Belkumari Kala, a farmer and a housewife from Galkot Municipality-5, is happy with a new metal rack that has been built beside the family’s makeshift kitchen sink to dry washed utensils. There are separate bathroom, toilet and water tap. The cowshed is clean, and everyone drinks boiled water only. The kitchen looks clean and equipped with a modern fireplace that emits little smoke. Things have changed significantly in the past year, Kala says.

Dambar Kumari Kandel, a local women’s health volunteer, said that 22 cleanliness indexes have changed in Kala’s house since last year. The change is the result of a cleanliness drive launched by the community, according to Kandel. “Almost all the houses have undergone a metamorphosis,” said Kandel. “The drive is supported by the kids and the elderly.” There’s clean drinking water and garbage management facility in all schools and public spots.

The drive has brought about a significant improvement in public health as well, according to Mankumari Rana, 73, who, as the chair of a mothers’ group, launched a drive to build improved, smoke-free fireplaces. “Diarrhoea among children, once common, is now nonexistent,” Rana said. “Everybody washes their hands before they eat.”

All of the 695 households in Harichaur are today equipped with drinking water taps, thanks to a ‘one house, one water tap’ drive launched a year ago. The division drinking water and cleanliness office plans to connect each tap with a metre to take stock of the water used, according to Bharat Sharma Gaihre, mayor of Galkot. Gaihre said that his office is planning to construct public toilets in various places as well.

Likewise, over a dozen schools in the municipality have undergone through similar changes. “Once there was a hazard of children defecating in open space, but the situation has changed now,” said Badri Prasad Dhakal, a teacher at Prithvi Secondary in Harichaur.

Narayan Dhwoj Malla, the chairperson of Ward. 5, said that a preliminary inspection has found that all the households have crossed the cleanliness index 22, a measure set up by the ward. Malla noted his office’s plan to construct a dumping site for the community in the near future.

“Now we are ready to declare Harichaur the district’s model village,” he said.