What do we do on the ground?
We render basic WASH services in resource-limited settings in rural areas of Nepal. Providing affordable, equitable and sustainable access to an improved drinking water system, and promoting hygiene practices constitute our primary services.
Drinking Water
We conduct vulnerability assessments, feasibility studies, technical surveys, and design drinking water supply schemes in rural areas. We construct and rehabilitate water and sanitation infrastructure through community and local government participation in communities, schools, and healthcare facilities, where lack of water severely constrains hygiene practices. We also strengthen local governance for sustainable operation and maintenance of water schemes, ranging from gravity flow water supply schemes to shallow and deep tube wells.
We provide technical assistance for developing and rolling out WASH plans and guidelines, and climate-resilient water safety plans at the grassroots. We also build the capacity of local people in using WASH technologies, developing improved water and sanitation facilities, ensuring water quality, protecting the environment, and claiming the rights to water and good governance.
Sanitation
Our sanitation intervention seeks to address issues, such as points of use treatment, wastewater and solid waste management, defecation habits, and menstrual health management (MHM). We work in collaboration with communities and local agencies to enhance the knowledge, skills, and capacity of partners and sector-based stakeholders to cope with and manage sanitation and hygiene issues.
Our focus on sanitation and hygiene entails advocacy and sustainable behavioural change, particularly at schools, government offices, and health care facilities. We have launched Open Defecation Free (ODF) campaigns through a community-led total sanitation approach and contributed to monitoring the sanitation indicators in the selected constituencies.
Health and Hygiene
The Government of Nepal has treated health and hygiene promotion as an integral part of WASH interventions to maximize the health benefits from its investments in water and sanitation. Our hygiene promotion program aims to achieve sustainable changes in key hygiene practices to reduce major WASH-related diseases.
We give a high priority to dignified MHM for normal and emergencies in both rural and urban areas. We advocate good practices and hygiene behavior, including handwashing with soap at critical times, and contribute to health education through local media. We continue to engage ministries and their line agencies’ for integrating WASH into education, local development, and health programs.
We have completed 19 projects under the WASH theme.