Help 24 Million Nepalese with access to safe water

Several research articles were written and published in journal.

• Innovative Monitoring Mechanism: Evidence from Rural Drinking Water Sector in Nepal
A study on ‘Innovative monitoring mechanism: Evidence from rural drinking water sector in Nepal’ was
conducted by Dr. Maheshwar Prasad Yadav and published in Nepal Journal of Multidisciplinary Research.
The paper aims at determining innovative monitoring mechanism in the context of rural drinking water
sector of Nepal. This study is based on both primary and secondary data. The necessary primary data were
collected through telephone interview using semi-structured questionnaire while the secondary data were
collected through database and publications.

The collected data were analyzed through simple statistical
tools to derive results leading to major findings of the study. The study shows that the innovative monitoring
mechanism such as letter monitoring, hello monitoring, sensor monitoring, and toll-free monitoring are
useful tools for efficient and effective monitoring of rural drinking water system in the context of developing
countries like Nepal. Considering the innovative monitoring ladders and on-site monitoring, the study further
concludes that a combination of two or more innovative monitoring mechanisms will make more sense for
effective and efficient monitoring mechanism to keep the projects functional and sustainable. This study
may be useful for development actors in the sector, academia, and policy makers.

The study can be further
extended by capturing learning from the implementation for these innovative monitoring mechanism in
the context of rural and urban drinking water sector in Nepal.

• Key Factors Influencing Functionality of Community-Managed Rural Water Supply System
in Nepal: A study on ‘Key Factors Influencing Functionality of Community-Managed Rural Water Supply System in
Nepal’ was conducted by Dr. Maheshwar Prasad Yadav and published in Nepal Journal of Multidisciplinary
Research.

The paper aims at examining key factors influencing the functionality of the community-managed rural water
supply system in developing countries like Nepal. The study adopts a descriptive cum analytical research
design based on primary data only. The required data were collected through a telephone interview using
a semi-structured questionnaire on a sample of 486 respondents from the respective community-managed
rural water supply projects. The collected data were analyzed using correlation, chi-square test,

Cramer’s
V, and cross-tabulation to find out the results leading to major findings of the study. The study concludes that the key factors influencing the functionality of the community-managed rural water supply system are the systems’ caretakers followed by the operation and maintenance fund, the activeness of the users’committee, and the availability of spare parts in the context of Nepal.

• Status of the Building Blocks for Sustainable Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Systems
in Nepal: A Review: The study on ‘Status of the Building Blocks for Sustainable Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Systems
in Nepal: A Review’ was conducted by Dr. Maheshwar Prasad Yadav and Mr. Kumar Prasad Silwal and
published in Nepal Journal of Multidisciplinary Research.

The paper aims at reviewing the building blocks of sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)
systems in the context of Nepal. The study consisted of a descriptive research design based on secondary
data that were collected from different published documents. The review was made through descriptive
comparison, percentages, graphs, and ratios to compare whether the country’s status is in line with the
global context. The study concludes that the proportion of the population having safely managed water
services in Nepal (16 percent) is quite lower than the global average (73 percent). Moreover, the proportion
of the population having safely managed sanitation services in Nepal (51 percent) is slightly lower than the
global average (57 percent).

Similarly, the proportion of the population having basic hygiene services in
Nepal (64 percent) is lower than the global average (75 percent). Furthermore, the findings on the status of
water, sanitation, and hygiene systems are mixed in the context of Nepal. Some of them have made good
progress and some of them need to be accelerated to go a long way to achieve SDGs by 2030.

The study further concludes that institutionalization, policy and legislation, and accountability mechanisms at the
federal level have been initiated while it is yet to materialize at the provincial and local levels. In the case
of planning, only 10 percent of rural/municipalities completed their WASH plan. In terms of finance, there
is not only a resource gap but also two-thirds of the total country’s WASH budget has been allocated at the
federal level. Action research should be prioritized to capture learning and awareness leading to adaptation
and knowledge creation in the sector.The study can be extended by incorporating the citizens’ views on WASH systems strengthening in the context of Nepal.

