December 18, 2020
The village lying in the top of the hill, unavailability of water source and lack of enough drinking water is obvious in Ramkot. This place is facing water shortage from generations. Multiple drinking water projects have been introduced which yet could not provide the sustainable water provision to communities in Ramkot.
Thakkhola water supply project and Kurlungkhola water supply projects are two community based tap water distribution projects that had supplied drinking water to communities of Rupa Rural Municipality. Thakkhola was implemented by the Nepal government in support of UNICEF before 25 years. It is old, ruined and not in proper operation. The source of the project is very far away and very difficult for small scale maintenance.
The Kurlungkhola Water Supply Project was planned for 240 households initially and was extended to 447 later on. The project had been implemented by the Rotary Club of Pokhara jointly with Kurlungkhola Drinking Water User Committee and financially supported by Michigan State University, Rotary Club of Traverse City, and Empower Nepal Foundation during 2000 to 2003. This project is also not in proper working conditions, thus all these efforts from projects could not address the water scarcity problem in Ramkot in long term.
The sociological research study done during August 2018 explored the drawback of the project and recommended the start a new water project. The local villagers has tried a lot for maintenance and to sustain the project but the project could not be kept sustainable. As the project has passed 15 years, the structures of the project are damaged. The community people are carrying the water from the far distance. The average household water consumption weighted average from all source are 75 liters per household per day. The percentage of households using less than 15 liters per person per day (1 cd) of water is 80% of households per day and the total average time spends for water for (one trip water) is 78.33 min.
The Ramkot Solar Lifting Water and Sanitation Project is a 30 months solar lifting and gravity flow project which started in February 2019, targeting poor and marginalized 333 households with 1953 population of the Ramkot community in the Kaski district, Gandaki Province of Nepal. The community has divided into two major clusters: the Ramkot cluster with 213 households and the Kaure cluster with 120 households. The main objective of the project is to upgrade the quality of life of vulnerable community providing safe drinking water, strengthening the sanitation and economic empowerment of women, youth and children with natural resource mobilization and capacity development of local people.
The project is implemented with multiple partnerships. The project is managed by Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), Kaski cooperating with the Unica Foundation as major donor organization, Rupa Rural Municipality as co-contributor and beneficiary community as local contributor for the project whereas the Kaure cluster of project is supported with the Global Grant of Rotary International through the Rotary Club of Pokhara Lakeside. Ramkot Community itself is participating in the project with labor contribution. They are involving in the project as local beneficiaries from need identification and project inception in coordination with NRCS Kaski. The existing Community Development Committee formed a Water User Committee and RVT (reservoir tank)-wise sub-committees are mobilizing local beneficiaries in field level activities of the project. Suryodaya Urja, Kathmandu is involved in the project for supply and installation of solar and pumps system. The Chandrakiran Trading Concern is supplying non local material for project structure.
The main activities of the project are a series of skilled-based capacity promotional trainings & income generation trainings (on income generation, sanitation, health and hygiene, local resource mobilization, saving credit management, leadership and communication, repair and maintenance), solid waste management, operation of hygiene and sanitation campaign & operation of health classes on health & hygiene promotion, the formation of a water user committee and community development committee as well as institutionalize and construction of a safe water supply and sanitation scheme along with 2 intake, 2 collection chambers, 2 pump and solar system (2 stage lifting), 3 distribution chamber, 8 reservoir tank and 339 tap stands at the project location.
This project has been divided into four phases; the pre-feasibility survey phase, development phase, implementation phase and impact assessment phase. Currently we are in the 8th quarter working on implementation phase in structural constriction. Construction works are going on with an effective participation of youths from community as labor contribution. Due to the pandemic, the mass gathering activities paused and may resume later taking all necessary precaution according to the feasibility and COVID-19 scenario. There was a visit for regular monitoring and ongoing work assessment by the Unica Foundation. Despite the pandemic, the project works are going on smoothly and suppose to complete major construction work before the monsoon period in 2021.
