Moduo Village, Hanyuan 1998-2005

Photo: Moduo microcredit women

Located on a steep plateau opposite Wansheng Village across a deep gorge, Moduo Village is one of the most remote in Hanyuan County. A two and a half-hour drive is required to reach it from Hanyuan’s county town, Fulin. Most of the village hamlets are situated on the flat plateau, although hamlets 1, 8 and 9 perch on the mountainside above the valley. There are 9 hamlets in the village, the majority clustered together in nuclear form.

Hamlet 1 Drinking Water Supply

Moduo water reservoir (named "Charity Cistern", with other words on it written by villagers)

Hamlet 1 is the nearest to the township government at Yongli and the road from Fulin. There are approximately 40 households in the hamlet, which nestles in a horseshoe valley, with trees and bamboo groves surrounding the mud brick houses. The local name for the hamlet is Wok Bottom due to the resemblance the valley bears to a Chinese cooking pot.

The main sources of income are production of staples (maize and potatoes - the altitude of 1400m is too high for rice) and the sale of fruit (mostly apples). Village land is steep and exposed to strong winds blowing through the Dadu River Valley.

DORS have successfully completed a small drinking water project in hamlet 1. In March 1998 further piping was bought to connect a mountain stream to the pre-existing water system, securing an adequate drinking supply for the winter months. DORS provided a total of 8000 RMB (£592) in funds for materials for this project, which was given direct to the hamlet. The villagers were delighted and 'commissioned' hamlet Leader Mr. Deng Zhaomin to have a formal letter of thanks written up and presented to DORS.

Moduo Village Social and Community Forestry Also in 1998, DORS supported tree planting in Moduo hamlet 1 as one of our Social and Community Forestry projects.

The villagers of hamlet 1 approached DORS with a request for assistance in purchasing trees to grow on their field boundaries and mountain land on the plateau sides. DORS agreed to assist Moduo villagers in purchasing duzhong (a tree whose bark has medicinal properties), prickly ash (Sichuan pepper) and apple trees. After a few years they will be able to sell the fruit and bark at the local markets adding a valuable extra source of income for each family whilst also protecting steep slopes from erosion. Approximately 2,500 apple tree saplings; 750 pear saplings; 9,210 Chinese prickly ash saplings and 26,858 duzhong saplings were bought and planted in total.

Moduo Village Hamlet 2-7 Drinking Water Supply

Mr Deng was so pleased with the drinking water supply he had managed in hamlet 1 that he offered to assist hamlets 2-7 implement their drinking water supply project. He approached DORS with a plan the villagers had originated. Mr Deng then managed the implementation of the project and liased with DORS until the project was completed in January 2000. DORS made several visits to the village during the design and implementation stages. The project used seven different water sources to supply water to the 855 people of the village in seven separate water supply systems. Each pipeline in each supply system has one person responsible for its future maintenance. A contract has been drawn up between that person and the village committee to ensure the supply is well maintained.

The project was funded by MRDF and cost a total of 40,596 RMB or GBP3,123, a per capita cost of 4 GBP.

Moduo Village Hamlet 8-9 Drinking Water Supply

This project, again managed by Mr Deng from Moduo hamlet 1, will supply 200 people with water for drinking and irrigation purposes from a spring source over 9000m away. The project started in April 2000.

Moduo Village Education Assistance

DORS started paying school fees for the poorest children in the village in 1999. See Education for details.