Many people throughout the world still lack safe and affordable access to drinking
water and basic sanitation. As of this year, only 83.3% and 53.1% of the population in
Nepal will have ‘improved’ water resources and sanitation facilities, respectively.
Improvements in water and sanitation infrastructure results in benefits to health,
education and livelihoods. During March 2016, an investigation of the existing water
and sanitation situation in Lamjung District was undertaken to understand the key issues
facing the region. In total, 50 surveys were carried out in four different Village
Development Committees (VDCs) across the district, working with the aid of four
Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) and two Nepali interpreters. Simple Correspondence
Analysis was conducted on all significant correlations to describe relationships between
different variables. The results from our study were compared with findings from the
2011 National Population and Health Census, as well as other similar studies in Nepal,
and this showed that Lamjung District generally has a better situation than other rural
districts in Nepal with regard to access to water and sanitation. However, there were a
range of issues found including insufficient quantity of water for domestic and
agricultural use, poor accessibility and reliability of water sources, prevalence of
waterborne diseases, a lack of protection and maintenance of water supply sources, low
production of biogas, over-reliance on chemical fertilizers and inequality of access to
water and sanitation between different socio-economic groups. Some of these issues
were found to disproportionately affect marginalised groups such as the poor and
members of lower castes, while some issues are more dependent on location and impact
all groups regardless of their socio-economic status. By analysing the results and
researching relevant literature, this thesis proposes sustainable solutions to all issues
discovered.