The indigenous Magar people of the remote Patalkharka settlement located in Parbat district used to live without safe drinking water and other facilities. Their settlement is located far from the service center and they still remember many support organizations entering the village but leaving without stepping in their settlement.

Now the people of Patalkharka Jalajala Rural Municipality ward no. 6 have no limit of happiness. 84 households and a school are now connected with a safe drinking water service. Those who had to depend on unprotected sources for drinking water are now using a newly completed water supply scheme that cost nearly NPR 4,700,000. Support from District Coordination Committee, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Western Nepal (RWSSP-WN II) and community kind contribution of nearly NPR 1,700,000 made it possible. The recently completed Patal Kharka drinking water supply and sanitation scheme that was started in 2016, April is now benefiting 413 people.

“In the beginning, we were worried about the completion of this scheme on time” user Raj Kumara Khorja says. “Each household spent almost 50 days for kind contribution to complete the scheme and now we are so happy” she adds. Before, there were taps in one or two places supported by Gurkha Welfare Scheme but almost all the community was excluded from safe drinking water.

Project Field Coordinator Ms. Anita says that multiple use of water has been considered in the design of the scheme so that villagers can use the water in their kitchen gardens as well. According to the WASH Adviser Mr. Prashanna Pandey, waste water from 3 taps are collected in 3 well designed animal drinking water troughs to address the demand of locals, whose main occupations are animal husbandry and vegetable farming.

Recently, the scheme was inaugurated by Ms. Aura Liski, Field Specialist of RWSSP-WN II. In the inauguration ceremony, she emphasized the importance of post-construction activities needed to ensure the sustainability of the scheme.

Photo of the inauguration of Patalkharka drinking water supply and sanitation scheme