Project Manager: Rinchen Tso (Ava)
To build one irrigation system for 41 households and improve the lives of the villagers in Xunwa village and three households from Deman Village.
The Shambala Connection funded this project
Rinchen Tso is from Xunwa Village, Daowei Township Xunhua County, Haidong Region, Qinghai Province, China. She is currently working towards an Associate’s degree in English at the Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department English Training Program.
What? To build an irrigation system for 41 households in Xunwa Village and to improve the lives of the people in Xunwa Village and 3 households from Deman Village.
Who? Xunwa Village,Rdo Sbis Township, Xunhua County, Haidong Region, Qinghai Province, China.
Photos of project implementation
We bought these pipes from Huan Shui He market, and the sellers are putting the pipes in the truck.
The pipes arrive in Xunwa Village and villagers are taking the pipes to the Mani Hall.
Villagers are having a meeting before they start to dig the ditch and they are discussing how to divide the wors. The man in the middle (standing) is named Renzen and he is managing the meeting.
The Villagers are digging a ditch.
A skilled laborer called Renzen is using glue to connect the pipes.
This is a truck of cement that we have transported from Xunhua County.
The Villagers are building three systems of water barrier in order to protect ditch that we have just built.
Zhoujia is carrying a big stone to make the ditch strong.
In order to save time, the villagers took lunch from their home and made tea out side when they were building the ditch system, and all the villagers had lunch outside together.
Rinchen Jia and Gongchao are using timbers to build the ditch system.
The village women were carrying sand from the flood plain to the irrigation system.
This is the ditch that we built.
Project summary
Project title: Irrigation Project for Xunwa Village.
Project goal: The overarching aim of this project is to improve the lives of the villagers in Xunwa Village and 3 households from Deman Village. The immediate goal of this project is to build one irrigation system for 41 households in Xunwa and Deman villages. This project also benefits 3 household of 21 people from Deman Village.
Location of project: This project is located in Xunwa Village, Rdo Sbis Township, Xunhua County, Haidong Region, Qinghai Province, China. Xunwa Village is located about 170 km southeast of Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province.
Total beneficiaries
This irrigation project benefited 38 households from Xunwa Village and 3 households from Deman Village. Approximately 241 people directly benefit from this project.
Implementation organization/individual
RinchenTso（Ava, Zhou jia (Rdo Sbis township leader), and Shem Women’s group.
Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group
Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received
The Shem Women’s Group gave 37,000 RMB on 7th April 2008 to the project manager (Rinchen Tso).
Details of project activities
originally planned project activities
1) Discuss the problems of accessing irrigation with the villagers, and decide what can be done to alleviate these problems.
2) Talk with village leader about the community’s most essential needs and how the irrigation problem can be solved.
3) Collect information about and for the project.
4) Talk to other project managers and workers who have experience working on this type of project. Discuss with them about what kinds of materials are needed.
5) Figure out the price of materials in Xunhua County.
6) Hold a meeting with villagers and ask two women and two men to be responsible for the materials, to supervise the construction of the irrigation system.
7) A skilled worker called Renzen, who has done this kind of project in other villages, studies the ground to find out the best place where the new irrigation system should be built.
8) Take pictures of the current local conditions.
9) Write project proposal.
10) Funds are received.
11) Hold a meeting with the villagers to discuss the start date of the project.
12) Meet the contractors, Renzen and Danzen, to arrange when and how the villagers will prepare the sand and stones, and also the ditch where the pipe goes.
13) Purchase materials such as cement from Xunhua County and have the two responsible villagers begin overseeing the project construction.
14) Oversee the participation of the villagers until the project is completed.
16) Interview the villagers to gauge the success of the project.
15) Take pictures of the project after its completion.
16) Send final report to donor.
Activities realized in the framework of the project
1) At the beginning of September 2007, the information related to the irrigation project was collected and the proposal was designed.
2) In December 2007 the proposal was completed.
3) The project was funded by The Shambala Connection in March 2008.
