A village of two halves

Ram Rati Malik stands by the pond where she used to collect water.

Credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti

In Beli, a village on the flat, fertile plains of the Terai in Nepal, two communities exist side by side. But life in the past was not always harmonious.

Nine families come from the Dume ethnic group, one of the poorest and most marginalised in Nepal. Speaking a different language and seen as inferior, they were excluded by other villagers who wouldn't touch them nor allow them to use their water sources.

"No one would let us touch the water point in the village," explains Ram Rati Malik, who lives in Beli with her husband and five children. "If someone was kind they gave us some water but otherwise we couldn't get any from the tap. Sometimes we used to wait for two or three hours while the rest of the people collected theirs first. Otherwise we would collect water from this pond and we used to get stomach aches, coughs, typhoid and fever.

"I used to get fevers that lasted for 10 to 12 days, and we used to get a lot of coughs. We used to pay lots of money for medicine. It would take us three to four hours to get to the doctor and we had to go every 10 or 11 days. It would often cost 400 or 500 rupees and we would have to take the money on loan as we couldn't afford it."

By working with WaterAid's partner NEWAH, everyone in Beli now has access to safe water and all of the families have latrines. Families from both of Beli's communities are involved in the project, and by working together the two groups have also become more integrated.

Ram Rati and everyone in Beli can now collect safe water from pumps around the village, which members of the community maintain themselves.

Credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti

Hygiene messages are spread around the village with competitions for the cleanest latrines, and an active committee and trained mechanics mean the water pumps will keep working.

"We felt very good when NEWAH said they would come and help install a handpump," Ram Rati continues. "The pump is really good and it's convenient. We now have water and a toilet. It was good to have water from the handpump for the first time.

"We used to go to the toilet in the bamboo by the lake. We always feared defecating in the open as someone could be behind looking at me and we were scared of the snakes there as well. Sometimes people were bitten by them. During the rainy season, snakes used to come more often and we had to scare them away. Now it is convenient. We don't have to go to the doctor like we used to."

WaterAid believes that everyone should have access to safe water and sanitation. Yet it is often those who are the most marginalised, like the Dume families in Beli, whose voices are least heard and whose needs are least recognised.

You can help ensure that the voices of disadvantaged and excluded groups are heard. Donate now so that others like Ram Rati can have access to safe water and sanitation.