NEPAL WATER BURDENS EASED
1,250 rural communities in Nepal have gained easier access to better quality water

By David Kruger, External Relations Specialist, BELTAR, JHAPA DISTRICT, NEPAL

For years, as the dry seasons scorched eastern Nepal each April and May, Januka Shivakoti’s day started in the middle of the night. With the other women of Belatar, she headed to the other women of Beltar, she headed to the 20-meter deep community well at about 2:30a.m. each day to haul water for her family. A full day’s supply had to be in place by early morning because the well went dry each afternoon.

“We had to wash clothes and prepare food for the children, so we had to get up that early to collect water,” says Ms Shivakoti.

This year, Ms. Shivakoti and her neighbors are sleeping in. they now have a steady supply of piped water for 6 hours a day from two new holding tanks fed by a natural spring on the edge of the village.

The simple gravity-powered distribution system supplies 375 private taps and 75 community taps in the area. Its construction was funded largely through the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Fourth Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project. A $20 million loan from ADB’s Asian Development Fund – a leading window for Asia’s least developed member countries – has helped some 1,250 rural communities in 40 districts across Nepal gain easier access to better quality water.

“Water availability and quality have improved in these communities,” says Raju Tuladhar, Senior Economics Officer at ADB’s Nepal Resident Mission. “This has disproportionately benefited women and children, who bore the brunt of the difficulties of fetching water and spending hours to get water.”

New System Frees Up Labor

In Beltar, the new taps have changed life for good, says Prem Giri, former chairman of the Khudunabari Village Development Committee, which includes Beltar.

Each family used to have to designate one member to pull water, Mr. Giri says. With the wells so deep and supply so scarce, it was a full-time job, taking able hands off the farms that provide food and income for most families in the area.

The economic benefits of the new system extend beyond freeing up labor. Mr. Giri says many households used to spend about 180 Nepali rupees ($2.30) a month on a replacement bucket and rope to haul water. Now, owners of private taps pay 25 Nepali rupees ($0.32) for 8,000 liters of water. Greater usage incurs greater fees.

There have also been savings on medicines and the chemicals used in the past to treat well water. Worm infestation, scabies, typhoid, and waterborne diseases were prevalent in Beltar when well water was used, with medicines costing the average house-hold about 500 Nepali rupees ($6.50) a year.

Yogendra Acharya, Chairperson of the Beltar Drinking Water and Sanitation User Committee, says improvements in water quality have cut gastrointestinal infections in Beltar by 75%.

“There was a big problem with the lack of water in this area before so the people were very supportive and enthusiastic about the project,” Mr. Giri says. “this used to be considered a dirty settlement, but not anymore.”

Concrete Homes Popular

The new water system, along with the recent introduction of electricity and a rough dirt road through separate assistance programs, has turned Beltar into a unique Nepali village- one that is attracting new residents rather than losing them to bigger towns and cities.

When planning for the water project started in 1998, Beltar had a population of 5,300, and it was estimated the population would double in about 20 years. But Mr. Acharya says the area is already home to over 9,000 people and the new services are still attracting families from surrounding areas.

One of the big draws, he says, is concrete homes. When the area depended on well water, it was very difficult to gather enough water to mix the volume of concrete needed for a house, says Mr. Acharya. As a result, families lived in thatch and mud homes common throughout rural eastern Nepal.

But since the new, secure water supply became available, over 100 concrete homes have been built in Beltar. “These cement homes have given the village a reputation as a very developed area,” says Mr. Acharya.

The Beltar water committee, which is responsible for running and maintaining the water system, is now looking into ways to expand coverage. It recently completed a survey of the village and is planning to bring water to more homes and extend the hours of availability.

As Beltar moves forward, says Mr. Giri, backbreaking hours at the side of a well are a thing of the past.

BRINGING THE BANK TO THE VILLAGE

By David Kruger, External Relations Specialist, KOLAHARUWA, SUNSARI DISTRICT, NEPAL

How would a $40 loan change your life? For Sabitra Karna, such a loan transformed her hardscrabble existence into a future filled with new hopes and possibilities.

