An Exuberating experience during lockdown at Dailekh

2021-06-07

Where there is a will, there is a way.

Conducting fieldwork in remote areas of Nepal has always been a huge challenge. But this time, the challenge quadrupled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project titled ‘Functionality study of water supply scheme’ had been halted for 6 months due to the pandemic and we were in a dilemma whether to postpone the project further or conduct it. We decided to go for it after analyzing the situation and not seeing the pandemic get any better.

 The hardest part of conducting the project was to strike a balance between keeping the team safe and   getting the work done in time. Our study area was two rural municipalities of the Dailekh district in Karnali   Pradesh of Nepal. And along with the risk of COVID-19 in the area, there were risks of landslides and floods. The work seemed really intimidating in the beginning but we took a leap of faith and did our best to keep our team and ourselves safe from all kinds of dangers.

Our tasks were to conduct a household survey, collect water samples from the taps of respective households, and get the samples tested for e-coli bacteria. All of these tasks required traveling to Dailekh, meeting and talking to many people which made the team and the respondents vulnerable to COVID infection. Thus, we prepared safety equipment like masks, face shields, sanitizers, and gloves for our enumerators and started our journey to Dailekh after receiving negative results on our COVID tests.

On the road, we had to go through a number of checkpoints. We reached our literal roadblock when we arrived at Mugling. There had been landslides in 4-5 nearby locations which had completely blocked the road ahead. Thus, we had to change our plans and take a different and longer route from Pokhara- Syanja- Palpa- Butwal-Kapilvastu- Dang- Banke- Surkhet- Dailekh. Likewise, when we almost reached Butwal, we came across our second literal roadblock: a seven-hour long traffic jam at Siddhababa which forced us to book a hotel and stay there overnight.

We finally arrived in Dailekh the next day. After receiving our laboratory equipment, I conducted hands-on training for our seven enumerators on how to take surveys and how to collect water; including training on how to be safe from COVID infection. I instructed them to strictly maintain physical distancing and use the safety equipment. Likewise, we started our survey upon completing the documentation process.

For the first few days of the survey, I monitored the enumerators closely by following them to their assigned wards to avoid any mistakes. And after a few days, when the enumerators started getting confident about their task, I set my laboratory for water testing. Our dedicated enumerators used their personal vehicles to get the water samples to the lab within eight hours of collection.

All the operation went pretty smoothly except when we also had to stop our work for a couple of days due to massive rainfall across Nepal. And when we had to shift our work area as that particular area had people who were COVID positive. However, despite the rain, terrible road conditions, and threats of COVID infection, we are able to complete the work within the deadline and without any casualties. I am really grateful to our team leader, co-workers, officials of the rural municipalities, and our dedicated enumerators who worked tirelessly and fearlessly.

While returning back to Kathmandu, we again got stuck in a 10-hour traffic jam. However, all of this was an exuberating experience for me as I was able to lead a team and successfully carry out the project in such a risky environment. This experience taught me that despite the adversities if you are determined enough and are willing to take the risk, completing any kind of work is possible.