Send tools that let farmers repair their own irrigation, fields and drainage

What to pack

• Pickaxes, mattocks, spades, crowbars, hand rammers
• Cement bags, sand-cement mix, plastering trowels
• HDPE canal lining sheet and UV-resistant tape
• Gabion wire mesh baskets (fill with local river stone)
• Bamboo, timber posts and galvanised nails for headworks
• Simple sluice gates and wooden stop-logs
• Spirit level, measuring tape, string line, marking pegs

How to use it, in order

1. 1Walk the whole canal first and mark every breach, blockage and undercut section with pegs.
2. 2Close the intake with stop-logs so you work in a dry channel.
3. 3Dig out silt down to the old bed; keep the original gradient (roughly 1–3 cm fall per metre).
4. 4Rebuild the bed with stone and a cement screed; line leaking sections with HDPE sheet, overlapping upstream-over-downstream.
5. 5Stack stone-filled gabion baskets on the river-facing side to stop the next flow undercutting the wall.
6. 6Reopen the intake slowly at part flow, walk the length again, and patch the leaks that show.

What to pack

• HDPE / PVC pipe in carryable coils, 32–90 mm
• Couplers, elbows, tees, saddle clamps, PTFE tape
• Solvent cement, hacksaws, pipe cutters, pipe wrenches
• Silt traps and simple mesh screens
• Gravity drip-line sets for kitchen gardens

How to use it, in order

1. 1Pick an intake higher than every field you want to serve — the height drop is your only pump (10 m drop ≈ 1 bar).
2. 2Build a screened intake box and a silt trap immediately below it; glacial water carries heavy sand.
3. 3Lay pipe along the contour, buried or weighted, avoiding high points where air locks form.
4. 4Fit air-release at unavoidable high points and a washout tap at the lowest point.
5. 5Flush the line before connecting drip sets, then open the taps one field at a time.
6. 6Clean the silt trap weekly — a blocked trap is the most common failure.

What to pack

• Sickles, hoes, khukuri, hand cultivators, sharpening files
• Seeds for the next planting window plus airtight seed storage drums
• Soil test strips and basic pH kits (flood silt changes soil chemistry)
• Wheelbarrows and woven baskets for clearing silt and debris
• Tarpaulins for grain drying and seedling shade
• Hand-operated seeders and fodder chaff cutters
• Fencing wire to keep livestock off recovering plots

How to use it, in order

1. 1Clear debris and scrape coarse sand off the topsoil; fine silt can be ploughed in, sand cannot.
2. 2Test pH and salinity before sowing anything — flood deposits routinely shift both.
3. 3Turn and level the plot, restore bunds, and let waterlogged ground drain first.
4. 4Sow a short-cycle crop if the main planting window has passed; some harvest beats none.
5. 5Fence the plot and shade seedlings with tarpaulin until they establish.
6. 6Store the remaining seed in airtight drums — damp seed stock is the next season's failure.

What to pack

• Perforated corrugated drain pipe for French drains
• Geotextile filter fabric and gravel screens
• Hand augers and trenching spades
• Siphon hose (30–100 m) — moves water downhill with zero power
• Treadle and rope-and-washer pumps (human powered)
• Sandbags and portable flood barriers to divert flow off fields
• Half-pipe and bamboo splits for surface channels

How to use it, in order

1. 1Find the lowest point of the field and an outlet lower still — without that, nothing drains.
2. 2Cut a trench with about 1 cm of fall per metre, running to the outlet.
3. 3Line the trench with geotextile, lay perforated pipe holes-down, cover with gravel, then fold the fabric over and backfill.
4. 4For water trapped behind a bund, fill the siphon hose completely, seal both ends, then place one end under water and the lower end downhill.
5. 5Use a treadle or rope-and-washer pump only where there is no downhill outlet at all.
6. 6Keep the outlet mouth clear after every rain; a blocked outlet re-floods the plot overnight.

What to pack

• Gabion baskets and wire ties for streambank protection
• Vetiver grass slips and bamboo rhizomes for bioengineering
• Coir / jute erosion blankets for bare slopes
• Check-dam timber and stone-fill netting

How to use it, in order

1. 1Protect the toe of the bank first — banks fail from the bottom, not the top.
2. 2Set gabion baskets on a levelled foundation below the normal water line, wire adjacent baskets together, fill with hand-packed river stone.
3. 3Batter the slope above the gabions back to about 1:1 before covering it.
4. 4Pin coir blankets over bare soil and plant vetiver slips through them in rows across the slope.
5. 5Place small check dams in gullies feeding the bank to slow the water before it arrives.
6. 6Re-tie loose wire and replant gaps after each monsoon.

What to pack

• Lockable tool chest with a village-agreed keeper
• Grinder-free hand tools: files, hacksaw blades, chisels, hammers
• Work gloves, boots, safety goggles
• Spare handles for every tool sent
• A simple written repair guide in Nepali with diagrams

How to use it, in order

1. 1Agree one keeper and one deputy before the box arrives.
2. 2Paint the village name on every tool so borrowed items come back.
3. 3Run a sign-out sheet: who took what, when it is due back.
4. 4Count and sharpen everything monthly; replace handles before they break, not after.
5. 5Keep the illustrated repair guide inside the lid so anyone can use the kit.