A day in the life of...

In many parts of Nepal women have to walk miles to collect water, often from unsafe sources

Credit: Brent Stirton

Urmila Simkhada Gender, Poverty and Equity Manager, WaterAid Nepal.

"I live in Kuleswore, an area of Nepal's capital Kathmandu, which is free from air and noise pollution. My house is reasonably simple with little furniture and a small garden because I love flowers.

My day starts with water therapy, 20 minutes of exercise, 10 minutes of transcendental meditation, 20 minutes of yoga and 30 minutes of praying and worship.

 In the morning I eat simple food - rice, lentils and vegetables - before I start work at 8.30. The car journey to the office takes 10 minutes when there is little traffic. I prefer to work five days a week and have my weekends free, but sometimes I work at weekends as well.  I tend to bring in my lunch from home because I love home made food.

I have been in the development field for the last 20 years and have extensive experience in rural development, rural energy and natural resources management. I have worked in Nepal with a number of agencies before starting work with WaterAid in April 2002 as a Rural Programme Support Manager.

My areas of expertise are community development, micro enterprise development and promotion, social research, gender and development. I am very concerned about gender issues and disadvantaged people and am interested in finding environmentally sensitive and sustainable programmes which alleviate poverty and improve people's livelihoods.

Since July 2004, I have been the Gender, Poverty and Equity Manager. My main role is to look at issues of social inclusion to ensure that women and the poorest and most vulnerable sections of communities gain access to water and sanitation.

One of my major jobs is to measure the impacts that WaterAid-supported projects have on poor communities. I will soon have developed guidelines on gender, poverty and equity that will give support to the partner organisations we work with.

This year I plan to carry out a poverty impact study which will look at the water and sanitation programme from a gender, equity and poverty perspective. This will be done through field visits, and talking to the benefiting communities. Every one of these visits inspires me to find ways to improve the livelihoods of poor people in Nepal.

Jitpur in the Chitwan district gives an example of the differences that our projects make. This village is a successful example of hygiene behavioural change and shows an effective sanitation promotion programme for reaching the poorest of the poor.

Here 290 households have benefited from a water, sanitation and hygiene education project. 66 of these households are the poorest of the poor, but with support each has constructed and now properly uses domestic latrines.

All of the households now have access to drinking water and sanitation facilities. And following training and the promotion of kitchen gardens all of the households now grow seasonal vegetables to eat.

The story of thirteen year old Sima Kumal shows the effectiveness of the health education in the village. She is a grade six pupil from a poor family and lives in a small hut with her parents.

Through crop sharing the family have only about three months of food security. Her father, a carpenter, earns around 150 rupees (£1.10) a day which has to support six members of their family. Sima helps her mother with housework like cleaning, cooking, washing and collecting water.

Sima has been greatly influenced by the health education in the project and has taken all of the key hygiene messages to heart. These include: washing her hands before eating and after defecation; keeping food and water covered; keeping the toilet and the environment around her house clean; using the rubbish pit; drying utensils on the drying rack and using the latrine.

 She has also promoted these messages to her school friends, neighbours and relatives. With many children like Sima promoting these messages good hygiene spreads among a community and great changes can take place.

This year's poverty impact study will also look at strengthening the federation of the water users' groups in Nepal. The idea of the federation was initiated by WaterAid's largest partner in Nepal, NEWAH, Nepal Water for Health, and was developed in 2001 with the following aims:

To discuss and advocate common issues around drinking water and sanitation with users and at district and national levels
To look at how drinking water and sanitation programmes are being implemented within the framework of the Nepalese Government's National Rural Water and Sanitation Policy
To act as a social auditing body in the water and sanitation sector
The federation is still in its infancy stages with 11 of 75 districts involved so far. The plan is to extend this to 25 districts this year. We also hope to develop its capacity so that it can influence both local and national policies on water and sanitation.

I personally feel that the federation of water users and a perspective on how gender, poverty and equity impact upon poor men, women and children are key issues for achieving WaterAid's vision of universal access to water. Our studies help other organisations as well.

The issues around water and sanitation are very complex and require innovative thinking, careful planning and effective implementation to reach the un-served poor. But I am a positive person and I never give up hope that we will achieve our goal! It is a great opportunity for me to work with WaterAid.