Helvetas, together with its partners, has more than 40 years of experience in rural infrastructure development in Nepal. The basic approach in all rural infrastructure projects is to support communities to construct and maintain their own infrastructure.

Access through rural infrastructure

·     Pedestrian trail bridges greatly improve people’s access. Technologies and approaches have been developed by the joint effort of GoN and Helvetas for the construction of long-span and short-span trail bridges by district-level bodies in collaboration with private companies, NGOs and local communities. More than 3000 bridges have been built.

·      Rural roads open new opportunities in more remote areas. The ‘green road’ concept has been widely recognized in Nepal and has more recently been broadened into the ‘Transport Plus’ approach. The project focuses on linking road construction with parallel development efforts which allow in particular poor people to capitalize on the opportunities of improved access.

·      District Transport Master Plans (DTMP) have enabled district governments to better plan their investments into roads, trails and bridges as part of district infrastructure development. Helvetas has supported the preparation of DTMPs in various districts and will continue to do so as required.

Drinking water and sanitation

·     Rural drinking water schemes need to be planned and implemented in a step-wise process through local communities to be sustainable. More than 300 schemes have been implemented by communities over the past 8 years under this process. All schemes combine drinking water establishment with the promotion of basic sanitation practices.

·      Water is a common property resource of limited supply in many communities. Thus, integrated water resources management planning of all water sources for different competing use (drinking water, irrigation, energy, …) needs to be introduced as best practice for equity and efficiency in resource management. Communities and local governments have prepared water use management plans (WUMP), which clarify intended water uses and user rights.

Community-level infrastructure

·     Rural communities frequently demand for support on the construction and rehabilitation of other infrastructures such as small-scale irrigation, schools or marketing centres. A new programme (Demand-led Rural Infrastructure at Local Level) tries to explore modalities to respond to these demands. A major element of the project is the development of local service providers, which can serve communities in need of technical expertise at local level.