When the citizens of Lapilang, a village in the northeastern region of Nepal, needed fresh drinking water, they would collect their buckets and set out on an hours long journey up a steep mountainside overlooking the foothills of the Himalayas.
Arduous and prone to danger from mudslides, the trip became necessary after the April 25, 2015, earthquake, which killed 9,000 people in Nepal. The devastation was followed by dozens of aftershocks that killed hundreds more while leveling buildings, rupturing pipes, destroying farmland and contaminating or shifting local water sources.
In spite of enormous logistical challenges, USAID and its partners mobilized in the following months to help villages like Lapilang. Last year, I went there as USAID staff to see if there had been any progress in returning their lives to normal.
Read the full article in Global Waters Stories (on Medium).