4) On March 15th Rinchen Tso (the project manager) went home and held a meeting with the villagers and decided the start date of the project. At that time, we found out that most of the available workers were at home waiting for the project complementation. So the project manager and the villagers decided to start the project on March 19th, which is just after they finish planting their fields.
5) On March 15th Rinchen Tso held a meeting with the project committee, and told them to take responsibilities for the materials and solve any problems that could happen during the project implementation.
6) From March 19th 2008 the villagers started to dig ditch.
7) Rinchen Tso received 37,000 RMB from Shem Women’s Group on 7th April 2008.
8) On April first, villagers finished digging.
9) On April 8th, pipes and cement that are needed for the ditch were transported to Xunwa Village. A skilled man called Dangzen taught them how to use the pipe connections and other materials.
10) On April 16th 2008, the irrigation project was completed and villagers started to use the ditch which was already dry.
11) On April 16th 2008 Rinchen Tso interviewed some villagers and photos of irrigation project were taken.
12) On April 28th 2008 started to work on the final report.
Project finances
|
|
|
Original Budget |
Actual Budget |
|
||||||
|
Rec |
Item |
Donor Cont |
Local |
Shem Cont |
Total |
Donor |
Local Cont |
Shem Cont |
Total cost |
Differe |
|
Rec |
Ceme |
2,48 |
0 |
0 |
2,48 |
13,0 |
0 |
0 |
13,0 |
-10,5 |
|
Rec |
Proje |
100 |
100 |
0 |
200 |
100 |
100 |
0 |
200 |
0 |
|
Rec |
Skilled
|
2,02 |
0 |
0 |
2,02
|
370 |
1,655 |
0 |
2,025 |
0 |
|
Rec |
Plast |
29,2 |
0 |
0 |
29,2
|
19,0 |
0 |
0 |
19,0 |
+10,2 |
|
Rec |
Plastic Conne ction |
0 |
228 |
0 |
228 |
1,58 |
0 |
0 |
1,58 |
-1,35 |
|
Recei |
glue |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
250 |
0 |
0 |
250 |
-250 |
|
Rec |
trans |
2,00 |
0 |
0 |
2,00 |
2,70 |
0 |
0 |
2,70 |
-700 |
|
stone |
0 |
1,50 |
0 |
1,50 |
0 |
1,50 |
0 |
1,50 |
0 |
|
|
Note #7 |
Sand |
1,00 |
0 |
0 |
1,00 |
0 |
1,00 |
0 |
1,00 |
0 |
|
|
Unski |
0 |
12,0 |
0 |
12,0 |
0 |
12,0 |
0 |
12,0 |
0 |
|
|
Proje |
0 |
0 |
500 |
500 |
0 |
0 |
500 |
500 |
0
|
|
|
Total |
36,8 |
13,8 |
500 |
51,1 |
37,0 |
16,2 |
500 |
53,7 |
#8 -2,57 |
Notes
Note #1
Before we planned to buy 155 bags of cement which is about 9.5 tons. During the project implementation we found out that we could not use the pipes in the ditches which are zigzagging, so we decided to use cement instead and we bought totally 50 tons of cement.
Note #2
We needed more cement than we planed, and most of the money was spent on it, so the donor contribution covered the labor of the skilled workers and the villagers paid the rest of 1,655 RMB.
Note #3
We planned to buy 650 meters of pipes before, and then we used cement for about 150 meters and for that length of piping we only need 19,000 RMB.
Note #4
Because of the local contribution was spent on the skilled workers, the project manager used the money left from pipes to purchase connections, and we bought more connections than we planned as needed.
Note #5
We have not included the glue in original budget but later we found out that we needed glue to connect pipes and connections, so we bought 10 bottles of glue which cost 250 RMB.
Note #6
The transportation fee we asked before was not enough, because recently the prices went up and we needed to pay 700 RMB extra.
Notes #7
Because the money the project manager asked from donor was not enough, the villagers bought sand which cost 1000 RMB.
Note#8
This amount of money was paid by the local people.
