Nepal WASH Alliance

Written by Isha Parihar
1 April 2014

Who?

The Dutch WASH Alliance is a €50 million Dutch government programme headed by a consortia of six Dutch organisations active in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector: WASTE, Simavi, RAIN, AMREF, Akvo and ICCO. It aims to increase access to safe and sustainable water and sanitation services and improve hygiene practices, especially for women and marginalised communities. The WASH Alliance is a five year (2011-2015) programme that operates with the help of local partner organisations in eight countries; Bangladesh, Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Uganda and Nepal.

The Nepal WASH Alliance has nine partners who have been using Akvo RSR and Akvo FLOW in their respective WASH projects.

Above: Nepal WASH Alliance partners Lumanti, ENPHO, NEWAH, CCDN and BSPN are championing the use of Akvo tools to facilitate learning amongst their peers. Left to right: Basanta Kumar Shrestha, programme manager, CCDN; Jigmy Palzor Lama, monitoring & documentation officer, Lumanti; Purnima Shakya, senior programme officer, ENPHO; Shiba Bagale, consultant, BSP-Nepal; Taranath Paudel, planning, monitoring and evaluation officer, NEWAH. Nagarkot, Nepal, 10 March 2014. Photo by Shahnawaz Mohammad.
Below: watch the playlist of video interviews with the participants of the Akvo partner hero photo shoot.

What?

The partners at Nepal WASH Alliance have a sound sense of the water, sanitation and hygiene challenges their country is facing. They have developed technical know-how and innovative expertise that can be applied across different regions and settings. The Alliance regards sustainability as a key aspect of its work. In line with this, it has conceived the FIETS sustainability principles: Financial, Institutional, Environmental, Technological and Social sustainability. Achieving these five elements is a key focus of its overall strategy.

Nepal is one of the first countries within the WASH Alliance to use Akvo FLOW as a data collection tool. Its successful uptake can be attributed to the enthusiasm and support of the Nepalese partners.

About the partners:

The five WASH Alliance partners featured in the Akvo partner hero photo shoot that took place in Nepal implement water, sanitation and hygiene programmes working with community groups and local government.

Above (left to right): Shiba Bagale, BSPN; Purnima Shakya, ENPHO; Basanta Kumar Shrestha, CCDN; Taranath Paudel, NEWAH; Jigmy Palzor Lama, Lumanti. Nagarkot, Nepal, 10 March 2014. Photo by Shahnawaz Mohammad.
Below: the administrative zones where the five partners are working and total number of points mapped up to March 2014.

Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO) works in sustainable community development through integrated programmes including aspects of environment and public health. ENPHO currently has three projects under the WASH Alliance that aim to promote sustainable water and sanitation technologies and practices. It works to promote eco-friendly technologies such as Ecosan SODIS and the use of waste and waste water for food security in urban and peri-urban settlements in the Surkhet district of Nepal. ENPHO is also working with the local government to declare 12 wards (the smallest units of local governance in Nepal) as open defecation free zones by 2015.

Lumanti is dedicated to improving the socio-economic conditions of the urban poor in Nepal. With the support of the Dutch WASH Alliance, it is carrying out a project to improve water and sanitation facilities for poor, marginalised and disadvantaged groups, especially women and children. Lumanti follows the FIETS sustainability approach and always aims to secure the full participation of the community in all its activities. It also supports existing women’s groups through micro finance initiatives and facilitates WASH awareness and infrastructure construction activities through school- and community-led approaches. Lumanti’s work is spread across three wards of the Kohalpur municipality in the Banke district of Nepal.

Nepal Water for Health (NEWAH) is a national NGO that provides water and sanitation services to communities through collaborative development projects. Through its WASH Alliance project in the Gorkha and Baglung districts, NEWAH intends to help more than 60,000 people by giving 31 communities access to safe drinking water and environmental sanitation, and teaching them to manage these systems effectively and practice key hygiene behaviour.

Centre for Community Development (CCDN) implements integrated programmes on food security, education, health and disaster management for deprived & marginalised communities in rural and remote areas of the Makhwanpur district in Nepal. Its Multipurpose Drinking Water System project aims to increase access to safe drinking water and improve sanitation and hygiene practices by installing deep boring lift water systems. The water also helps people to nurture kitchen gardens, thereby improving food & nutritional conditions and providing additional income for more than 300 households.

Biogas sector partnership – Nepal (BSPN) has several years of experience in the implementation of rainwater harvesting and biogas systems throughout Nepal. BSPN’s project with RAIN focuses on rooftop rain water harvesting to address the issue of water scarcity and improve living conditions for marginalised communities. BSPN’s work in the field of rain water harvesting focuses on RAIN’s 3R approach, which aims to Recharge and Retain water in periods when water is abundant and make it available for Reuse in the dry season.

Above: data collection in process for the Nepal WASH Alliance partners on Akvo FLOW.
Below: behind the scenes at the Akvo partner heroes photo shoot in Nagarkot in 10 March 2014. Photos by Isha Parihar and Loic Sans.

Isha Parihar is Programme officer at Akvo’s Asia hub.