Nepal

Empowering Mountain Communities through Fog Harvesting for Sustainable Water Management

Project completed

Organisation

The Small Earth Nepal (SEN)

Website

Support area

Adaptation to climate change

Funding

87907.37 €

Project duration

Aug, 2024 – Jan, 2026

The mountain villages of Thade and Jantardhap in Siddhicharan municipality face severe water scarcity. This leads to significant challenges in water for health and sanitation. Women and girls bear the burden of traveling long distances to fetch water. This IKI Small Grants project enhances water supply through the installation of a fog harvesting system. It installs the system in close collaboration with the community, government, and the local Water Users Association. The project offers comprehensive training on the proper installation, operation, maintenance, and management of fog harvesting units to bolster community skills. The project will also install a water treatment plant, to ensure safe water quality for drinking. In the long run, capacity development activities assure water usage efficiency, including greywater usage for home gardening during dry seasons. The potential for upscaling these measures in municipalities facing similar challenges appears promising.

Capacity development

IKI Small Grants supports The Small Earth Nepal (SEN) in their organisational capacity development through:

A training in fundraising and proposal writing
Enhancing data analysis capacity of staff

About the organisation

The Small Earth Nepal is a non-governmental organisation (NGO), founded in 2001, that promotes sustainable lifestyles and reduces Nepal’s footprint. SEN has implemented several projects related to water harvesting, sustainable water management, and climate-smart agriculture. The organisation is experienced in working in mountains, hills, and valleys in all provinces of Nepal. SEN has implemented the project “Rainwater Harvesting to Mitigate Drought in Western Nepal”. In this project, they identified the potential water harvesting sites for household and agricultural uses using Geographic Information System (GIS). They developed a mobile application to disseminate the appropriate site and techniques for rainwater harvesting. Furthermore, the project “Building Climate Resilience in Farming Systems in Sloping Lands of South Asia” has assessed the resilience of farming systems and land use patterns in hilly regions of South Asia.