April 2000

30th April 2000

Xinli Drinking Water Supply

Xinli VillageThe two separate water supply systems in Xinli Village are nearing completion, providing 325 people in three hamlets with mountain spring water piped to their homes. The project, which started in 1999, was supported with funds from Misereor of Germany.

Previously, the community were using shallow wells located near their houses, or stream water. The wells dry up for several months in the winter, and people had to walk higher and higher up the steep gulleys to fetch clean water.

The new water sources were selected by the villagers, and the County Water Conservancy Bureau assisted with the design for the new supply. Two mountain springs are now piped to reservoir tanks above the hamlets and piping brings the water to the courtyard or kitchen of each household.

The reservoir tank above hamlet 6 was leaking due to poor quality construction. The villagers had tried to repair the tank but it still leaked. After discussion with the village leaders DORS invited Chen Dongxiang, a village leader from neighbouring Chenhe Village to assist them to rebuild the tank. Chen Dongxiang had successfully managed three drinking water supply projects in Chenhe. The tank is now in use. Because of disagreement within the village over the project implementation, there are still several households in hamlet 6 not connected to the supply. DORS is working to assist the villagers to find a solution so that the project can be completed as planned.

Women's Micro-credit Scheme

DORS is continuing with micro-credit schemes in 4 villages of Hanyuan. In the Yi village of Banyang where there are 9 hamlets, or natural villages, loans have been made for a second time in 6 of the 9 hamlets. These hamlets have all been loaned to separately. Repayment schedules and loans sizes vary according to both the requirements of the women and to DORS' confidence in their ability to repay. In the Yi village of Sugu second loans have been made in two hamlets and third loans in one. In Na'er Village (Han and Yi) loans have also been made a second time.

The majority of loans in these schemes are for one year, with two six monthly repayments. The loan size is usually around 1000 RMB, although an experiment with larger loan sizes is underway in one location.