Kathmandu, March 2

United Nations Children Fund Nepal and the government of Finland today signed an agreement to co-finance recovery and reconstruction of Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene facilities in communities and schools affected by the devastating earthquakes that struck Nepal in April and May last year.

A press statement jointly issued here today by the Embassy of Finland in Kathmandu and UNICEF said the government of Finland will provide UNICEF one million euro for 2016.

It said that in 2016, the support will assist reconstruction of 60 partially damaged water supply schemes as well as WASH facilities in 100 schools, which will benefit more than 33,000 people of four earthquake-hit districts and 20,000 schoolchildren.

The statement further said UNICEF will also work closely with the government at the national and district levels to enhance their capacity on making WASH facilities resilient.

“Over the years Nepal has made significant strides in achieving its Water, Sanitation and Hygiene targets.

However, with the devastating earthquake, we along with the Nepal government and UNICEF are working to build back better and achieve not just the universal target of WASH, but also move towards the Sustainable Development Goal agenda,” said Jorma Suvanto, ambassador of Finland to Nepal.

“This contribution for the reconstruction of WASH services is a logical continuum to our existing cooperation with UNICEF is expected to reach the neediest people. We are delighted that this support will bring together two crucial sectors WASH and education,” he added.

This contribution from Finland is part of the overall commitment made on 25 June, 2015 at the International Conference on Nepal’s Reconstruction.

“In the last 11 months, UNICEF has been working very closely with the government, partners and donors to minimise the potential risk of waterborne diseases through life saving WASH interventions targeting about 840,000 affected people in 14 earthquake districts.

The affected communities and districts are now striving towards sustained WASH services that needs technical and operational support,” said Tomoo Hozumi, UNICEF representative.

“The continuing partnership with the government of Finland while enabling us to provide “upstream” policy and capacity building support for disaster resilience and system strengthening, will also help us support “downstream” investment support for recovery and reconstruction of WASH services damaged by earthquake in the four priority districts,” he added.