Improving Water Supply in Lahan, Nepal Learnings from the Beacon Project
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From source to tap: Improving water supply in Lahan, Nepal Learnings from the Beacon Project November 2020 2 From source to tap: Improving water supply in Lahan, Nepal Learnings from the Beacon Project Table of contents ––––– Executive summary3 1. Introduction 5 2. Overview of NWSC Lahan’s water supply system 9 3. Progress and learning 12 3.1 Water resource planning 13 3.2 Borehole drilling and CCTV surveys 15 3.3 Water quality monitoring 18 3.4 Water treatment 20 3.5 Reducing Non-Revenue Water 22 3.6 Network design (Hydraulic model and DMAs) 25 3.7 Extension to Dalit communities29 References ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������32 From source to tap: Improving water supply in Lahan, Nepal Learnings from the Beacon Project 3 Executive summary ––––– he Beacon Project is a long-term partnership by an independent hydrogeologist during the drilling Tbetween the UK water company Anglian Water and process – with an experienced hydrogeologist recently its Alliances (AWA), WaterAid Nepal, the Nepal Water being appointed to supervise the next three boreholes to Supply Corporation (NWSC), and the Ministry of Water be drilled in Lahan A CCTV camera was also donated Supply (MoWS) and Lahan municipality First initiated to NWSC and training provided for the branch managers in 2016 and then put into action in 2017, the Beacon on using this equipment to survey existing boreholes and Project aims to achieve sustainable municipality-wide identify problems safe water and sanitation for all and to create a model that can be replicated in other municipalities and NWSC branch offices throughout Nepal. Creating a legacy that Water quality monitoring grows is central to the Beacon Project – so key learnings Water quality monitoring was previously undertaken on will continue to be documented and shared as the an ad hoc basis due to lack of resources Surveillance project progresses has now improved, with samples from the boreholes being tested monthly, field test kits being provided for This report does not cover all aspects of the Beacon NWSC staff to monitor basic parameters on a regular Project but focuses on improvements to the NWSC basis, and the installation of sample taps by NWSC at water supply system in Lahan It documents the major each borehole according to a specification provided activities, results and lessons learnt across seven by Anglian Water A Water Safety Plan team has also technical areas, which can each be read as stand-alone been established and trained, and NWSC has allocated case studies – demonstrating how the Beacon Project budget to recruit a dedicated water quality chemist for has contributed towards positive change across the the Lahan office. Water quality data is now shared and whole water supply system, from source to tap discussed regularly at the local coordination meetings, illustrating the increased importance both NWSC Lahan Water resource planning and the municipality attribute to it Strategic planning for water resources in Lahan is becoming increasingly important as more households Key achievements are being connected to the network and the population CCTV borehole and leakage detection training for is forecast to grow significantly. The Beacon Project NWSC staff from many branch offices. has supported two hydrogeological studies undertaken by students from Tribhuvan University, as well as Development of new drilling specification for initiating groundwater monitoring and helping to improve boreholes, adopted by all NWSC branches collaboration between the different stakeholders – which Land allocated for future borehole drilling in will be essential to aid the development of an integrated Lahan water resources plan Regular water quality monitoring established and budget allocated for dedicated water quality Borehole drilling and CCTV surveys chemist The NWSC water supply system currently relies on Chlorine dosing improved groundwater abstracted from deep tubewells However, NWSC have encountered problems with boreholes Over 286 pipeline leaks repaired. failing due to the ingress of fine sand, which has led to Hydraulic model developed for the network and high turbidity in the network and ultimately caused the detailed planning for first two District Metered boreholes to silt-up The Beacon Project has supported Areas (DMAs) the better protection of existing boreholes, along with the decommissioning of old boreholes It has also assisted Increase in water supply by an average of one NWSC to develop a new technical specification for hour per day drilling – which has been endorsed and rolled-out across Over 250 Dalit households accessing safe water all 23 branch offices. One of the learnings from the