Water and Life

It’s said that up 50% of the worlds population get their water, mainly snowmelt from the Himalayas. Of course either side of the world’s highest mountain range is China and India whose growing populations demand more and more of this seemingly diminishing resource.

Nepal is almost totally reliant on water not only for the usual needs of its population but also for the electricity it produces. But the demand outstrips supply and during all months of the year but especially during the cold dry winter, electricity is cut to the large population centres on a rotational basis around the country, sometimes up to 40 hours per week.

This of course has little or no impact on the vast numbers of the population who live in small “powerless” villages whose supply of water is the village tap or river from where it must be carried every day. These taps are often the social meeting centres as well as work area.


Because water is not supplied to homes it’s often much easier if work is taken to the water. Vegetables are river washed before being taken to the market, or clothes are brought to the river for washing and laid out in the sun to dry. People use the local rivers as bath and shower. They have no other choice.

As in so many countries of Asia, farmers, often woman are experts at managing water for their terrace fields where the slight angle of the terrace and a carefully placed stone ensure the supply channelled in from a higher river supplies each field in turn without washing out the precious soil.

So next time you turn on a tap at home, just think, most people in the world have never yet had that experience.