The Water Land and Ecosystems (WLE) project was a two-year research programme initiated in January 2015. The main objectives of the project were to obtain sustainable access to drinking water in the mid hills and agricultural water in the Terai. The spring revival component was implemented jointly with ACWADAM and Helvetas in two districts of Nepal, namely Sindupalchowk and Dailekh. The main outputs from this component were: an eight step methodology manual, study and revival of springs in Dailekh, training of local people in hydrogeology and spring revival techniques, and a video documentary.
Khadgi, then explained the SPIP component of the project in which partners were SunFarmer and Sabal Nepal, an NGO based in Saptari. The project had piloted three SPIPs in Saptari since August 2015. Starting August 2016, the project started an extensive campaign for promoting SPIPs in Saptari which lasted for more than 45 days. More than 2,500 farmers participated in these promotional programmes. ICIMOD had offered varying subsidies to women and men farmers under three different financial models. The promotional campaign led to 65 farmers demanding SPIPs. He pointed out that the project details would be presented by his colleagues through a documentary and a presentation. Khadgi explained that the objective of the workshop was to share the findings of the project with next users and learn from the expert panelists who were later invited to share their views on the projects. Khadgi finally expressed his optimism about receiving guidance from the audience on the project to design and implement future research in better ways.
The session ended with the screening of a video that depicted the work done by the team in partnership with SunFarmer, Sabal and Atom Solar.
The report was co-funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Nepal.