Our Projects · Rainwater for WASH

Blue Schools NepalPokhara Region

Écoles Bleues, Népal

With Kanchan Nepal, rural schools east of Pokhara gained rainwater tanks, toilets, handwashing stations and school gardens, freeing pupils from long walks for water.

CompletedRainwater for WASH2014–2021 to verify: one source dates the first schools to 2011–2013

WhereKaski District, Nepal – rural villages in the mid-hills east of Pokhara, in the Annapurna foothills

When2014–2021 to verify: one source dates the first schools to 2011–2013

WithKanchan Nepal, school communities and parents

Rainfall≈ 1,500 mm a year in Nepalnational average, World Bank; local figure to add

Results

10Blue Schools built or under construction by 2021
250trees planted in three schools

The Challenge

East of Pokhara, it rains heavily for four months and hardly at all for the other eight. Many rural schools had no safe water or toilets, and some are up to 14 km from a spring. Children, often girls, carry water from springs in the valley. Thirteen-year-old Sashmita, for example, got up at 6 a.m. to fetch water before school, carrying pots of more than 15 kg uphill.

Rain in Nepal: about 1,500 mm a year, mostly June to September (monsoon). Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal (observed 1991–2020) and World Bank average precipitation.

What We Did

Built rooftop rainwater harvesting systems with tanks and taps, so that pupils have safe drinking water at school.
Built toilets and handwashing stations.
Created school gardens watered with harvested rain and reused grey water.
Planted trees with pupils: the 'A child, a tree' campaign planted 250 trees at Indrayani, Ramkot and Arunodaya schools.
Provided materials for a greenhouse, which the community built with bamboo, and piloted urine-based organic fertiliser with Kanchan Nepal (2017).
Reconditioned traditional ponds near the schools to store rainwater and recharge groundwater, and monitored the schools during a field visit in 2019.

Results

By 2021, ten Blue Schools had been completed or were under construction, including Bijaya, Indrayani, Ramkot, Anandajyoti, Bishwashanti, Shivalaya, Jateshwor, Bhairavi and Kalika.
During the 2019 monitoring, pupils said they no longer walk to school with water jars, and that their toilets stay clean because there is water to clean them.
Other villages asked for Blue Schools of their own, and the experience led to the Rain Communities watershed projects from 2019.
Two more Blue Schools followed in Chitwan District in 2022–2024.