Surge/Wine To Water Nepali Project Updates
Once again there was a need and Surge for Water stepped up to ensure there was a solution. This time it was again in Nepal. Wine To Water had previously partnered with Surge for the distribution of Sawyer water filters in Nepal in support of relief efforts. In our most recent projects, we have identified infrastructure problems where Wine To Water and Surge have come together to provide assistance and maybe a bit of normalcy in an otherwise devastated area.
In the first location, The Nepal Central Higher Secondary School for the Deaf, located near Kathmandu, is a kindergarten through 12th grade school for 401 deaf students. Two of the four buildings on the schools campus were partially or fully destroyed in the April earthquake, and almost all of the water infrastructure (including the pipes, filtration system, and well pump) were destroyed. This school has operated for several months without water access since the earthquake struck. The project focused on reusing materials and water infrastructure from the damaged system while replacing components that were destroyed. Without this assistance, valuable resources and money that were previously intended to support education for the students had been diverted to purchase water for the school’s staff and children. By reestablishing this infrastructure, limited and valuable resources could be rededicated to the children’s education.
With Surge’s direct funding support of this project and Wine To Water’s Nepal Team, water access has been reestablished for the school.
The second infrastructure project Surge supported was the Palanchok Bhagwati Training Center in the Kathmandu vicinity. This facility was also greatly impacted by the April 25th earthquake. This community center works to train women in local arts and skills, including shoemaking, candle making, fabric work, and food preparation for the local markets. The entire center’s building and water infrastructure were devastated in the earthquake, forcing the center to operate from a makeshift building with no access to water at all. All water must be brought in from a well over 600 meters away, causing a heavy strain on a center already being pushed to its limits. This clinic is a critical resource for women and families to find job skills and make ends meet in very poor regions of Nepal. The availability of water helps to ensure training can happen at maximum efficiency for the direct benefit to the local economy and community.
With Surge’s support and the work of Wine To Water, the water infrastructure was established at the training center so it could continue as consistently as possible as they rebuild. Our ground personnel reported earlier this month, “We successfully installed spring water storage tank and pipe line system to the Community learning Center (CLC). Now more than 200 people will be benefited with that source of water. Also we painted the storage tank for visibility. The local people were happy and thankful. The area now really looks impressive.” Although seemingly small, these are very big steps forward in allowing communities to get back on their feet, reestablishing a sense of pride, and returning to normal patterns of life after their world was literally shaken to the ground. The partnership between Wine To Water and Surge has proven to have made significant progress in this regard.