NEWAH’s new sensors - A technology revolutionizing monitoring efforts and assuring the sustainability of remote water projects in Nepal now and in the future- by Bibek Prashad Dahal

The availability of water in the communities after the completion of the project has caused great joy among the villagers. For some time, the communities used water happily and with confidence that they would have adequate access of drinking water in days to come.

However, the happiness of one group residing at the upper part of the water system didn’t last for long. The water points located at the upper portions of the communities encountered a major problem: They were getting less water day by day. This circumstance raised lots of questions among the villagers. How could this have happened? Why did it happen? Was it because the source had decreased its capacities? Or was the reason some kind of problem in the water supply line?

It took the villagers a while to fully understand the problem. To their dismay, the inconvenient truth was this: The issue was different; it was neither a problem with the source nor one with the water supply line. Instead, there were two other reasons.

The first: an excessive use of water at the lower belt of the community. The water users residing here used more water than expected to irrigate their vegetable yard by connecting pipes directly to the water points.

The second: An immense waste of water at the lower belt of the community. The negligence of water users for the necessity of maintenance of water points caused them to let the water flow uselessly for days and nights. It was found that users didn’t even change the taps, which weren’t working anymore and which were therefore lagging, allowing a constant useless water flow day in day out.

In that scenario finally, it was no wonder that the water didn’t reach users residing at the upper belt unless there was enough water in the reservoir.

This is the story of a Nepalese village named Okhargaira. Located in Rural Municipality of Tinpatan in ward 06 (previously Balajor VDC ward-06), Okhargaira is a very remote village from Sindhuli district. Here, eight years ago, a Drinking Water and Sanitation Project was implemented by Nepal Water for Health (NEWAH) with generous support from ‘charity: water’. This given case of unequal water distribution due to water mismanagement in some parts of the village had added additional challenges to NEWAH on its way to the effective implementation of sustainable management and equitable benefit sharing of given resources.

980 people from 140 household are profiting from the drinking water facilities, collecting water from 6 different water sources which is later being distributed to 72 water points. Mismanagement however makes this difficult.

In order to resolve these challenges NEWAH has introduced different technologies, among them ‘Hello Monitoring’. The Hello Monitoring technique is used by NEWAH to get information about the projects through telephone calls with the members of the users’ committee as well as the water users. This is crucial, espescially after the project has been completed and NEWAH has left the project sites.

The issue of uneven distribution of water resources was reported by Uttam Lamichhane, the chairperson of Okhargaira’s Water and Sanitation Users Committee (WSUC). According to him the issue was observed within the water points of the upper belt of the community, as the wastage of water by the users from the lower belt didn’t allow water to store in the reservoir. As a result some of the households from the upper belt were totally deprived of even getting a single drop. The issue was so prominent that it was about to destroy the social harmony within the communities and the users from the upper belt started scolding the WSUC for not managing the water system effectively.

 NEWAH’s reaction was as follows. Staff from NEWAH’s provincial office in Sindhuli installed a sensor, which is a remote distance monitoring technology, within 57 of the 72 water points. A sensor is a small machine which consists of a GSM SIM, batteries and a turbine. It provides information on the quantity of water flowing through a tap as well as disturbances in water flow. The main objective of establishing sensors is to monitor the functionality and working capacity of a distant water system from a reference point (in NEWAH’s case from its headquarter).

Through this technique NEWAH can immediately get all the necessary information on the functionality of a particular water system, which can be used for an immediate maintenance reaction if needed. The sensor monitoring technique has proven to be one of NEWAH’s most effective measures for checking the regular functionality and sustainability of projects.

According to Kumar Pulami Magar every water point now gets an equal amount of water and the users from the lower belt have stopped irrigating the vegetable yards by connecting the pipes to the water points directly. They have also stopped their unusual practice of leaving the water taps open and instead immediately call Mr. Magar to replace and renovate nonfunctional taps on time.

Uttam Lamichhane, the chairperson of the community’s WSUC reported that the connection of sensors to the water system has put an end to the complaints of users. The sensor provides reliable information on the functionality and non-functionality of the system, which helps to provide the appropriate treatment on time. He also added, that in his eyes, in national context the sensor technology has now proven to be one of the most effective measures for the sustainability of remote water systems, which is a milestone in rural development in Nepal.