Nepal

Nepal

Country statistics Population: 27 mio. People without access to safe drinking water: 3 mio. Child mortality: 5.5% Source: United Nations Statistics Division Project Project start 2003 Education of NGOs, local authorities and public health centres 40’000 users

The project to promote the SODIS method in Nepal began in 2003. Although most of the population of Nepal has access to a water supply, the quality of the water that is delivered is extremely unreliable. Since 90% of the people in Nepal drink this water without treating it, 13,000 children die from diarrhoea diseases every year. Treating the drinking water in individual homes is an important step towards reducing the number of illnesses.

In the first few years, our partner Enpho concentrated on educating families in Kathmandu and the lowlands of Nepal, the Terai. It was easy to work with local NGOs, but with these small projects we could only reach a small number of people. Continuous dialogue with government representatives and large development organisations helped to make a broader promotion strategy possible. We were able to convince health departments and local authorities in Bhaktapur, Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Kirtiupur and Thimi to promote the SODIS method. Representatives of the Ministry for Education showed great interest in the projects and included the information about the SODIS method in primary school textbooks. Now, every child in Nepal learns about the SODIS method in school.

Since 2006, Unicef, USAID, UN-Habitat, the Nepalese government's Department of Water Supply and other organisations have been involved in a large-scale initiative to promote the SODIS method and other methods of treating drinking water at the level of individual homes. As the educational and technical support centre for SODIS and drinking water treatment, Enpho supports the ongoing project activities by the different organisations.

Local partner organisation

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