Paul Pholeros Foundation Nepal Sanitation Fellowship 2024

In November 2024 plumbers Andrew Craine and Danny Hoekstra worked in partnership with the Dhulikhel Hospital technical and maintenance team to implement necessary works identified in the sanitation plan developed in 2023 by Andrew and Shane Marshall.

PPF and Dhulikhel Hospital teams – Sanil Makaju, Danny, Shanker Shrestha, Andrew, Pramesh Koju

The Work

Andrew’s return in 2024 facilitated continuity of relationships and the shared understanding about sanitation improvement needs in the Hospital. During the past year the Hospital team had continued with sanitation improvement works identified in 2023.

The 2024 team’s work focussed on removing hot water supply from public bathrooms, installing combination taps to cold water isolators to allow for more accesssible filling of buckets by Hospital staff, testing run-off water into nearby agricultural areas, and finalising the pipe installation/configuration of a roof top tank farm. This last activity will minimise water consumption by stopping overflow of tanks, and will free up maintenance staff for other tasks.

PPF Nepal Coordinator Bishnu Shrestha was on hand to help with local logistics and communications.

The teams also helped to refine the final design of the portable hand wash unit.

Andrew, Shanker and Danny

School based hygiene trough

At the request of Dr Dilip, Public Health Dentist at the Hospital, the PPF team had collaborated with Dilip to design a school based, low tech hygiene trough whereby school children could carry out daily supervised toothbrushing and hand hygiene. The selected school was located in the catchment area of the one of the Hospital’s outreach centre, which Dilip and his team visit regularly to deliver oral health services.

PPF Team with Dr Dilip Prajapati, Community Dentist at Dhulikhel Hospital and PPF Nepal Coordinator Bishnu Shrestha

In early 2024 plumber Andrew returned to Nepal and supervised the construction of the trough, including water supply from an uphill spring via a water tank on the school roof. The project was very well received by the school team.

Thank you

A huge thanks to all the team members for their spirited coooperation in improving sanitation conditions, sharing skills, and identifying future collaborative projects. Namaste!!