Safe Drinking Water at the Schools
“If education is the key to helping children escape poverty, access to water and sanitation is key to helping children safely maximise their education.
– Kelly Ann Naylor, Unicef global chief of water, sanitation and hygiene
Nurses from Upper Dolpo and public health specialists estimate that at least half of the region’s health problems are linked to contaminated drinking water. Typhoid fever and diarrhea are common, especially during the rainy season, when runoff from hillsides littered with animal dung flows into local water sources.
The consequences can be devastating. In 2018, diarrhea claimed the life of a five-year-old child in Saldang, and one of the project’s teachers became critically ill. Even after receiving four bags of saline, the attending nurse was unsure whether the teacher would survive the night.
When local health workers asked for help, we began working with ENPHO, the Environment and Public Health Organization, an NGO specializing in WASH: water, sanitation and hygiene. Through ENPHO, teachers and nurses from several Dolpo villages received training in safe water practices, sanitation and hygiene. Water filters were also supplied so schools could provide students with safe drinking water.
Bipin Dangol, Executive Director, met with us to introduce ENPHO programs to school coordinators
Teachers carried that knowledge back into their communities, helping families understand the importance of boiling water and improving hygiene practices at home.
Today, we continue to provide replacement filter kits for the schools each year. The impact has been remarkable: children are no longer becoming sick at school because of contaminated drinking water, and older students help make sure younger children drink only filtered water.
At just $25 for a set of replacement filters for one school, it is a remarkably simple and effective solution.
Clean water really does save lives.
Our friends from CAWST in Calgary are helping us with longer-term water purification options. We are currently considering biosand filters, which are used extensively throughout the world, and ultraviolet treatment, which would require some power. I’m confident we can get help from Peter Werth of Himalaya Currents to help with the power needs.
Water at Home
There is no running water in the student’s homes. Carrying water for household use is largely the responsibility of children.
At Ku School
Ku’s drinking water source is a 15 minute walk from the school and the village. Villagers installed a pipe from the river but there is no filter system and people get sick in the summer, especially during the rainy season. The ENPHO water filter kits are keeping students and staff at the school safe. Clean water makes happy kids!
At Nyisal School
There is a water tap at Nyisal School. Long pipes bring water from a spring that is a 45 minute walk from the village. Sometimes the pipes are broken by animals or by rock fall and water must be carried from the river. There is a filter at the school to insure the students always have safe drinking water.
At Karang School
At Karang School there is a tap for drinking, washing, cooking and flushing of toilets. Children bathe and wash their clothes at school on Friday. There is no running water in their homes.
At Saldang School
This year the Nepali government installed a 3000L water reservoir along with a series of smaller tanks that act as a filter system. It supplies clean water to the village and the school. Projects such as this are a rare occurrence here. This region has long been ignored, politically, economically and socially, by the central government.
Clean water will be life changing for the village. Rampant water-borne diseases are being eliminated. Everyone here is looking forward to a healthier future!
The water tap at the school was funded by Freunde Nepal.
Clean, accessible water is critical to human health, a healthy environment, poverty reduction, a sustainable economy, and peace and security.
– Global Affairs Canada
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“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
― Albert Einstein
