The immediate goal of this project is to build a running water system for 75 households in upper Mengzong village in Jiegu Township.The overarching aim of this project is to improve the lives of the villagers in Mengzong village.

Funds needed: $16,733 (118,600rmb)

The Jesuitenmission Austria and Asia Foundation funded this project

Basamdorlma is from Jiegu Township, Yushu County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. She is currently working towards an associated degree in English at the Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department English Training Program.

Project Location
Mangzi (called “Mengzong” in Chinese) village is located in the northern part of Jiegu Township, Yushu Prefecture, about 896 kilometers from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai province. The name, “Mengzong village”, specifically refers to one of the two small villages that together make up a larger village, which is also called Mengzong. In common speech, we usually call the upper part of the village “upper Mengzong” and the lower part “lower Mengzong”. This project aims to provide water for the “upper Mengzong” village.

Population
There are approximately 75 households comprised of 500 people in upper Mengzong village. There are 165 women, 161 men, and 174 children.

Education
Thirty percent of the people in upper Mengzong village are literate in Tibetan. These people learned how to write and read Tibetan letters from their parents by reading epics, stories and by carving Mani-stones (carved scriptures on stone). In upper Mengzong village, there are 16 monks, 6 nuns, 28 primary school students, 17 high school students, 25 middle school students, and 6 university students. The students learn both Tibetan and Chinese in school. The remaining 98 school-aged children, 50 females and 48 males, do not attend school.
Due to the local government policy created two years ago that makes primary education free, there are more primary school-aged children attending school than in the past. However, families still must pay around 200-250 rmb for middle school and 300-400 rmb for high school students. It is difficult for families to send their children to school because they don’t have enough money to pay the tuition, especially when families have to come up with tuition for university students. To send a child to university, a family must borrow money and put down their property deeds as collateral at the bank’s insistence. A family with a university student must usually borrow 4000- 5000 rmb in a year, forcing them to pay the money back by selling crops or land at the end of the year.

Cash Income
Most of the villagers in upper Mengzong village are farmers. They grow barley exclusively because the high elevation of 3700 meters does not allow for cultivation of any other crops. Most households in this village own only 2-3 mu of land, which produces barely enough barley for those families’ survival. Families who own 8-9 mu (1 mu = 0.666 hectares) of land can often sell their excess barley to potentially earn about 900 rmb annually. However, this potential income is vulnerable to changes in the weather, so that often no excess is produced after a hot, dry growing season.
The villagers also earn money by digging caterpillar fungus. They travel to mountainous areas where the fungus grows, and live as nomads from the beginning of May until July. A single caterpillar fungu can sell for around 15-20 rmb, but people have to pay a tax of 400-600 rmb to the local village leader to be allowed to dig in a specific area. A single person from Mengzong village can earn approximately 2,000-2,500 rmb annually by digging this fungus. Each year, people in Mengzong village spend around 1,500-2,000 rmb for foods like potatoes, vegetables and meat, and 400-500 rmb on clothes. Villagers must also spend money on school tuition.
As there are many nomads moving to the county town, villagers have the chance to sell their land in town to nomads who need a place to build their house. Villagers can receive approximately 1500-2000 rmb for one mu of land. Those farmers who sell their land, typically try to use that income to make some changes to their life condition. However, selling one’s land does not always succeed as expected. After selling their land, people sometimes do not have enough food to eat because they no longer have land on which to grow barley in sustainable amounts. In addition, many people are illiterate and/or innumerate and almost all lack the skills or background to do good business. For example, when they come to sell caterpillar- fungus, they don’t know where the best place to gain a high price is because they have a very limited understanding of the outside world. Unfortunately, these people will often sell their caterpillar-fungus to the business men in town for a low price about 15-20rmb per caterpillar-fungus, but the business men can sell for around 50rmb to the cities.

Herding
Most of the villagers in upper Mengzong village are farmers, though a few households have sold their land. On average, each household owns one cow, two sheep and two goats. The location of the village at the foot of a mountain makes it possible to herd livestock on the mountain. These animals are only used to produce milk, butter, cheese and yogurt in the summer period. Almost all villagers produce only enough of these products for their own consumption.

Problems

No Water System in the Village in upper Mengzong
Not one of the 75 households in upper Mengzong village owns a water tap in their own family courtyard. Every day the villagers, usually the women, have to hike down to lower Mengzong village, 3 kilometers below with two iron buckets. In lower Mengzong village, the households have water taps in their own yards, or the villagers can easily get water nearby, from neighbors who have their own water source. The residents in upper Mengzong are comparably poor, since many of them have emigrated from other places such as Gaizei prefecture, Changdou city. Their living conditions are lower, and they do not own their own land or houses, instead renting from the native residents. Further, any drilling project and/or pumping system will be more expensive in upper Mengzong compared to lower Mengzong because these villagers live at a higher elevation. The people of upper Mengzong cannot afford this expense. Previously, the upper Mengzong villagers acquired water from a stream located beside the village, about 1 kilometer away. This stream originates from Jiajie nomadic village, running deep in the mountain valley above Mengzong village. Recently, this stream has dwindled, so that when it arrives in the village it is very small. Since livestock and nomadic villagers obtain water upstream of upper Mengzong, the water reaching the village is usually too dirty to be of any use, filled with lots of shrimp and other water insects. The village leader and some other villagers have noted that there is an available spring 3.5 kilometers above the village, showing the possibility for building a water reservoir.