Delays, Difficulties, and lessons learned
Delays
At the start date of the project, the funds were not in the manager’s hand yet, and the villagers doubted whether she could get the money and were not sure whether they should start digging the ditch. After project manager told all the reasons and also under the help of village leader, the villagers were convinced and they started digging. The reason why the project manager wanted to start the project before she got the grant is that after middle April almost all the villagers would go out to dig caterpillar fungus, then the project implementation would be delayed.
After the villagers finished digging, the project was stopped for about 8 days, because the project manger couldn’t get money from Shem. At that time she communicated with the villagers the difficulties again and they agreed to wait for the funds. According to the rule we had agreed on before, no one could leave the village before the completion of the project to earn money by doing jobs outside.
Difficulties
During the project implementation, the most serious problem the project manger encountered was that she told villagers that she would get the money right after the villagers finished digging, but she didn’t get money on time and villagers waited for about 8 days.
Another problem is villagers and the project manager miscalculated the amount of cement we needed, as a result the villagers contributed about extra 2,800 rmb to this project.
Beside this, the time of project implementation happened at the same time of school time so the project manger could only purchase the materials and transport them home during the weekends, so sometimes the project manger felt very stressed doing both work and study. In addition, since she could only be there for the weekend, she could not take some important pictures of the project.
Lessons learned
During the implementing of the irrigation project, one thing which the project manager learned is that one needs to be ready to convince and negotiate with others. Communication is the key to solving problems, especially when disagreements and conflicts arise among people. She learned that when we are implementing a project any unexpected things could happen and one needs to be ready to solve it and make necessary decisions. For example, after the villagers finished digging ditch the money had not arrived yet and they waited for several days. So the project manager needed to convince the villagers to believe her.
During the project implementation, she also learned about the importance of cooperation. Not only among village people, whose teamwork was so important for the project, but also between the village, Shem group, The Shambala connection and the project manger; their cooperation and involvement determined the success of the project. For example, the project manger didn’t communicate with Shem group and went home to start the project, later she found out that Shem couldn’t give her money right away and caused a delay of several days.
Interviews
1) Niangji
He is fifty one years old and there are five people in his family. He said that before doing this irrigation project they asked government to do this project many times, but the government said they were not able to do the project. He had never imagined that a college student could do such project. He said that with the new irrigation system they don’t need to fix the ditch again and again during the summer time. It makes their lives much easier.
2) Cairang Drojie
He is sixty-nine years old and there are seven people in his family. He is happy to see this new ditch, because he is the one who needs to irrigate the field every summer. The young people in his family left the village to earn money. It is especially hard when they need to fix the ditch again, so after the project was funded he gave special attention to this project and always went to check the ditch to make sure that the project was going well.
3) Lumo Drolma
She is a twenty-eight years old woman. There are three people in her family. Her father is sick all the time, and she is divorced from her husband. She is responsible for all of the work in her household. She is especially busy during the summer time, as she takes care of her one year old baby, finish house chores, and at the same time she needs irrigate her field.
Letter of appreciation
Translation of the Thanks Letter
Dear The Shambala Connection,
Xunwa Villagers mostly rely on farming and the irrigation system that we rebuilt is located beyond Xunwa Village; this irrigation system is the one that we used to irrigate about 200 mu of field and it’s very important for Xunwa Village. Before we built this irrigation system, during the summer time the floods destroyed the ditches and the fields. However, this year a student called Rinchen Tso from Xunwa Village and Shambala Connection helped Xunwa Village to build such an irrigation ditch. Villagers worked hard during this time and in order to protect the irrigation system we just built five barriers. This strong ditch will affect our crop production.
So all the villagers from Xunwa Village wish all the Shambala Connection members all the best and thank you very much for everything you have done for us. Thank you!
From: Xunwa Village
16th April 2008
Receipts
Receipt 1
Receipt 2
Receipt 3
Receipt 4
Receipt 5
Original Proposal
Project Location
Daowei Township is about 30 kilometers from Xunhua County Town and it is in the southwest of Xunhua County. Xunhua County is 105 kilometers from city Xining. Xunhua is situated in Haidong Region, Qinhai Province, China. There are two parts of Xunwa Village that are located in two different geographical regions. All the people in this area are Tibetan.
