Protecting Nepal: home of the Gurkhas

A nation gave us their sons. Now we must look after theirs.

Not only do we deliver financial support to Gurkha veterans and widows, we also help their communities, which span large areas of Nepal. While we deliver this vital aid across Nepal’s beautiful natural environment, it’s important that we do this in the most environmentally friendly way possible.

Here are just some of the ways we try and protect the environment when we’re delivering our work in Nepal:

Preventing water waste

Some Gurkha veterans, widows and their communities live out of reach of a safe water source. For those living in such remote areas, we install harvest tanks that can collect up to 1,000 litres of rainwater. We supply them with a water filter so that they can recycle this water into clean drinking water.

Rainwater harvesting tanks can hold up to 1,000 litres of water

We also install Simple Drip Irrigation (SDI), which is an effective way of improving crop yields. It allows farmers to produce their grains and vegetables during the dry season. SDI is also a much more efficient way of avoiding water wastage; 50-60% less wastage compared with the traditional carrying buckets method.

Simple Drip Irrigation reduces water waste by up to 60%

Reducing air pollution with smokeless stoves

Smokeless stoves are designed to exhaust smoke out of the home using natural airflow. These small appliances are also designed to burn more efficiently at a higher temperature,  ensuring less pollution and particles. All of the new homes we build for Gurkha veterans and widows include a smokeless stove.

Stopping the spread of disease

Sanitation has always been at the forefront of our water projects. We don’t start laying out the pipes and installing the taps until we are 100% happy that the community know how to keep it free of contamination. We visit the villages to provide them with education on sanitation to help prevent the spread of disease within the community.

Sanitation education significantly reduces diseases such as disentry

Eco-friendly offices

Our offices across Nepal use solar panels, which capture the sun’s energy, to power our lightbulbs and computers. Not only an environmental initiative, solar panels are an efficient way to generate electricity, which is often scarce in Nepal.

Reduced impact of travel through the digitisation of our welfare network and use of online conference and communication facilities for internal meetings both in Nepal and the UK.