* DOCUMENT : 4

NEPAL

BACKGROUND AND CASE STUDY OF SETTLEMENT AND SLUM IMPROVEMENTS IN NEPAL: THE ROLE OF THE URBAN POOR IN KATMANDU


Background: country and urban situation

Nepal, known for its natural beauty and the highest mountain in the world, is according to World Bank indicators, one of the least developed countries in the world. The country, historically a kingdom, had a multi party democratic system introduced in 1990, but it failed to sustain the process due to corruption. There are 58 municipalities and 80 Town Development Committees in the country. Most of the urban functions like water provision, sewerage disposal and roads are centralized and the responsibility of His Majesty’s National Government. A Local Self Governance Act was introduced in 1999 in a move towards attempt to decentralizing governance, but the national government is still in control. The elections held for local governments in the 1990s, was not repeated after 5 years due to the internal conflict[1] and security reasons. The local government was headed by the bureaucrats nominated from the central government, until three years ago when the former mayors or senior political leaders were appointed to head municipalities and village development committees.

Of the population of 23 million in Nepal, 14%-20 % is living in urban areas. This is increasing with 6.5% per year[2]. Katmandu Valley is the urban center of Nepal and include five major cities: Katmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Kirtipur and Thimi with more than 1.1 million people, (220,000 households). One third live in slum dwellings and 18,000 people are squatting (without land rights). [3]
The Katmandu Metropolitan Municipality is divided in 35 different wards and funds are allocated to wards for development

POVERTY IN NEPAL:

According to Nepal’s tenth national five year plan, 38% of the population in Nepal lives at or below the poverty line - 23% in urban areas, and 44% in rural areas. The World Bank describes Nepal as one of the least developed countries in the world with an annual per capita income of US$227 – below the extreme poverty line of US$ 275 per annum.
In Katmandu the poor is estimated to be 15.1% according to the Willingness to Pay survey[4]: Due to the higher cost of living in Katmandu the government’s poverty indicator of US$128 (Rs9,000) is too low, and people cannot make ends meet. [5]The poor households are generally from a specific cultural group, Dalit (low caste) community or indigenous people culturally excluded from development opportunities.

The Urban poor are hidden, living in rented accommodation and small pockets of squatter or slum settlements spread over the city.

LAND AND SERVICES:

Secure tenure:
Secure tenure problems amongst the poor in Nepal have not reached the extremes that are to be found amongst the poor in other developing countries. In Nepal 8.9% of the people live in rented accommodation, while 88% people own their own houses. This does not indicate that all house owners have access to water and sanitation. Urban areas occur in Nepal where people with land ownership live in poor environmental conditions, without access to proper sanitation and water. These are called “slums” in Nepal to differentiated them from “squatters”, which are informal settlements where people built houses without legal title to land.

Land management in Nepal is centralized and the municipality has no land to dispose of. Land is either privately owned or belong to the central government. Most of the informal settlements are on government land.

Squatter settlements in Katmandu started in the 1950s when rural migrants moved into cities looking for employment. During the years those that were too poor to afford accommodation add to the numbers and by 2000 there were according to the Katmandu Metropolitan Council, 61 squatter settlements with 2,031 households and 11,851 people.

The Housing Department of the National Government through the Katmandu Valley Town Development Committee (KVTDC), is developing land through land pooling, focusing on the middle or upper income people on a smallscale. Private developers and owners are responsible for making available the bulk of land. There is no policy or development plans in place to support the poor to access land. In Nepal the urban poor put land as a priority, but without success. Development workers and members from organized communities express their fears that attitudes to the poor are in generally very negative and that any development efforts are seen as encouraging squatting. Lumanti, the NGO supporting the urban poor to improve their environment, proposed that 5-7% of the land in the land pooling project of the KVTDC been allocated to the poor, and to also give directives to developers to do the same.

Lumanti found the land issues, due to the total lack of housing or urban land policies being in place, too much of a challenge for the community to address in the beginning stages of community organization. The organization therefore focuses on addressing housing rights and the upgrading of sanitation, drainage and water. This lead to a situation in practice where upgrading of the environment took place without secure land tenure.