Population
There are approximately 220 people in Xunwa Village. There are 69 men, 70 women, and there are 81 children in the Xunwa Village.
Education
In this village, 10% of the people are literate 8% of people got primary school education and 2% of people got middle school education, (not including student). Students make up twenty percent of the population. There are 16 University students (7 girls and 9 boys), 14 high school students (8 girls and 6 boys), 10 middle school students (3 girls and 7 boys), and 21 primary school students (9 girls and 12 boys). There are about 7 school-aged children in the village who do not attend school (3 girls and 4 boys). On average, one child in each family currently attends school. Some families do not want to send their children to school, because they believe that education is a waste of money and time.
Cash Income
Xunwa Village is mainly made up of farmers who grow barley, wheat, and potatoes. Rich families, who own fourteen mu (1mu=0.0666 hectares), can sell their excess barley and earn about 2,000 RMB each year. Most families have twelve to thirteen mu of land, which is enough for them and their animals to live off and is enough to sell excess barley.
A second way that villagers earn money is from livestock, as most families usually own cows. From the cow’s milk, villagers produce butter and cheese to generate extra income. Because people do not eat butter or cheese very often, most of them can be sold. A family can earn about 500-600 RMB per year by selling butter and cheese. Most households can make about 15 kilograms of butter and 15 kilograms of cheese each year. One Jin of butter and cheese cost 6 RMB.
The third way of generating cash income is working as a migrant laborer. Adults, who are able to work, usually dig caterpillar fungus, which is very difficult to find. Each caterpillar fungus can sell for around 10 to 15 RMB. People usually go to dig the fungus at the beginning of May and come back in the middle if June. During good seasons each person can earn about 1500-2000 RMB, but good seasons are happening less and less frequently. All of the money earned in this way is spent on school children’s tuition fees and family costs, such as New Year festivities. In one year, a village family spends about 500 RMB on food and 400 RMB on clothing. In one month, a household will spend another 100 RMB on electricity and other essentials. In the summer, villagers need to buy fertilizer, which costs 800-900 RMB.
In total, the average family can make about 4500 RMB in cash income per year, and they have to spend around 4100 RMB per year. This leaves the average family with 400 RMB left over each year. If the family has a student who attends university, then they need to borrow money from others to afford the tuition.
Agriculture
Thirty-eight households make up Xunwa Village, and villagers grow barley, wheat and potatoes. One mu of agricultural land can produce around 350 – 400 kilograms of barley. Each household approximately has thirteen mu of wheat and two mu of potatoes in my village’s lands grow.
Herding
All of the villagers in Xunwa Village are farmers and each family has an average of four animals – one cow, one pig, and two sheep. The sheep and cows are used for milking and the products they produce, while the pigs are for eating. As stated previously, by selling butter and cheese, villagers can earn about 500-600 RMB per year, depending on how much butter and cheese a family can save. This money is used to buy everyday essentials, such as medicine and salt.
Project Goal
The overarching aim of this project is to improve the lives of the villagers in Xunwa village and three households from Deman Village. The immediate goal of this project is to build one irrigation system for 41 households in Xunwa village. This project also benefits 3-house household around 21people from Deman Village. And more convenience for everyone especially child who are go to school they have more time to study.
Problems
Limited access to water
The ditches that the villagers used to irrigate the fields are in a very poor condition because there are no any ditches that are made by cement or stone, the ditches are just made by natural trench, in that case if it’s rain day then the flood will destroy the ditches and sometimes villagers need to fix three or four times per day. Then villagers could not field irrigate for ten or eleven days which cause the villagers can not have good yield from the field.
Conflict with children’s education
During the summer time all the men go out and earn money for their families. Women are left at home to irrigate the fields. This makes it necessary for the village children to spend their entire weekends doing housework and taking care of younger siblings. Doing these chores leaves no time for students to do their homework and study.
