We envision a day when every child in the Kathmandu Valley has clean water to drink – as well as improved hygiene practices – whenever they attend school.
 
We don’t believe 100% coverage of Kathmandu public schools is possible in the near future. Neither do we believe it should be fully undertaken by foreign organizations. But we do strongly suspect that tackling 50% of the problem, in Kathmandu’s poorest and most populous schools, is a viable goal for a child’s right. (Think of it like being practical and audacious at the same time.) We would then challenge the Nepali government to reach the second 50%.
 
a child’s right has been operating in Nepal for four years, and has a proven track record providing high quality, sustainable water projects in public schools. Following a recent partnership with Nepal Water for Health (“NEWAH”) and charity: water, we are uniquely well positioned to be the lead organization for drinking water and hygiene education programs in Nepal’s urban centers.
 
The Kathmandu Valley has a population of over 2 million people and is comprised of three main districts: Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur. At as many as 13,000 people living per square kilometer, the population density of the Kathmandu Valley is extremely high – at least five times that of New York City.


 
To reach the highest number of vulnerable children in the Valley, we made a strategic decision to focus our efforts on Kathmandu’s public schools. There are more than 2,000 schools in the Kathmandu Valley, all told, and the majority of these are tuition-based private schools. The government-run schools, generally speaking, have the lowest quality water and worst hygiene practices, coupled with serving the greatest populations of orphans, child laborers, and desperately poor children. These are the children who will benefit the most from clean drinking water and hygiene education – as they get the bulk of these daily at school, not at home. A concentrated focus here will have the greatest impact for every dollar spent.
 
In the Kathmandu Valley, there are 378 government run schools for children in grades 1-10. We aim to provide 50% of these schools with clean water systems, stations for drinking water and hand washing, and comprehensive hygiene education. We will then continue to engage with each school on a quarterly basis – long after the water is running and initial trainings are completed – and will be able to monitor every site’s ongoing effectiveness.
 
Although this 50% goal is big, our strategic goal is much bigger: to challenge the Nepali government, and local leaders, to fully implement 100% coverage in Kathmandu’s poorest schools.
 
In light of India’s incredible Jalmani Project - a government-run program to provide 100,000 of India’s poorest schools with clean water systems – we know such broad visioning and long range planning is evident in the region. Although India’s financial wherewithal far surpasses that of Nepal, the desire to support schools through water purification runs deep in both countries. The various Ministries associated with government-run schools – those that would be needed to implement this at scale – share the impetus.
 
We fully expect, and hope, that undertaking 50% of public schools in Kathmandu will put us out of work in this city (other than monitoring activity). We envision local government taking the lead on our model, and championing it as their own. The conditions exist for a successful phase-one project that provides clean drinking water and sanitation to 50% (189) of the schools in the valley. We are actively encouraging individuals and groups to join with us in this ambitious and inspiring plan.