Nepal

Bhorletar is a rapidly growing settlement of some 150 houses which is run by an elected Village Development Committee (VDC). The village centre is growing fast, with 35 new houses built in the last year - 20 of them by newcomers to the area. Without any town planning, the results are beginning to show in terms of pollution of the village canal, uncollected garbage and poor sanitation.

In many respects it is a typical Nepal village. Land is scarce, yet most of the villagers depend on farming. Roughly half the village land is cultivable but there is less than half a hectare for each of the 3,000 people living there.

The task of drawing up environmental plans for Bhorletar began in 1990. A system of 'participatory rural appraisal' was used to collect information about every aspect of village farming and life. This included drawing up detailed land use maps. A local teacher was trained to carry out these activities, working with the local steering committee and the community as a whole. Secondary school geography students, under teacher guidance, carried out land use mapping and surveying. With the help of two non-government organizations and an IUCN planning team, the village began by preparing a profile of it.

The teacher took the lead in writing up the village profile, which then went through various revisions. It included details such as the number of springs, forest patches, tree species, landslides, cropping patterns and hazard-prone areas. The profile highlighted a number of problems: rapid depletion of the forest due to increasing population and the need for farmland and firewood; a lack of latrines now made essential because of population growth; flooding and erosion in the river valley; domestic animal diseases; a lack of clean drinking water; and increasing numbers of landless immigrants.

Finally, an environmental plan based on this profile was defined by the villagers themselves, and approved in meetings with the local District Council and representative from the various line agencies of the central government.

The village selected its own activities for priority action and drew up a series of recommended solutions. These included community forest conservation; improved fuelwood stoves; new latrines; protective dams and afforestation to stop flooding; raising ducks to control snails; improved roads, vegetable gardens and marketing; and a new health post. Top priority for immediate action was given to clean drinking water, to be provided by a system of gravity fed pipes and taps alongside a system of long-term community maintenance, watershed protection, toilet building, fruit tree planting and vegetable growing to take advantage of the convenient supplies of water. All the villagers helped in building and laying the pipeline, which feeds 22 taps. This included one extra tap for the primary school for which the parents provided all the materials. Rules have been agreed for using the various taps (some being kept only for drinking water).

Source: Adapted from Rowley, J. (1993) Bhorletar: The sustainable village, People and the Planet, 2 (4), pp. 14-19.