Songjiang Village 2002

Songjiang Village, located in Hanyuan County’s Xixi Township, is situated next to Hejiang, Chenhe and Xinli villages where DORS has implemented a number of projects over the past few years. With a population of 1096, Songjiang’s residents are spread across 8 different hamlets. Hamlet 6 is Yi minority and the remaining hamlets are of Han ethnicity. Hamlets 4 and 5, where this project took place, are comprised of 156 people. Hamlet 4 has 54 residents over 21 households, and hamlet 5 has 102 residents over 25 households.

These two hamlets were the only remaining hamlets in Songjiang Village that had never been connected to a piped supply of drinking water. Villagers were forced to fetch water from a nearby gully that was often polluted with animal faeces and runoff from agricultural production and washing. Health problems such as upset stomach and diarrhoea were common. During the winter dry season, the gully runs dry and villagers are forced to walk to the river (up to an hour away).

The Hanyuan Water Conservancy Bureau connected hamlets 1,2,6 & 8 to piped water supplies a few years ago. As there were limited funds, they decided to connect only these hamlets as they were over 1000m away from a water source. Hamlets 3 & 7, which are on the road and a bit wealthier than the neighbouring hamlet purchased their own pipes and materials and constructed their own piped water systems. Hamlets 4 & 5 were unable to afford to connect themselves, and thus have been fetching water in back-baskets from the river for human and animal consumption. The aim of the project was to supply drinking water to all households of Songjiang Village Hamlets 4&5 through a mixture of metal and plastic piping, supplying water to 156 people.

Both hamlets are now connected to a strong source up the river past hamlet 7 towards hamlet 2. In total, hamlet 4 has one tank while hamlet 5 constructed two water tanks and over 6000m of piping was laid. The drinking water supply took less than one month to complete and was finished in February 2002. The cost per person was £19.