Lack of Reliable Water
Each year, the water company cuts off water two or three times, due to a dwindling availability of water in underground sources and in the Zhaxi River, the main water source for the area. During these times, the villagers must find a well to obtain water. While the few comparably richer households have personal wells in their courtyards, all the villagers cannot get enough water. Generally, the stream mentioned above is totally dry during these periods. The families who own wells live beside the streets and markets, so the villagers have to travel around 5-6 kilometers to fetch water from these sources. As a villager is able to fetch a limited amount of water at one time, many trips must be made.

Dangers of Fetching Water from Wells
Usually, begging water from a family who owns a well is a difficult task. Some wells are very deep and poorly constructed. There have been several incidents of people falling into wells and dying.

Increased Women’s Labor
With the stream dried up during both winter and autumn, most of the time the villagers have to ask for water from the lower village, which is about 5-6 kilometers from the upper village. Almost exclusively, it is the women who must fetch the water. Typically, women collect water twice a day, at sunset and in the morning, in addition to doing all the other household chores. Usually, women in upper Mengzong do not have time to participate in any other activities besides these labors, from which they get little time to rest.

Health Problems
Day in and day out, the women of upper Mengzong village carry heavy yokes weighted on each end with iron buckets for water. Commonly, women of upper Mengzong become noticeably hunched over the years. Many fall ill with diseases, obviously caused by exhaustion to their immune systems. In addition, since fetching water is such a difficult task, most people of upper Mengzong do not often wash their hands or clothes. This supports lots of disease, and stomachaches are exceedingly common in the village.

Few Opportunities for Women
Women’s household chores, especially fetching water, are essential to the basic functioning of life in upper Mengzong village. Therefore, many parents decide they should keep their daughters at home to do this necessary labor, rather than sending them to school. For this reason, village girls have little chance to attend school, receive education or become independent. Without education, the girls in upper Mengzong village don’t have the chance to work for the owners of shops on the streets as they do not understand Chinese. Therefore, girls in upper Mengzong village usually become the unskilled laborers for the tractor drivers who carry sand and stone.

Benefits
Providing a running water system that will set a tap in every household will provide everyone in the village with enough water and solve upper Mengzong’s water-related problems.

1. The villagers will not have to beg for water, instead having easy access to water provided by their personal water tap.

2. With their own water supply, upper Mengzong will no longer be susceptible to losing their water supply when water is turned off by the government. In the current system, several villages must take turns receiving water, and thus have their water supply shut off in certain months.

3. The villagers will no longer have to worry about falling into the wells or being injured by the well derrick.

4. Women in the village will not have to walk long distances with heavy buckets to fetch water, allowing them more time for leisure and participation in other activities. Also, the potential of contracting diseases and becoming hunchbacked will decrease because women will not need to expend such hard physical work on fetching water. Also, with more water available, village hygiene will improve.

5. With a reduced need for water collection, parents are more likely to send their daughters to school. Parents will realize that girls can do things other than housework. Villagers will be able to recognize the importance of getting an education as means of helping one’s own community.

Beneficiaries
This project will directly benefit a total of 75 households and 500 people in upper Mengzong village.

Gender equality
Firstly, this project will have very immediate and direct benefits for women in the village, as the improved water supply will decrease the amount of labor that women need to do. Secondly, an improved water supply will allow women to participate in more activities, such as running small businesses, which will improve the family living condition. Moreover, the rate of female children attending school will increase, as collecting water will not be a big concern that causes parents to force their daughters to stay at home. Also, parents will realize the importance of education as their educated daughters will have improved futures.

Project Goals
The overarching aim of this project is to improve the lives of the villagers in Mengzong village.
The immediate goal of this project is to build a running water system for 75 households in upper Mengzong village in Jiegu Township.

