Kabilash, Nepal 2016
The surface water system they relied on was badly damaged and the residents needed to fetch water by bucket from the closest spring, one mile away. There is a school in the village that serves 400 children from the surrounding area that was also badly damaged and the school is the primary destination where we planned to first deliver clean drinking water.
Our team (Rick, Madhav, Jeff, Cordella) arrived in Nepal on May 8, 2016. With just 10 days in Nepal our team met with water pipe suppliers, arranged for delivery, coordinated with workers, walked the project site and recorded detailed information on the terrain. We established relationships with the local people and explored some of the surrounding area where we identified six new future projects. We raised $10,000 to fund this project. Following the death of Eric Miessau, the 21 year-old son of co-founder Rick Miessau, we are now dedicating this project in Eric's memory. Our local coordinator, Madhav made a trip to Nepal in September 2015 to visit family and assess the conditions in Kabilash where he established contacts with the local leaders. Following a 6 month delay due to political and trade disputes between Nepal and India we are back on track and started the project in May. With support from the local community we were able to work side-by-side and witness construction of a concrete spring box (cat man) and installation of the first 1,000 ft of pipe. We designated a local resident to be the project manager and provided funding for construction of a new water storage tank in accordance with an approved design by the Nepal Department of Water Supply. Installation of 4,500ft of water pipe was completed within one week. The water tank was completed by the villagers within 30 days after we returned home from our visit and it is now in use.
View Photos of Kathmandu
View Photos of Kabilash (Flickr)
For phase II of the Kabilash project we dedicated an additional $2,200 to purchase an additional 4,000ft of pipe which now supplies drinking water to five remote locations of the lower Kabilash village. The national Nepali government provided 16 water meters which the villagers installed to monitor water consumption. The people of Kabilash are proud to be one of the first rural villages in Nepal to comply with the new water standards.
It's very rewarding to know we helped this village and they are now taking control of their water situation and are
continuing to make improvements.What's next? We have a letter from the citizens from a village close to Kabilash who are requesting our help. The village is in the lower valley about 1.5 miles down river from Kabilash and at the bottom of the valley 100 meters up from the river. Currently people walk to the river several times a day to fetch water in buckets. The lower caste who live in this area of the village have never received assistance and we hope to help them on our next visit in 2017. We are scoping a system and cost for a solution in the lower valley. We are assessing the needs and we will evaluate our ability to take this on as our next project.
The Nepal 2016 project was implemented while we worked as members of Water For Small Villages Inc (link).
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