Anna in Nepal: Palate

We sat under some shady trees to eat some lunch before making a trip onwards to the next project site we would visit – Palate.

As we pulled into the village, I could immediately see that this was different to what we had seen before in Dhaneri or Lamidamar.. No rolling hills or terraced fields in immediate view, but more of a village centre, with a small square in the middle and rows of shops and houses lining the thoroughfare. In a strange way it was almost like an old fashioned wild west town – lots of wooden houses and a dusty road leading uphill into the distance. The crowds gathered as we arrived, with everyone curious to see.

We were again shown to a room where we were greeted with garlands and many ‘Namaste’s and the conversation between Dinesh and the Committee began. This time, the mood of the meeting was quite different. The community have formed their Committee and the project agreement has been signed. Work is now beginning to take place in Palate – with caretakers and sanitation masons now trained, and the first of the improved toilets starting to be built. The Users Committee told us that they were proud to have just delcared themselves ODF (open defecation free) but that this was proving to be extremely difficult without a reliable and accessible water source, as some people did not use toilets because of the amount of water that would need to be brought down to the village to flush out and keep them clean. At present, collecting water can be up to a two hour round trip, with long queues as the population here is dense. One lady told us that even getting up at 6am, to go and put her water pot in a long line of queuing collection pots, that some days her family still wouldn’t have any water until 10am. There are two standpipes in the village that were installed around 20 years ago, but the community was not trained in maintaining them, and they are now polluted and water flow through them is extremely poor. People often walk through the trees uphill to collect water from unprotected springs instead. The situation here was so completely different to the villages we’d visited so far.

As we talked more, it became apparent that the community were extremely concerned about the water flow to the village in the future. Previous government other other NGO interventions had brought some water to the village of Palate, but was unreliable. The Committee were looking for assurance from NEWAH that this would not be the case again. As Dinesh explained more about why this would not be the case, I began to see again the incredible power and value behind educating, training and empowering the community themselves to take ownership of this issue. It’s simply not just a case of building toilets and taps, and knowing the fantastic way that WaterAid works with our partners in communities like Palate did give me hope for the future for this community.

After the meeting, we headed up the hill where we saw the project implementation in action. One huge water storage tank for private household tapstands has now been constructed, as has a huge covered storage pool which will pipe water down the hill to the school. Next to this, a whole family was at work constructing a tank that will collect water that will feed into shared village tapstands. From adults to young children, each of the family was mucking in – mixing and laying concrete to complete the construction. It’s a race against time at the moment to get this finished before the monsoon rains start. Again, by providing the materials to build the solutuions but placing emphasis for the build on the village themselves, members of the community are becoming skilled in this area and have a greater understanding of the whole process. This also encourages safe sanitation practices, as so much work has gone into the project that everyone has a commitment to making this work in the long term.

From here, we were asked by the villagers if we wanted to go to see the source of the water – a half hour climb even further up the hill. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to understand the whole process. We started out along a tiny narrow path, winding along the hillside and then clambered over rocks, through the riverbed and then up and up… on our hands and knees scrambling up terraced fields and along tiny paths. It was exhausting. I couldn’t help but think of our ‘Climb for Water’ WaterAid200 website – I’d not fully appreciated how true and how difficult that could be.

When we finally reached the source, there was a small pool at the top that people were bathing and washing clothes in. I was astonished to find that, although most people collect the water further down the hill, some of the villagers who live higher up in the village climb up to the top to carry out their daily washing and bathing. This was then the same water that was flowing down the hill, that was collected at different points downstream by others from Palate.

We headed back down the hill via a scenic route – there is no way we could have climbed down the steep way we came. I kept thinking of how difficult this journey would be carrying anything at all, never mind a huge water pot…

We reached the bottom and the village gathered round for tea and biscuits. I was interested to find out a bit more about how some members of the community felt about the implementation of the project here, which is due for completion in December later this year. One lady told us that in establishing the committee there they were thinking of their children and that they had experienced tremendous difficulties in the past. Once clean water access has been delivered to Palate, then the project focus will shift to building improved latrines for every household. At present, most only have access to temporary toilets.

We met Laxmi – a lady who four months ago some colleagues of ours had met. She had told them about how she was in debt because she had taken out loans to pay for medical treatment for her family who kept getting sick because of unsafe water. When we talk to Laxmi about how she feels about the project here she becomes animated and it’s clear to see that she is hopeful for the future. It’s difficult to belive the life she lives with three children, a husband away working and the huge burden of living not being able to provide her family with clean water at the age of just 28. It was my birthday the following day and I would be 27. It was so hard to comprehend how different our lives could be.

On the walk down the hill, Kate and I had been given Nepali names by Ashu – I am now Fulmaya which means ‘flowers’ and Kate is Junmaya which means ‘the moon’ - the crowd gathered around thought this was hilarious as we introduced ourselves in Nepali, and asked for an English name each. A Laura, Brenda, Sarah, Sally and Barbara later, we were asked to give the committee chairman a name. His actual name sounded a bit like Nigel, so we went for that. There were excited screams and laughter as we all sat around and called out ‘Nigel!’ and laughed. It was completely surreal but a really heartwarming interaction. We then had our pictures taken with all of the villagers, again to much laughter and joking around – until it was time to leave and the children gathered around the jeep as we clambered in to make the dusty journey back to Surkhet.

As we pulled away from the village and I looked back at the smiles and the waves, I hoped with everything I had in me that the future would be bright for the people of Palate. Seeing the changes at this stage of the project really did bring home to me that WaterAid, along with our partners are transforming, and saving lives.