Unhealthy and unsafe
The people whose turn it is to irrigate their fields must look after the water day and night to prevent thieves. Because the ditch is shared between two villages, some people want to use the water when it is not their turn. Villagers must look after the pool every night, and when they are on guard they cannot sleep. The combination of not sleeping and spending time in the cold weather causes many illnesses. Also, during the summer nights women usually have to look after the ditch, because usually men are not at home during the summer. Women, who look after the ditch, face many potential dangers, such as assault and rape. For example, five years ago a woman named Latso was raped by a stranger while she was guarding the ditch. When she got pregnant she could not endure the villager’s insults so she committed suicide.
Conflict between villagers
When they can not finish irrigating their filed in the day time then people are upset and curses each other, this cause happen many problems. For example Limao Tso and Nianmao Jia are fight and their not going talk to each other.
Time consuming
When people go to guard the water at night, they must stay awake. But sometimes they can take turns to guard the water for cretin hours. However, in the morning they still have to go home to cook for their family and complete household chores such as milking and cooking.
Benefits
Have access to water
If Xunwa Village had a better ditch with a good condition to irrigate the fields then the ditches could hold more water and probably will have good yield. If the flood comes the ditches wouldn’t be destroyed, because ditches will be made of cement and stone and People don’t need to fix the ditches again and again.
Children will have more study time
With more convenient field irrigation, children will not need to spend their weekends doing housework, and instead spending their time completing homework or doing other activities.
Health and safety
An irrigation system will allow the villagers to stay at home in the evenings. They will not have to go outside at night or in the cold. This will allow them to stay healthier and safer, getting rid of the health problem like backache and cold, and there won’t be conflicts between villagers cause of water.
Save time
If Xunwa village have a good ditch to irrigate the field, this would make irrigation faster because there would be more water to use. More than one person could irrigate at a time, and the task of irrigating a field would be shorter. With the convenience of a ditch to irrigate the fields, villagers will not need to get up so early in the morning. Villagers will have more time for leisure activities; such as sing a son and knitting.
Beneficiaries
This irrigation project will benefit 38 households from Xunwa village and 3 households from Deman Village. Approximately 241 people will get benefit from this project directly including the people in Xunwa Village and Deman village
Gender equality
The project will be implemented and managed in Xunwa Village. It will benefit mostly women because in Xunwa Village field irrigation is women’s work. Meanwhile in the summer time all the men went out and earn money for their family. In this case only women stay at home and irrigate fields and do house work. Also most of the men think that women are useless in their family. They cannot earn money for their family. In addition to reducing the burdens for women, after women complete this project they will be allowed greater involvement in village affairs and will experience a raised position in the village.
Effect on children
Field irrigation has many effects on children. During weekends or holidays, while parents are out irrigating their fields, older children help their parents to look after their little brothers and sisters or help to do housework. Hence, they have no time to study while they are at home. In this case they cannot focus on education and because of their family obligations their studies get worse and worse. So, they begin to feel less interested in studying and eventually they want to give up their studying. If we continue doing this in our community, then there is less and less people will get education. They will not have the opportunity to expand their minds. It is really important to have a good ditch for field irrigation and let children get education, and in that way they will not suffer like their parents and grand parents.
Government Approval
The village leader Rendzen asked the local Township government to do an irrigation project for Xunhua Village many years ago, but neither the village nor the government has money to carry out the project. With secured project funding, the Township leader Drojie supports this project fully. On 9th August 2007 I talked to Township leader and they are happy to hear that if I can do Irrigation Project for Xunwa Village.
