Addressing Water Scarcity in Nepal: Behind the Bhanu Water Well

All Hands and Hearts (AHAH) spent over five months in Hariharpurgadhi, Nepal, learning, listening and integrating over time to understand the needs of the local community. AHAH’s initial scope of work in Hariharpurgadhi involved rebuilding Shree Bhanubhakta School, which serves 279 students, following damage from the country’s devastating earthquakes in 2015.

Over time, AHAH was exposed to a deeper challenge: a growing water scarcity issue pressuring the community. It became clear that a straightforward school reconstruction would not be enough.

TOO MUCH WATER, TOO LITTLE WATER

The municipality of Hariharpurgadhi experiences four months of torrential rainfall from June through September. This is beneficial in the region’s traditional practice of paddy harvesting, where the surplus of water is necessary for rice growth and cultivation. The community further uses this surplus to satisfy all of their water needs, as local streams are tapped using an extensive network of pipes.

Just weeks after monsoon season ends, however, the water level in local streams begins its retreat.

Three months later, only a small trickle flows from the stream. The situation worsens by mid-spring, with nearly all water sources in the region running dry. The only solution left is found downstream in Jaruwa, where community members have to walk long distances to a water source to manually retrieve water to fulfill their needs. This same condition persists until the onset of the monsoon season the following June.

A DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACT ON WOMEN

The entire community is sorely affected by the scarcity of water, however, the burden generally falls upon the women of Hariharpurgadhi. Here, women are responsible for household chores and caring for livestock, essential tasks that require them to travel by foot to fetch large amounts of water. In the summertime, rising temperatures and wind speeds dry the streambeds further, requiring women to travel even farther downstream to find water.

POLITICAL GRAPPLING FOR A WATER WELL

Hariharpurgadhi Rural Municipality, the local government, recognizes the region’s water scarcity issue and allocates yearly funds in its budget to provide safe drinking water to the community. The selection of water well projects for budget allocation is primarily based on the community’s population and, more significantly, its political influence. At times, even the larger communities may not receive budget allocations for water well projects due to political disagreements between community members and the rural municipality chair.