from communal taps project has been the importance of on-site supervision 4 From source to tap: Improving water supply in Lahan, Nepal Learnings from the Beacon Project Water treatment Extension to Dalit communities To reduce turbidity, improvements have been made to One of the key aims of the Beacon Project is to ensure the sedimentation tank and both this and the overhead that services reach the most marginalised and vulnerable tank are now flushed out on a regular basis. Manually communities of Lahan. A significant achievement of the emptying chlorine powder into the sedimentation tank project has been the extension of the piped network has been replaced by a simple chlorine dosing pump, to four Dalit communities – who previously relied while designs have been prepared for a permanent inline on inadequate and unsafe water points 37 shared chlorination system, which will be installed in the next household tapstands have been provided serving 253 three months To ensure the new chlorine dosing system households, and further improvements on sanitation and is sustainably managed – the past failures of the original hygiene have also been supported within the community, systems should be taken into account including construction of school and community toilets The seven chapters of this report reflect on the important Reducing Non-Revenue Water steps taken across the different aspects of water supply One of the early successes of the project was supporting in Lahan in response to various physical, technical the NWSC staff with training and equipment to detect and resource-based challenges The progress made and repair leaks in the pipeline. As of October 2020, since the beginning of the Beacon Project and the 286 leaks had been repaired in Lahan and every tap lessons that have been learnt along the way indicate the at the public tapstands have been replaced Improved importance of working on the technical issues, as well as protocols have also been developed for installing and strengthening coordination, monitoring and accountability commissioning new pipelines to reduce the risk of future to achieve sustainable results This approach will be leaks Sustaining this progress requires thinking through explored in a follow-up study that looks at the system how to incentivise prioritising the reduction of Non- strengthening aspects of the Beacon Project in detail Revenue Water (NRW) Network design (Hydraulic model and DMAs) Information on the network was often incomplete and sometimes inaccurate, so the Beacon Project supported NWSC to conduct a drone survey to build up an accurate geographic information system (GIS) map, and customer connections were physically checked and tagged Based on this map, a detailed hydraulic model has been developed, which shows where improvements are needed to ensure adequate pressure is maintained throughout the network This has also facilitated plans to introduce District Metered Areas (DMAs) – which will allow NWSC to test and achieve continuous water supply within a specific area, in isolation from the rest of the system The network will be divided into six DMAs, and detailed plans have been prepared for two of these areas to begin the transition to 24/7 supply From source to tap: Improving water supply in Lahan, Nepal Learnings from the Beacon Project 5 1 Introduction 6 From source to tap: Improving water supply in Lahan, Nepal Learnings from the Beacon Project 1. Introduction ––––– he Beacon Project is a unique long-term partnership through partnerships, and empower the poorest and T(up to 2030) between Anglian Water and its most marginalised to access safe water, sanitation Alliances (AWA),i WaterAid Nepal, the Nepal Water and hygiene (WASH) The Beacon Project aims to Supply Corporation (NWSC),ii the Ministry of Water develop and demonstrate holistic solutions that work Supply (MoWS) and the municipality of Lahan, to across communities, local governments and utilities, achieve sustainable municipality-wide safe water and and ultimately contributes to Nepal’s journey towards sanitation services The project seeks to strengthen achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) capacity and accountability, deliver sustainable solutions Profile of Lahan • Largest of the 17 municipalities in Siraha District, with • 65% have no access to a treated water supply a population of 91,766 people across 24 wards (2011 • There are 51 informal, poor and Dalit settlements in Census) the municipality with total population of 21,946 Dalit • 35% of the population have access to an intermittent (2011 Census) water supply · Administrative Map Udayapurgadhi Lahan Municipality Legend GPNP Boundary Golbazar Water Body NSWC Coverage Area NWSC Area (Ward 1-10) Ward (11-24) 16 Road_Network Dhangadhimai National HIghway 15 Feeder Road District Road Core