News Archive
Gravity ropeways changing lives in
Nepal
Life is difficult for families living in the remote mountainous
areas of Nepal. One in every three people lives on just £1
a day. They survive by growing food to eat and selling what is
left over to provide the most basic necessities.
But getting crops to market can be exhausting and dangerous – it
is generally mules, women and children who carry these heavy
loads on their backs, down treacherous, winding dirt tracks.
When it rains or there’s a landslide, the path is impassable.
In the village of Janagaon, it takes two people over three hours
to carry a 120kg load of apples 1.3km down a steep mountain path.
Now, with a gravity ropeway, the apples take less than five
minutes to cover the same distance.
Janagaon
is one of six communities who, together with Practical Action,
have found an answer that’s transforming their lives. The
gravity ropeway enables villagers to get more produce to market
from their mountain villages and, because it gets there quicker,
it’s fresher and earns them more. They also have more time
to tend their crops, more money to buy fuel for cooking and heating,
and can even pay for education and healthcare.
The main components of the ropeway are sourced locally and project
staff train local manufacturers to build the parts. The village
group responsible for the ropeway are shown how to maintain it.
A small charge to each user ensures enough money to keep the
ropeway in good repair, while also paying for two operators to
manage the top and bottom stations safely.
Dharma is 55 years old, with a wife and three children. He grows
vegetables on a small plot of land in Janagaon village. He says, “It
takes two hours to get down the mountain trail to the main road,
and during the monsoon, accidents are frequent. Now we have the
gravity ropeway, the time saved means I can earn three times
as much from selling my vegetables. With that extra money I can
afford to farm animals too.”
Millions still suffering effects of
drought in eastern Africa, despite the rains
Ngeu dam with livestock, Turkana, Kenya
photo courtesy AMREF
Despite the good and often heavy rains in April and May, millions
of people are still suffering the effects of the drought in eastern
Africa, especially the nomadic pastoralists in the north of Kenya.
Thousands of herders lost their entire stock because of the
lack of water and pasture, and the recent rains are of little
recompense.
AMREF believes that a more long-term solution is
needed so that this scenario doesn’t repeat itself year
after year. Its response to the drought has focused on working
with poor and
marginalised communities to provide wells, boreholes, dams and
gravity water pipe systems. And it has been lobbying the Kenyan
government to be better prepared for future droughts and to prioritise
worst-affected areas such as the Turkana district in the north
of the country. It is also encouraging pastoralists to sell cattle
at the right time (when they are fat and healthy before the onset
of the dry season).
Because of the severity of the situation
AMREF has also been carrying out emergency food distributions
in Kenya and Somalia.
Water
AMREF has been working with communities to provide wells and
boreholes for many years and in several communities, those built
by AMREF, were the only places that people could get water.
In
the last year AMREF, with help from local communities, has
built:
- 225 wells in Kajiado, Kitui and Makueni benefiting over
52,150 people and over 120,000 livestock.
- Five boreholes
that are benefiting some 53,500 people in Kitui, Kajiado and
Makueni.
- Three gravity flow water pipelines totaling some 30
kilometers that is benefiting some 40,000 people in Kitui,
Kajiado and
Makueni.
- A dam in Ngeu in Turkana benefiting 32,000 nomads and 100,000
livestock.
Gerald Rukunga, AMREF’s water and sanitation manager,
explains: “We made sure that the wells we built were
much deeper than normal and about 90% of them had water all
the way
through the drought.”
“ We built a well in Nguu in a particularly
dry area of Makueni district and this had a big impact on the
community. Children
who had stopped going to school because of lack of water were
able to return and women were able to plant fruits and vegetables.
They also used the water to make bricks, which they then sold
to other communities.”
He adds: “In Zombe in Kitui,
we built a borehole and gravity flow water pipelines which
linked three schools 10
km away. This
enabled the communities to plant maize and beans, make bricks
and rear goats.”
AMREF water engineers have also given
technical advice to other NGOs in Turkana, Kitui, Kajiado,
Makueni and the north eastern
province on techniques of developing and sustaining wells,
dams and boreholes.
AMREF is also building roof water catchments
and tanks to capture the rain water in schools and private homes
and is educating
communities about water conservation and good hygiene practice.
Food
AMREF is the lead agency in the World Food Programme Emergency
Operation in Makueni District. Since September 2004, it has
distributed food to 908,163 people.
Margaret Esakwa, of AMREF’s
Disaster Management Office visited the district during the
latest distribution benefiting
306,398 people and said: “The hilly part of the district
has received rains and the crops are doing quite well but the
lower part of the district has not had enough rain and the
crops aren’t growing in the fields. People we visited
there were entirely dependent on the maize, rice, vegetable
oil and
peas
that AMREF was distributing.”
AMREF is working closely
with the communities to make sure that the most vulnerable
people receive the food. Previously
everyone
got the same amount of food but now the communities themselves
are targeting the ones most in need. AMREF is currently receiving
food for the next distribution which will benefit more than
300,000 people in early June.
You can help AMREF carry out
its work in the areas affected by the drought by supporting People
for People. Find out more
here.