Sewer:
Water and sewerage is again the responsibility of National Government: Sewerage in Katmandu is disposed of in the Bagmati and Bishnumati rivers passing through the city. The only polluted river water currently being treated is those entering the Pashupati temple area. Solid waste is also dumped by the municipalities on the banks of the rivers. Often these river areas are also where the poor find space to build their shelters. Private latrines are not common among squatter households with only 3% having access, while only 15% are described as sanitary.[6]

Water:
Water in the Katmandu Valley[7] is mostly supplied by the Nepal Water Supply Corporation (NWSC), a government agency. The poor use NWSC connections, as well as tube or dug wells, spring fed stone spouts, the river, public stand posts (with or without meters), rain harvesting and illegal connections[8].
According to a survey conducted among the poor only 5.1% of the households in 14 communities had NWSC connection. On average households collect 64 liters of water per day and spend 65 minutes per day for water collection which they store in recycled containers.

Water supply from the Corporation is also not viewed as affordable to the poor. Private connection costs for a 100 ft pipe line will be US$61(RS4300) and for 500 feet US$155(RS10,900). Current tariffs which are 10 cubic meter for US$0.57 (RS40) for individual meters, and a flat monthly rate of US$11.50 (RS 809) for stand posts are delivered below the cost of supply.
The NWSC and government policy[9] do not entitle squatters to water connections, but in practice NWCS will install water through an intermediary like a Ward officer or an NGO.

Water supplies are insufficient in Katmandu – the supply varies from area to area – some areas are completely dry for periods. It is a very unreliable source and the water is of a poor quality and not potable[10]. To obtain drinkable water, households have to make provisions for alternative arrangements, like installing filtering devices, boiling of water, installing pumps or building additional storage tanks to enable them to buy from vendors and tankers[11]. All these comes with extra installation and energy expenses, which place additional burdens on the poor.


Plans for privatization of water supply and sanitation services:
His Majesty’s Government of Nepal (HMGN) want to privatize the water supply and the sanitation services in the Katmandu Valley to a private operator within the next 10 years, as the NWSC do not meet the requirements and standards of the national programs. This privatization is foreseen to worsen the situation for the poor, as the current water supplies are not affordable and the tendency of privatization is to increase tariffs. There are also serious concerns in the civil society about how the poor will be effected by this changes. The NGO Forum for Urban Water and Sanitation ((NGOFUWS) was established to ensure equitable access to water. The group facilitates studies and workshops to address this issue. [12]

URBAN POOR ACTIVITIES:

The urban poor in Nepal, supported by an NGO, Lumanti, is organized in two Federations. Lumanti was founded in 1993 to improve the living conditions of urban poor with a focus on shelter. They started their community based programme in 1996. They are involved in a wide range of activities which include education/school support, service installation (water and sanitation), advocacy on housing rights, community empowerment training etc.

Saving and credit groups amongst poor women started in 1996 and have grown to 114 groups involving 1,953 households in 2002. They are active in the community development activities and participate in the Federation meetings. Some of the groups are also organized more formally into cooperatives according to the cooperative laws. The women formed the Women’s Federation, Nepal Mahila Ekta Samaj (NMES), to empower the women, while another Federation, Nepal Mahila Ekta Samaj was formed in 1998, to fight for housing rights. The aim of this Federation is to achieve improvements and security of shelter of squatter and slums in Nepal. Both these organizations are registered as NGOs, and are open for individual household membership.

Case Study of Sanitation and Water improvements:

Lumanti facilitated sanitation and water programs in poor communities like Lonhla, in Patan ( also known in Lalitpur), Nepal. Patan is famous for its historical temples at the Durbar Square. The Lonhla (meaning stone path) community is within walking distance from this Square and exists out of 35 households, from the butcher caste, which is regarded as a lowercaste[13]. Before the project was initiated a survey by Lumanti was conducted followed by meetings with the communities. A women saving group was formed, the Arati Women Saving and Credit Group, which helped the women to actively participate in the project, without undermining the role of the men. One member was also exposed to the work of Mahila Milan in Bombay, which inspire the women to work on their own drainage program, although facing a lack of confidence.

