February 15, 2017
Work on the irrigation project which started in Lumbini Adarsha VDC (Rupendehi district) and Patariya VDC (Kapilvastu district) last summer is about to reach its completion. The users’ committee has received instructions and training for basic operations, as well as how to maintain equitable distribution of the water for irrigation in the catchment areas in question. They have also become aware of the responsibilities that they will assume once the project is operational and it has been handed over to them.
Tests
From a technical perspective, the borehole was drilled and tested at a location where ample quantities of water could be found at depths close to the surface. Using the solar PV system, tests have been carried out to pump water to the surface, with final installation work still ongoing. More exact estimates still need to be made as to the area of land that will directly benefit from the irrigation. Variations in output can occur, depending on the angle of sunlight at different times of the day and in different seasons.
Impact
The community is enthusiastic about the project, not least because it’s one of the only ways to get the water to irrigate the land. The area in the Terai region in Nepal is reasonably flat, so suitable for the growing of crops and other produce. However, poor infrastructure means that the people here face frequent challenges when it comes to raising groundwater for surface irrigation. This project is looked upon as pioneering in its efforts to support the farmers with sustainable irrigation methods. For the time being, it is only catering to small areas.
Fieldwork
Two students at Wageningen University, Bram de Vries and Melle Ykema, completed their fieldwork for this project in December 2016. They are now back in the Netherlands and have started writing their report. This document will set out the key principles for Unica and its local partner (= ECCA-Nepal) and other key stakeholders in implementing the project.
Unica received partial funding for this project from Inter-church Organisation for Development Cooperation (ICCO), based in the Netherlands.