The steps of the project

1. Discuss with villagers the possibility of proposing to donors a running water system for upper Mengzong village. (Done)

2. Talk with the village leader about the specifics of building the reservoir. (Done)

3. Receive official permission to carry out the project from local government. (Done)

4. Receive official permission to carry out the project from our Township leader. Collect information about and for the project. (Done)

5. Talk to the village leader and other project managers and workers who have experience working on this type of project. Talk with them about the necessary materials. (Done)

6. Find out the price of materials in Jiegu Township. (Done)

7. Hold a meeting with the village leaders and choose some households to be responsible for the materials and supervising the condition of the water reservoir and the ditch system. Primarily, the village leader’s family will be responsible for overseeing the project. Two young women from the village will be responsible to watch the water reservoir.(Done)

8. Mr Xiga who has done this kind of project studies the ground to find out the best place where the new water source should be built.(Done)

9. Write project proposal. (Done)

10. Hold a meeting with the villagers to discuss the start date of the project.

11. Meet with the contractors Mr Jiangyong and Mr Xiga to arrange when and how the villagers will prepare the sand and stones, and the ditch where the pipe will go. Purchase plastic pipes from the Lanzhou City Plastic Factory . The other materials like valves, spigots, connectors and bricks were bought from Jiegu factory.

12. Build the water reservoir.

13. Villagers dig the ditch.

14. Water is piped to 75 household’s courtyards.

15. Choose two households to manage the system for a set period of time (the monitoring households will rotate).

16. Interview the villagers and take photos

17. Write final report

18. Send the final report to donors with photos and receipts.

Budget

Item	Price per item in RMB	Number of items	Donor contribution in RMB	Local Contribution in RMB	Other resources (Shem Women’s Group) in RMB	total cost in RMB
Cement	350	25tons	8,750	0	0	8,750
Plastic Pipe #60	13	3,000 kg	39,000	0	0	39,000
Plastic Pipe #40	13.5	1,500kg	20,250			20250
Plastic Pipe #32	13	900kg	11,700	0	0	11,700
Plastic Pipe #25	13	1,000kg	13,000	0	0	13,000
Valves	50	10 sets	500	0	0	500
Connec tions #63, #40, #32, #25			6,500	0	0	6,500
Iron wire	3.5	200kg	700	0	0	700
Material transport			9,000	0	0	9,000
Iron bar #16, #6.5	4000	1.5 tons	6,000	0	0	6,000
Water de sign expert expense	1500	2people	3,000	0	0	3,000
Stone and sand	20	80 m3	0	1,600	0	1,600
Labour	20	80 people ×70 days	0	112,000	0	112,000
Tap	10	75sets	0	750	0	750
Black plastic Pipe	6	500	0	3,000	0	3,000
Project manage ment expenses			200	200	0	400
Project manage ment payment			0	0	500	500
Total			118,600	117,550	500	236,650

Total Donor Contribution Requested: 118,600 rmb (16,733 US dollars)

Total Project Cost: 236,650rmb

Governmental support
The government tried to implement a running water project for upper Mengzong village five years ago, but they found out the plan was not viable because of the village’s location. This location, which is higher than the surrounding villages, prevented the water from going to upper Mengzong village. Therefore, this government project failed, although it did establish an empty water box. After the project is failed, the villagers requested a pumping system to pump water to the village, but the costs were more expensive than the system for lower Mengzong village. The people living in upper Mengzong village could not afford this expense. Three years later, after villagers consistently asked for a running water system from the village and township leaders, the leaders found that there is an old spring available 3.5 km away from the village. The existence of this spring showed that there was a possibility to carry out a running water project in the village. The government is very willing to support this project because they want and see the need for a running water system for upper Mengzong village.

Sustainability
The village leader will primarily be in charge of supervising the maintenance of the water project and all of the village households will take turns being responsible for upkeep of the drinking water system. All people in the village and the village committee will be responsible to repair any damages that occur to the system over time.

Past experiences
Basam dorlma is from lower Mengzong village and she has managed several projects in Qinghai Province. In 2003, Basam dorlma implemented and monitored (on a volunteer basis) a 4,500 rmb solar cooker project for lower Mengzong village, which was sponsored by the Canada Fund. In 2004, Basam dorlma did a second-hand clothing project for Xihang village in Jiegu Township, distributing clothes to the poorest families in the village. In 2005, Basam dorlma worked for Bridge Fund, teaching English in Kangsar village, Jiuzhi County, Golok Prefecture for six months. In 2007, Basam dorlma implemented and managed a 5,880 rmb solar electricity generating panel project for a nomadic village called Yejinema in Xia Raxi Township. In 2007, she worked as a member of Canada fund 2006-2007 solar cooker projects. These projects involved traveling to Tibetan villages with two other students to perform interviews.

Time frame

1 day: Hold meeting with the project committee and choose the local workers.

10 days: Villagers prepare sand and stones for the water box.

2 days: Purchase cement, taps and iron bars in Jiegu town, Yushu.

7 days: Purchase plastic pipes (from Lanzhou city in Gansu province).

15 days: Villagers dig the ditches to bury the pipe.

15 days: Running water pipeline is buried in the ditches.

10 days: Water is piped to the households’ courtyard.

5 days: Water taps are adjusted.

1 day: Hold meeting with the village committee.

Total Time: 66 days

Map of the project location