The lack of toilets was seen as the greatest problem of the community. “Close to the community, there were two separate open spaces for men and women especially for toilet purposes. They were not able to construct the toilets because there was no drainage system and lack of enough space to build pit latrines. The women were the hardest hit of the problem because they faced more problems during menstruation. The surrounding other communities had drainage facilities and only Lonhla was left out in that area” [14],

The community also lack a constant supply of drinking water, which dry up during the summer, when the water reservoir levels become low. The level of ground water also decreased. As they decided to install their drainage they decided also to install water. The women visited the NWSC office and succeeded in getting pipes for the installation. The path to do the construction work was not smooth. The neighbouring community did not want the digging to continue and the women acted as “ peace keepers” when the situation became conflicting. The neighbours demanded a longer route for the drainage pipe, which resulted in additional costs and delays. The construction work was completed in 39 days of hard work and was managed by the women. They bought materials and supervised the labour.

Nanihera a 35 year old single woman from the Lonhla community shared her story with us. She grew up in her house in Patan. Her mother of 70 years are also living in the house with two of her brothers and their children. “We had no sewer lines and no pavements. The roads were dirty. We now have a savings and credit group with 12 members. The women do not depend on their husbands for money and can borrow money for children’s school fees - or for small shops or businesses. I am running a butchery which I took over from my father. The shop is close by the house. To start the project in the beginning key persons in the community were contacted and told about the project. For one year we had meetings to prepared for the project. Forty one houses contributed each 500 rupees for the sewer and 300 for paving. For the toilet we contributed half the money, so this project is ours - we feel we own this project. We had to buy 125 pipes, since the distance is far. We had to fight for one year. Not everybody agreed to the project. The men were not happy with the women coming out and leading the project. We as women were ashamed about our environment – it was dirty, and we had many difficulties without toilets, having to use public spaces, and because of these problems we had to convince everyone to get involved. When we got toilets we also needed water. Before we got water from the stone tap at the square in pitchers. I had to go four times a day to the square to get water. We did the construction work for the upgrading ourselves and the work was voluntary. The women brought water for the project in pitchers and carried bricks in flat metal pans on their heads. We are still having problems with water - only little water comes from our taps. We are waiting for the Melamchim Project of the government. I am telling many visitors from other communities about our project and have also visited other places like Cambodia, Bangkok and Mumbai. We were not aware that women can become involved in their own development and now we can also share our experiences with other communities in Nepal."

Response of the Local Government:

Although local ward officers do on occasion help the communities to access water, there is no significant support from the local or national government for the efforts of the poor.
Recent dealings with the reappointed mayor of Katmandu indicated a promising political breakthrough. Mr Keshav Sthapit wants to support the poor by including them in a new land development scheme. He has become sensitive to the plights of the poor, and views them as part of the city. The communities linked to the Nepali’s Federation invited him to visit their community based programs as chief guest and he also inaugurated the model house exhibition of the Federation in 1999. During his five year term as elected Mayor the World Bank support the Katmandu Municipality to prepare a city development strategy. Due to the influence of international organization’s program support (World Bank’s support for a city development strategy and the UNDP Urban Governance program) the Local Authority and politicians became more aware of the importance of recognizing the poor. For the first time the Federations had an opportunity to give their input, since poor people’s participation was required by the World Bank. Local Authority started to recognize the existence of the poor, and they recommended that there is a need to upgrade the settlements. The Municipality participated also in a UNDP Urban Governance initiative, thereby raising further awareness on urban poverty issues.

The land development scheme proposes land sharing on land situated half an hour from the city of Katmandu. The land is to be bought from a Corporation and used as collateral to borrow money from the bank for the development. The idea is to use one fifth of the area for low income housing and the remainder for parks, sports fields and commercial housing. The poor is to be employed for the construction work. This is within the framework of the policy proposed by Lumanti to the Katmandu Valley Town Development Committee .
Although the mayor indicated that they will look into existing squatter areas, to see if they can get land ownership, this more feasible approach which will keep the poor people close to existing sources of income, is not a priority. On the other hand once the land sharing project is taking place, this might open doors for further pro-poor strategies to developed.

