The Foreign Ministry of Finland has granted funding for two WaterFinns projects, in Ethiopia and Nepal. WaterFinns prepared two project applications and both were granted full funding, 252 895 € for the project in Ethiopia and 280 500 € for the project in Nepal.
WASH Model Village Project, Nepal
The WASH Model Village Project (2023-2025) is set in the least developed northern hilly area of Devchuli Municipality in Western Nepal. The principal purpose of the Project is to capacitate rural communities and Devchuli Municipality to reach national Total Sanitation (TS) standards. The expected outcomes are a set of Model Villages that satisfy TS criteria and the establishment of well-documented and easily replicable procedures and participatory mechanisms for TS at both community and municipality levels. The Project supports smart water use and focuses on improving Gender Equality and Social Inclusion through a participatory human-rights-based approach.
The local partner for the Project is the Center for Appropriate Technology Nepal (CATN). WaterFinns has a good working relation with CATN through earlier projects in Devchuli (2019-2021 and 2014-2016).
RIWASH – Rural Innovative WASH, Stage II
The project in Ethiopia is a continuation to the current project in Halaba zone, SNNPR state. WaterFinns continues co-operation with the local partner Water Action in the project. In addition, co-operation with another Finnish NGO Pääskyt (The Willows) will be carried out in the project.
Phase II of RIWASH project has 2 aims. First, it expands what has worked well in phase I in terms of access to drinking water & basic sanitation to 3 more villages. Related activities consist of revised activities from phase I. These include e.g. Water Safety Planning (WSP) expanded to WSP +++, to address climate change adaptation & disaster risk reduction (+), operation and maintenance (O&M) and water fee collection (+) as well as inclusion of especially women & people with disabilities (PwDs) (+).
Second, phase II introduces a holistic approach to sanitation, agriculture & income generation through ecological sanitation (EcoSan) in 3 new & current project villages. To handle the second aim efficiently, we have teamed up with The Willows, who have vast experience in projects concerning e.g. improving food security through farming & strengthening vulnerable groups.