Before The Dawn

In Lahan, south-eastern Nepal, only 35 per cent of the population has access to a treated water supply. Homes lack taps and basic sanitation, while healthcare centres do without clean water, flushing toilets and handwashing facilities. At schools across the region, students miss class due to illness; contaminated water and poor hygiene are linked to diseases like cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery and typhoid.

Everyone is affected by the water crisis, but not everyone is affected equally. For Ajit, a 21-year-old student, just finding his way to the bathroom is a challenge. Ajit is partially sighted. His vision started deteriorating when he was four, and he is now almost totally blind. He is also a member of the Dalit community (formerly known as “Untouchables”), one of the most marginalised groups in Nepal and the lowest stratum of the South Asian caste system. Traditionally seen as “unclean”, Dalits face significant challenges when accessing essential resources and services, like water and education. Thus, for students like Ajit, access to water, sanitation and hygiene is concealed behind multiple, overlapping and mutually reinforcing layers of disability and discrimination.

All this changed in 2023, when Ajit’s school underwent a dramatic transformation. New bathrooms were constructed, along with handwashing stations. Taps brought clean, safe drinking water to the students for the first time. And tactile paving was installed throughout the school to help partially sighted students like Ajit navigate to the new facilities. This work was made possible by The Beacon Project, a unique long-term partnership between Anglian Water and its alliances, WaterAid Nepal, the Nepal Water Supply Corporation, the Ministry of Water Supply and Lahan municipality. Its goal is to bring clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene to every person in Lahan by 2030, in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6. Crucially, this model is designed to be replicated across Nepal, and beyond.

Before The Dawn tells the story of Ajit’s personal transformation and the life-changing power of clean water.