Projekt Lo - Upper Mustang

Wir brauchen eine Chance / We need a chance

H.E.L.P. - NEWS

April - May - June 2011

H.E.L.P. Team & friends travelling to Lo Manthang and Yara

Dharma & Karma are since the 16th of april 2011 in Kathmandu, Nepal, finishing up preparation work for a journey organized in cooperation with ISHTAR™ to Lo Manthang und Yara.

The team and friends will visit Yara and get to know its population and the situation on site.

In cooperation and the support of ACAP (Annapurna Conservation Area Project) the team and ACAP’s engineer will make all measurements, draw up plans and make all calculations aswell as the budget for phase 1 of the project.

H.E.L.P. is still looking for companies, private persons or any NGO ready to support our project financially and/or working on site.

Whoever is knowledgable in the fields of alternative energies, waterpumps, waste disposal, etc. is more than welcome to share any knowledge with us.

We are also looking for people from the medical field willing to spend one or two months per year in Upper Mustang, helping on site.

We will inform on this website about all the steps and progress of the project, in word and pictures.

“Road” in the center of Kagbeni

mail an H.E.L.P.


	YARA - PROJECT PHASE 1 „Yara“ Irrigation water - situation Yara is a village in the „Forbidden Kingdom of Lo“ (called „Mustang“ by the non-Buddhist inhabitants of Nepal) in „Upper Mustang“. It is situated at about 13‘000 feet above sea level in a small side valley of the Kali Gandhaki and Tsarang Khola. Because of its protected location Yara is considered amongst the people of Lo as a blessed place for its very fertile earth and possible cultivation of a great variety of grains and many different vegetables.

Yara is one of two places in the Upper Mustang to meet these favorable local conditions. As a consequence of the worldwide climate change the village and its surrounding area has had few and fewer access to water for the past 20 years. Currently less than half of the acreage can be cultivated. Due to the lack of a proper irrigation system, the people of Yara can no longer take full advantage of these excellent conditions. This has dire consequences.

Due to the fact that the cultivated areas cannot be sufficiently irrigated either, the cultivated barley reach to but a third or max. half the usual size. For the last 15 years the inhabitants of this very remote village have been asking for help from their government; but despite promises, they have been given just 17 meters of pipe (remainders) instead of the required 2650 meters.

To prevent the anyway poorly flowing water from seeping into the ground an incredibly hard and arduous work has to be undertaken


	To guide the little water save through the dry river bed into the shallow, and much to small, natural reservoir, the whole 2500 meters length of natural ditches must be coated with clay containing earth daily during three weeks. After every 3 weeks there is a two week break, used to water the fields. Then it starts all over again.


	This task is undertaken by each family taking turns. With simple tools the women and children over 13 years of age dig out from the mountain slopes around 6000 kg clay containing earth per day. This material is then carried to the required places in baskets and used to coat the ditch over its full length of 2650m.


	Often older men and smaller children also help to distribute the clay and coat the ditch. Every day the children are checking the whole length of the ditch, doing small repair works. They are therefore unable to go to school for most of the year, often not going to school at all.


	Afterwards, during two weeks the fields of each family are flooded one after the other. Because of the water shortage the fields cannot be sufficiently flooded. With enormous effort the stream is separated, divided and redirected into different fields and from there to irrigate the various plots.

Bewässern der Felder / Irrigation of the fields


	Help Ensures Life & Prosperity

YARA - PROJECT

PHASE 1

„Yara“ Irrigation water - situation