In Nepal, the lifelines essential to urban life are not in place. The abundant water resources of the Himalayas are not put to effective use; piped water coverage is low, and water supply systems lag far behind. Even life in the capital, Kathmandu, offers no guarantee of stable water or electricity, and living an unstable daily life far from convenient comfort is simply the norm.

When inconvenience is part of everyday life, people develop inventive ways of living—and, as you would expect, they learn to live without wasting water.

When No Water Comes from the Tap

Kathmandu still has areas and households with no waterworks at all. Even where pipes have been installed, water may arrive only during limited hours or every other day, so a life in which you can use as much water as you like every day is not something you can expect. …So when days without water stretch on and nothing comes from the tap, people improvise in various ways.

Water Facilities in Ordinary Nepali Homes

In a typical Nepali home, an underground tank is installed on the property, and water flows into it from external pipes. Water collected in the underground tank is pumped with a motor up to a supply tank on the roof, after which water comes out of the taps. When days without water from the external pipes continue, households can also purchase water from water delivery companies and use that.

That said, ordinary households rarely buy water. More often they get by by sharing with neighbors who have some. A characteristic of Nepali thinking—not limited to water—is that people first think of and act on making full use of the neighborhood community rather than spending money to buy something.

Still No Water from the Tap

Life in Nepal involves checking when water will arrive, pumping water from the underground tank up to the roof tank with a motor, arranging to buy water when supplies run short, and more—water management alone keeps people busy with many tasks.

And before water becomes usable, several obstacles can sometimes pile up at once.

For example, if a power outage continues, the motor cannot be used, so water cannot be pumped and nothing comes from the tap… Or on the day you ordered from a water delivery company, the road in front of your house happens to be under construction and vehicles cannot pass, so you wait several more days until the work ends… Or the delivery truck breaks down and cannot come… Or a nationwide gasoline shortage in Nepal keeps delivery trucks from arriving… For all sorts of reasons, it often takes days before water comes out of the tap.

Nepal’s power outage situation has been improving for about the past four years. Even so, long outages still sometimes continue without warning. Back when planned blackouts were in effect, outages could exceed 16 hours a day.

In road construction in Nepal, there is typically no consideration for ordinary people’s convenience or advance notice; work simply proceeds on its own, and all kinds of disruptions frequently occur.

The Nepali Way of Drinking Water

Tap water quality is poor, so it cannot be used for drinking. People rely on boiled water, filtered water, mineral water, and the like. Because tap water is not drinkable, there is a habit of setting aside drinking water in plastic bottles in advance. In Nepali homes, it is common to reuse plastic bottles from Coca-Cola, Fanta, or Sprite as bottles for drinking water.

With bottled drinking water, several people share the same bottle without touching their mouths to the opening—that is the Nepali way of drinking. In every home, plastic bottles of drinking water sit in a corner of the room, and visitors are free to drink from them. Drinking without putting your mouth on the opening is a bit difficult if you are not used to it, and you may choke.

Women at the Water Collection Point

In households without piped water, women and young children go early in the morning to the public water collection point set up in each area and fill water jars with a day’s supply. Fetching water is the work of women and small children. Managing an entire day’s water needs with only what fits in those jars is a model of living at which Nepalis excel.

Nepali thinking includes the ideas that if something is not there, there is nothing you can do about it, and that what you do have should be used fully to the end rather than thrown away. Making do with the amount of water in a jar is where uniquely Nepali practical wisdom shows itself.

water collection point, you hear women’s constant chatter—and sometimes loud arguments as they scramble for water. Nepali women hold a narrow and weak position within the household, and because managing water is also their role, fights among women seem to break out as a way to release everyday stress.

Holi: A Day When Water Can Be Used Freely

At Nepal’s festival welcoming spring, “Holi,” people enjoy throwing water and colored powder at one another. On this day they forget everyday water shortages and water-related worries and splash around playfully. “Holi” is a Hindu festival of India and Nepal, with the meaning of driving away evil spirits by throwing water and colored powder.

Because life in Nepal is full of inconveniences of one kind or another, spending festival days brightly and joyfully, forgetting everyday life, is part of the Nepali lifestyle.

In Closing

In Nepal, the lifelines that form the foundation of daily life cannot be relied on at all.

So when it comes to questions such as what to do if there is no water, or how best to use the water you have, uniquely Nepali wisdom has grown out of the experience of water scarcity.

Living in Nepal makes clear that concepts of thrift and inconvenience differ vastly between Nepal and Japan. Nepalis show through practice that you only need as much water as you require, and that you can live without endless water flowing from the tap.