Three years ago, Ms. Karna joined the Ram Janaki Women Centre in Kolaharuw Village on the plains of Sunsari District in eastern Nepal. She borrowed 3,000 Nepali rupees ($39) and bought two calves.

After raising the calves, she sold them for 5,000 Nepali rupees ($65) and used the profits to care for her three children and build a small hut on borrowed land.

Her loan repaid, her confidence strengthened, and her creditworthiness established, Ms. Karna is now thinking big.

“I have applied for a loan of 12,000 rupees,” she said with pride after a recent meeting of her micro-finance group. “I want to start trading, run a small provisions store, and build a house.”

Ms. Karna’s experience is being repeated across southern Nepal through the Rural Micro-finance Project, funded largely by a $20 million loan from the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Asian Development Fund, a lending window for its least developed member countries.

“We have found that before joining the groups, the people had no land, no house, no cow, no goat,” says Fanilal Chaudhary, Deputy Director of the Nepal Rural Development Society Centre in Biratnagar, eastern Nepal. “After 2-3 years with the group, they have their own land, a house, some livestock.”

Slowdown Hurts Poor Women

These are major achievements. Nepal is one of the least developed countries in the world and poverty is a pervasive, persistent problem with about 40% of the population living below the poverty line. In 2002, the economy contracted 0.6%, posting its worst performance in 2 decades as dome3stic security problems hit the important tourism sector and an irregular monsoon hurt agricultural production. With the slowdown squeezing government finances, the amount of funds spent on development fell 40% below the 2002 target.

With less money for new programs, efforts like the Rural Micro-finance Project, which targets poor women in rural areas, become increasingly important.

Rural areas in Nepal, and particularly poor women living in those areas, are inadequately served by financial, technical, and social services. For many women, that reality has led to a life of sharecropping that sees 50% of their output paid to landowners, or a constant struggle to repay moneylenders or lose what little they own.

The Project aims to give women in such situations an opportunity to start a new by providing small loans to some 270,000 households.

“Micro-finance depends on the principle that each person has skills and, given the chance, can use them to build their own independence,” says Shankar Man Shrestha, Chief Executive Officer of the Rural Micro-finance Development Center, the agency implementing the project. “Even a small credit can bring tremendous benefits in people’s lives.”

Providing Access to Credit

Ms. Karna’s group in Kolaharuwa demonstrates both the need for greater access to funds and the opportunities that access can bring. The village is far from any commercial bank, and there is no public transportation available. Access to an urban center comes only at the end of an hour-long walk. Two thirds of the 35 group members own no land an most are illiterate, making the prospect of borrowing from a bank difficult.

The Project overcomes these daunting challenges by bringing the bank to the village. Every 2 weeks, a representative from the Nepal Rural Development Society Center visits the village to give loans, collect payments, and take deposits.

“Instead of the poor coming to the bank, in micro-finance, the bank goes to the door step of the poor,” says Mr. Shrestha.

This raises the cost of administering the loans and, therefore, the interest rate. Ms. Karna paid interest of 24% on her loan, but says that’s much better than the 60% local landlords charge. As an added benefit, the Project requires no collateral.

The average loan at the Kolaharuwa group is 10,760 Nepali rupees ($140) and most women use the funds to buy and raise livestock or purchase vegetables to resell at local bazaars.

Jam Bati Devi Mehta is now paying off her second loan. After repaying a 5,000 Nepali rupee ($65) credit earlier this year, she borrowed another 10,000 Nepali rupees ($130) to expand her vegetable trading business. She buys vegetables from farmers, carries them to local markets, and shells them for a small profit—enough to make her loan payments, help feed her family, and buy a small plot of land.

For Ms. Karna, Ms. Devi Mehta, and thousands of other poor women across Nepal, micro-finance is about much more than money – it is about opportunity and confidence.

“The key thing is access to credit,” says Richard Vokes, ADB Country Director for Nepal. “Access is almost more important to rural households tan the cost of borrowing. It is availability that is critical.”

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