the pressure for her:

‘The water shortage meant that I had no time for anything,’ she says. ‘I was really busy with school and at the same time we needed lots of water, for all our household chores and our animals. I used to be able to just get water whenever I needed it, but after the earthquake it became really difficult, as I just didn’t have the time to wait for it and do all my other school work.’

The quake shifted the geology in Bahungaun, Kalpana’s village in Makwanpur district, so that its three communal taps became unreliable, with only one working at a time. The water also became very muddy.

In peak morning and evening periods, the long queues meant a wearisome wait, and even those who had pipes from the taps to a water butt at their homes found the pressure was too low for the system to work.

See what you’ve done

Thankfully your support has changed all this and is making life flow a lot easier for villagers.

Our partner, the Rural Awareness and Development Organisation (RADO), helped the community find a new water source and install an intake point and transmission line to the community’s water tank. A wire fence was also built around the tank to keep animals from contaminating the water.

Tearfund also tested the water for both chemicals and bacteria, and declared the source clean – a first for the community.

Villagers have been trained to test the water from each tap every month, and a water and sanitation user committee has been created to promote the testing of the water and the maintenance of the equipment.

With 4am starts to fetch water now consigned to history, Kolpana, 30, is a happy woman: ‘When RADO and Tearfund came I felt very happy that the tap wouldn’t dry up again. We used to worry there wouldn’t be enough water, or any water at all, and now we don’t worry about that any more.

‘I used to be under great pressure with my time, but now things are better. I’m less stressed than I used to be, I have time to help my children with their homework now and tell them stories.

‘I’m so thankful to the supporters who donated to our water system. Now we can get water easily, I’m very thankful for that.’