Mithu is 28 years old. She faces a daily struggle to make sure her family of five has enough water for their needs.
Like other residents of Lakuribhanjyang, her family was affected by the earthquake in 2015, which damaged every building in the village and wiped out the local water supply. As the only woman in her household, Mithu is solely responsible for fetching water. With no tap nearby, she’s forced to walk down a rocky and uneven track to collect water. She makes the trip twice a day, taking an hour and a half each time. Mithu has a small plot of land on which she could grow vegetables but she simply can’t carry enough water for her crops, as well as drinking, cooking and cleaning.
In 2017, Frank Water started work in Laukuribhang, to provide access to safe water for the cluster of 25 households that sit at the top of the ridge. The households are spread across 5km. Together with our NGO Partner, FSCN, we dug trenches, laid pipeline from the source to the top of the ridge and protected the spring source to keep it safe from human and animal contamination. We built a distribution tank to store water. As well as installing infrastructure, we worked with the community to help them understand the risks carried by dirty drinking water, poor hygiene and open defecation, and the steps they can take to minimise these risks.
