Sidhipur

A report submitted by the participants from the Siddhipur VDC.

A workshop about wastewater management was organised by ENPHO, NEWAH and IRC on Nov. 5, 1998. This report is based upon the field visit made by the whole workshop team Nov. 5, 1998 and is about the problems and issues of Siddhipur community.

Siddhipur VDC which has a dominant Newar population is one of the 41 VDCs of Lalitpur District. This VDC is connected by a pitched road and lies at about 4 km East of Lalitpur Municipality. This VDC is surrounded by other 4 VDCs i.e. Lubhu in the East, Imadol in the West, Tikathali in the North and Harisiddhi (Thaiba and Godamchaur) in the South.

This VDC lies at an altitude of 1500 m from mean sea level. It occupies an area of 4.13 square kilometer of which 80% land is arable and rest 20 % has been used as public land and residential area.

There are about 1200 households in Siddhipur and it has got a population of about 7000. Ethnically, of the total population, 99.99% is Newar. Of them 85 % is Maharjan, and rests are Nemkul, Shrestha, Shakya, Amatya, Napit, Darshanadhari and Sahi. Their mother tongue is Newari. Since Siddhipur VDC is has dense Newar community following are the main problems:

• Management of wastewater;
• Provision of safe drinking water;
• Open toilet used by the community and need of private and appropriate latrines;
• For proper disposal of wastewater the drain should be established everywhere.

It is essential to overcome above mentioned problems. But due to lack of resources it has not been possible to solve the problems. If the problem of wastewater management and use of open toilet can be solved, the adverse impact on the human health by the polluted environment could be minimised.

Following are the things found during visit in Siddhipur.

• Wastewater coming from even 4 km far from the VDC flows in irrigation canals in Siddhipur VDC;
• 75% of the land is used for agriculture, 20% for residential and 5% for public purposes;
• Drinking water:

• Water is abstracted from the Godavari River, the boundary between Thaiba and Godamchaur VDCs, and collected in an intake tank from where it is transported to a reservoir tank having a capacity of 50,000 liters. The water from the tank has been distributed in the Siddhipur community via 50 public taps.
• About 8-10 dugwells and one spring has also been used for obtaining drinking water.

• Among the ponds, at present, two, namely Nhu and Phonga, are in poor condition;
• Following is the consumption of water in percentage by category:

• Only 20-25 percent people use private toilet whereas others use open spaces and river banks for defecation;
• There is enough land to feed 50% of the population in this VDC.;
• People mostly use dugwell water for drinking;
• There has not been acute shortage of drinking water so far. However safe drinking water is lacking;
• Unmanaged wastewater has adversely affected crops;
• Few percent of people use wastewater also;
• Average family size is 5/6 in this VDC;
• Dasain, local festivals (Baisakh 4 to Chaitra 5), Tihar, Dewali etc.;
• The emigrant population is insignificant in Siddhipur;
• People in this community mainly worship Ganesh, Vairab and Balkumari and the festival of chariot is celebrated by all;
• Men are more educated than women and there are only a few highly educated people;
• Main profession of people here is farming. However, some are service holder and some are involved in knitting;
• Due to pollution sometimes there have been epidemics;
• So far people have been involved in development of Siddhipur. For further development works people are committed to contribute if Government, NGOs or INGOs help them. Certain financial contribution can also be expected from people and local authorities;
• If any agency proposes for the management of wastewater and reduction of environmental pollution, local authorities and local people are willing to contribute some money. However, since there is lack of public lands, construction of treatment plant would be expensive;
• If any program is proposed, except the construction cost, local authorities and people will contribute in following ways:

• By taking maintenance responsibility;
• By taking management and operation responsibility.