Accessing clean drinking water after the earthquake

From the shade of her new home at Aappipal, Gorkha, Ganga Adhikari describes how she and her family faced hardship due to lack of shelter and drinking water after the 2015 earthquakes.

"It was a difficult time," she recalls. "I narrowly escaped death and my family spent months in temporary shelter as our house was totally destroyed. To make matters worse, our water supply system was damaged by the disaster and it was really difficult to get clean drinking water."

Forced to walk up to an hour to the nearest river to fetch a container of water she faced a hard time.

"I am 61 years old and have arthritis. Fetching one container of water from the river took an hour and it really exhausted me. My old bones ached all the time."

According to Department of Water Supply and Sewerage over 40% of drinking water projects in 14 districts of Nepal were damaged by the 2015 earthquakes.

Furthermore, with just her husband, she had no other family to help her with the household work. "As I used to get tired from fetching the water I could not do the household chores properly. At times it was frustrating."

Realising the need of easier access to water, which was more critical after the earthquake, ECO Nepal and Unification Nepal constructed a water supply system with 7 public taps for community use with support from World Vision. With the completion of this project, around 55 households are now benefitting.

For Ganga Adhikari and her community members, getting clean drinking water with such ease has made life easier.

"Now I can easily fetch drinking water from these new taps which are just minutes away from my home."

"The hardships we endured after the earthquake have ended at last and construction of this water supply system is a huge relief," says Manbahadur Adhikari, Ganga's husband.

In Gorkha district alone, 44 water supply systems have been renovated/constructed benefitting more than 12,300 people.

"Access to clean drinking water is vital to human health and thanks to World Vision, we now have enough water to drink,” says Manbahadur.

"World Vision works in impoverished areas to provide potable water and adequate sanitation to decrease illnesses, improve health, and lessen the burden on women and children by reducing the distance to water collection points. In addition, sufficient water increases crop production and thus the ability of parents to adequately provide for their children with better nutrition and income from the sale of produce," says Nagendra Basnet, World Vision's WASH Coordinator in Gorkha district. 

We will continue to rehabilitate water systems  and will promote context specific alternative water sources (for example rain water harvesting) in the face of high need for access to water and the disruption of the water sources.

By providing easier access to clean drinking water World Vision is committed to contribute in the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.