Mayor of the city of Dharan visits GWT office in Salisbury
The Gurkha Welfare Trust were honoured to host a visit on Monday 28th October from Harka Sampang, Mayor of the city of Dharan in eastern Nepal.
Harka is a Nepali politician and social activist and was elected as the Mayor of Dharan as an independent candidate in 2022. He is currently in the UK, attending a busy programme of fundraising engagements in support of his chosen charities.
Harka was keen to learn more about how The Gurkha Welfare Trust fundraise to support Gurkhas across Nepal. He also extended his thanks for our support on a major and vital project to supply clean water to Dharan which was completed last year.
Changing lives in Nepal with clean water
Dharan is the third most populous city in Nepal, home to thousands of serving Gurkhas and Gurkha veterans. With a population of 173,096 and 34,834 households, there is a high demand for water – but since 2003, Dharan residents have faced severe water shortages each year during the dry season. In some areas, people had to wait for three days to get water in their taps.
To provide vital water to Dharan’s citizens, The Gurkha Welfare Trust funded a one-off programme to increase the city’s existing capacity by four million litres per day. To achieve this, our team established three new stream intakes and four collection chambers, installed one roughing sand filter, built a retaining wall, and installed 2,350 metres of pipeline. The project took just under five months to complete, concluding in July 2023.
Speaking in Nepali at the handover ceremony, the Trust’s CEO, Al Howard said “The Gurkha Welfare Trust does not usually provide community aid in urban areas. Our aid is usually targeted at the remote communities of Nepal. However, in the case of Dharan, of the 173,000 residents here, 3,400 of them are Gurkha veterans. I am proud to say that this project will have a positive impact in the lives of the residents of Dharan.”
Mayor Sampang also took a visit to our famous local landmark, Salisbury Cathedral. He enjoyed learning more about the history and heritage of the City of Salisbury and was particularly excited about seeing the Magna Carta.