Scaling up on upgrading projects

Characteristics of the process in Nepal

The Lonhla upgrading project was one of 30 upgrading projects in Katmandu and outside of the city. The upgrading process is initiated with the NGO does a needs assessment with the community. The different committees like those from the saving groups and other women groups will prioritise their needs, which will be followed by a feasibility study on the kind of project identified. A project committee, nominated by the community which have to include women will be formed, to do the implementation. Grants are used for implementation and the community will contribute 30-40% in labour and cash. The community also negotiate for resources from the Local Government. Exchanges between communities enable communities to learn from each other about the upgrading process.

Lumanti with their partners foresee that they will address the major sanitation and water problems of the poor in Katmandu within the next two to three years. During the coming year they plan three upgrading projects in each four different peri-urban communities (Village Development Committees) in the Katmandu Valley. Another three projects are planned in the municipality of Dharan in East Nepal.

The federations have the ambition to involve more people, including more of the poor outside of the Katmandu Valley. During a workshop held in October 2003 in Dulekhel the Federations discussed the establishment of their own loan fund. This initiative will give the opportunity for poor people to borrow money to improve their environment, shelter and income. The members will contribute 15% of their membership fees to the fund. This fund is seen as a tool to increase the participation of the poor in the Federation activities.

Although the physical improvements are being addressed by the NGOs and communities in Katmandu, there are still major problems in the Katmandu Valley with inefficient bulk water supplies and waste and sanitation disposals. The future plans of privatization might address the problems related to water supply, but the changes that the poor will benefit from this will be slim. Additionally the lack of secure tenure is still a risk for communities. This came out clearly when the Mayor addressed the leaders during the workshop at Dulekhel, and the women felt very concerned about the land ownership in existing squatter settlements.

Remarks
* From the information shared by the Nepali organizations, it appears that they follow a project approach where the upgrading is initiated by the NGO, facilitating a needs assessment.
* The saving activity is not the core organizing tool, but rather the committees. The women’s saving is just one of many activities in the community. The larger community elects committees for the development initiatives.
* Saving groups aim to register as cooperatives to become independent from Lumanti. It is not quite clear how this registration is making groups more independent. It appears that the poor people trust the formal regulations more than themselves, and they have moved the burden of trust from the NGO to the cooperative department in the government. It is not unusual for the poor relying more on formal structures rather than initiating community driven processes, but will this build their confidence and capacity to scale up initiatives?
* The projects are dependent on grants and the NGO facilitation. Sixty percent of the contribution is in the form of grants, but this is only feasible because of the relative straightforward type of project which does not involve large scale infra structure. The capacity to address larger scale projects could assist the poor and their partners to become active role players in addressing the land issues.

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[1] Maoist revolutionists embarked on a People’s War in 1996

[2] Lumanti (2002): Shadows of Development: Housing the Urban Poor (An Experience from Vishnati Link Road Project).

[3] Kathmandu Valley Water Supply – Proposals for Services to the Poor – Draft 10/4/2002, p 5

[4] Willingness to Pay for Improved Water Supply in the Kathmandu Vallley, Nepal. Draft Report, Research Triangle Institute, June 2001

[5] Kathmandu Valley Water Supply and Sanitation – Proposals for Services to the Poor – Draft 10/4/2002

[6] Willingness to Pay for Improved Water Supply in the Katmandu Valley, Nepal. Draft Report, Research Triangle Institute, June 2001.

[7] NGO Forum for Urban Water and Sanitation: Mapping and Enumerating Unconnected Urban Poor in Kathmandu Valley ; Covering Four Municipalities (Bhaktapur, Madyapur, Lalitpur and Kirtipur) .

[8] Kathmandu Valley Water Supply – p6

[9] Kathmandu Valley Water Supply and Sanitation, p7

[10] According to Million Development Goal statistics of the UN, 94% of the Nepalese population have access to improved drinking water sources – but if the water is not potable how do one apply this statistic?

[11] 10,000 liters will cost from US$11-14 (RS800 – 1000)

[12] Katmandu Valley Water Supply and Sanitation: Proposal for Services to the poor.

[13] Although constitutionally all people are equal citizens the lower casts still faces social discrimination.

[14] Manandhar, Lajana: Women in Planning and Implementation of a Drainage Construction Project: An Experience from Lonhla Community in Patan, Nepal, Trialog 6, 1999.