WASH project Hamsapur

Every year about 45,000 children below the age of five years die in Nepal from sanitation related problems, which are attributed to inadequate supplies of water and/or its poor quality. Improving the quality of the water supply and sanitation has been shown to reduce the morbidity due to different diseases by significant amounts.

Unica Foundation has been working in water projects since a decade in Nepal. Hamsapur WaSH is another solar-based lifting project that the Unica Foundation has started after Kalika. As there is no water source above the settlement, this supply of the water will be ensured by lifting, from the solar based pumps manufactured by Grundfos.

The aim of the project is to improve the quality of life by setting up a sustainable and qualitatively safe water supply system and strengthening the income-generating capacity of local people with the series of training / activities. This project therefore covers four large parts as capacity development, income generation and construction of water system and installation of solar and pump systems.

NRCS, Kaski as a principal implementing partner, while the Unica Foundation supports for funds and monitoring the projects. The role of Rupa Rural Municipality is a matching fund arrangement, land management and water source registration. Similarly, Suryodaya Urja is a company that is responsible for the installation and monitoring of solar energy and pump systems. Nonetheless, the Water User’s Committee (WUC) as a local institution makes the contribution to labour and participation throughout the project.

 

Income generating activities

The Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) Kaski and the Unica Foundation supported the community in supplying water at household level and have also trained the inhabitants in various income-generating activities such as sewing, beekeeping, vegetable growing and poultry farming. In addition to water supply and income-generating activities, women’s empowerment and financial stability were also important drivers of the project. Below, we published a few case studies of the income generating activities and its impact.

> Case-study Sewing – Hamsapur WaSH (EN) (PDF)

> Case-study Kitchen Gardening – Hamsapur WaSH (EN) (PDF)

> Case-study Poultry Farming – Hamsapur WaSH (EN) (PDF)