Green Roads: Building Environmentally Friendly, Low Maintenance Rural Roads Through Local Participation
Green Roads: Building Environmentally Friendly, Low Maintenance Rural Roads Through Local Participation
Green Roads: Building Environmentally Friendly, Low Maintenance Rural Roads Through Local Participation
Rupal Rural
Tek Bahadhur KC, the UC Chairperson, and Prem Bahadhur Sawad, the UC
record-keeper, discuss the need for this rural road and the benefits they expect
after its completion. "We started this road five years ago because once it is
built we will not have to carry loads and it will save time to get our farm
products to market. If someone is sick, we will be able to take them out to the
hospital. Our work as the UC is to register the group, organise the work, and
distribute the rice and cash. We have a labourers group, but have not yet
formed a general beneficiaries group. Most of us can grow only 3 6 months of
food in our fields, so we are working on this road. As well, it will be our road so
we should work to build it. Without this roadwork, we would go to India or the
Terai for employment. If people work on this road for 3 4 months, then they
usually will have enough food for the year. We will make a fund to which we
contribute from our earnings from the roadwork. We will use the fund to
maintain the road. We will start a maintenance committee this year. Now each
vehicle pays Rs 50 for trucks and buses, or Rs 20 for smaller vehicles."
Padam Sawad has been trained to work as a local supervisor. He describes his
involvement with the project, his challenges, and his hopes for the future:
"This is my first year doing this work. I had two days of training from the GTZ
office in Dadeldhura to learn to do this work. The GTZ people show me where
we should dig the road and how much we should dig. If people do not want to
work, I remind them that they can earn rice and that the road will help us in
the future. My job is to show the workers what to do, to make sure that they
are doing it properly and if not, to correct it, to check how many people are
working and to measure the work that they have done. I earn 6 kg of rice each
day and Rs 2/kg. Having learned to do this supervision work, perhaps I will be
able to get employment in the future."
Kalabati Devi Budhaair, a woman worker on the road, describes her
experiences: "We have done this work for three years. The first year we worked
twenty days, last year four days, and this year nine days, because there are so
many people who want to do this work. On this road, we earn the same as
men, but we women also have to take care of the house."
It is often difficult for many of the workers to foresee the long-term benefits of
the road. Others, such as Dambar Singh, are already involved with activities
that will be facilitated through the construction of the road. He describes the
benefits to his activities: "When the CBED project came here, they helped us to
do vegetable gardens, community forests, sanitation, drinking water systems,
smokeless stoves, and savings and credit groups for women and men. We are
earning money from selling vegetables and fruit, and then each of us puts in Rs
25 each month to our group fund. CBED has helped us organise a co- operative
where we sell the vegetables. We still carry our goods on the road, as there are
not yet public vehicles on the road yet. When we carry the fruit and
vegetables, there is more damage to them, but in a vehicle, we can pack them
so that there is less damage. It costs Rs 120 to carry a load, and it will cost Rs
20 in a truck for that same 40 kg. Now, we are very interested to have
irrigation, but we could use some help to show us how to do it and to help us
with materials. We could do a lot if we had irrigation, since we are close to a
market for our vegetables and we would have enough food."
Prem Singh Budhaair, a young farmer, describes how growing fruit and
vegetables have improved his family's livelihood. "I have worked on the road for
five years, for 20 25 days each year. We planted the citrus trees seven years
ago. It took five years to have any fruit. The first year we earned Rs 4,000, the
second year Rs 10,000. Before, my father and grandfather had always had a
couple of trees for our won consumption, then I planted some more. Slowly, I
have learned about taking care of the trees and vegetables. At first, I learned
from training at the Agricultural Office, and then I learned more from the CBED
project. It has varied on how much I have sold as to how profitable this is.
CBED has started a co-operative to buy and sell the vegetables. It is ok,
because we do not make as big a profit, but we also do not have to sometimes
take as big losses. There will be more profit once we can transport our produce
by truck."
Mr. Shahi, the DDC Chairperson, discusses the long-term advantages of the
Green Road concept: "with a Green Road the maintenance costs are lower and
the local people can maintain it themselves. We have also started a Roads
Maintenance Committee to manage the maintenance of roads here in
Dadeldhura. When the district receives the HMG funds for district roads, we
have decided to set aside 30% at the start for maintenance, and just use 70%
for construction. We are also taking 25% from the sale of the rice sacks for the
maintenance funds."