Project activities
1. Discuss the ditch problems with villagers and decide what can be done for the problems. (DONE)
2. Talk with village leader about the community’s most essential needs and how the ditch problem can be solved. (DONE)
3. Collect information for the project. (DONE)
4. Talk to other project managers and workers who have experience working on this type of project. Discuss with them about what kinds of materials are needed. (Done)
5. Talk to other project managers and workers who have experience working on irrigation projects. Determine with them the needed materials. (DONE)
6. Figure out the price of materials in Xunhua County. (Done)
7. Determine the price of materials in Xunhua County. (DONE)
8. Hold a meeting with villagers and ask two women and two men (Zhoudai and Wanma, Reko and Limaojia) to be responsible for the materials, and to supervise the condition of the ditch system. One woman will take care of the materials. One woman is responsible for the ditch. (DONE)
9. Have the skilled worker, Rinzen, who had done this kind of project in the other villages, study the ground to find out the best place to build the new ditch system. (DONE)
10. Take picture of the current local conditions. (DONE)
11. Write project proposal. (DONE)
12. Funds are received
13. Hold a meeting with the villagers to discuss the start date of project.
14. Meet the contractors, Rinzen, Rinchen, Jiaona jia, to arrange when and how the villagers will prepare the sand and stone, and the ditch where the pipe goes.
15. Start to work on the construction.
16. Oversee the participation of the village until the project is completed.
17. Interview the villagers to evaluate the success of the project.
18. Take pictures of the project after its completion.
19. Send final report to donor.
Financial Budget
|
Item |
Number of items |
Price per item in RMB |
Donor contribution in RMB |
|
Stone |
30 tractor trips |
50/trip |
0 |
|
Sand |
20 tractor trips |
50/trip |
1,000 |
|
Unskilled labor |
20 workers for 30days |
20/person/day |
0 |
|
Skilled worker |
3 workers for 15 days |
45/person /day |
2,025 |
|
Cement |
155 bags |
16/bag |
2,480 |
|
Plastic pipe#150 |
650 m |
45/m |
29,250 |
|
Plastic connection |
12 connectors |
19/connectors |
0 |
|
Project Management expenses |
Transportation and phone call |
|
100 |
|
Project Management payment |
|
|
0 |
| Transportaton of cement, pipes, and connectors |
1 trip |
2,000/trip |
2,000 |
| Total | 36,855 |
|
Local contribution in RMB |
Other resource In RMB (Shem) |
Total cost in RMB |
|
1,500 |
0 |
1,500 |
|
0 |
0 |
1,000 |
|
12,000 |
0 |
12,000 |
|
0 |
0 |
2,025 |
|
0 |
0 |
2,480 |
|
0 |
0 |
29,250 |
|
228 |
0 |
228 |
|
100 |
0 |
200 |
|
0 |
500 |
500 |
|
0 |
0 |
2,000 |
| 13,828 | 500 | 51,183 |
Donor contribution: 36,855 RMB
Local contribution: 13,828 RMB
Shem Women’s Group donation: 500RMB
Total cost: 51,183 RMB>
Sustainability
The deep desire and need for an irrigation system gives the Xunwa Villagers a sincere interest in its’ long-term success. The villagers are also invested in the system as they will be responsible for building and maintaining it, helping to ensure its’ sustainability. Xunwa Village had plan on repair the irrigation system two years ago, but has not had the funds necessary. Villagers are confident in their village leader who will continue to advocate for the success of this project for years to come. By using local suppliers with a guaranteed return policy, the villagers are assured of the high quality of their project materials. The suppliers also have guaranteed a return policy. And my village leader is a responsible man and he promised me that he will remain villagers, if is there any problems, because he was happy about the project.
Past experience
I successfully completed two second-hand clothing projects in Xunwa Village, one is completed 9th January 2006 and other is 8th August 2006 both of them supported by the British Consulate in Shanghai and Kleisath’s family.
The map of the project location
Photos
This is Xunwa Village’s pool where water is saved each day.
.
This is the ditch currently used by Xunwa Village. This ditch is easily damaged by floods or weather.
This is gradually destroyed by nature and our ditch is on top of this, and beside this there is a flood plain, and if floods come in the summer the ditch is easily destroyed
This is ditch, which is made from Xunwa Village last year, because last summer almost all the ditch was destroyed by flood and, Xunwa Villagers repair it again.
In this house, there are the controls for the water in the pool