Introduction

　The movies "Human Beings As a Unity: the road to international cooperation" and "Our Development: the implementation of Himalayan projects" (Note 1) were shot in 1974 and 1975 when the Association for Technical Cooperation in the Himalayan Areas (ATCHA), the predecessor of the Institute for Himalayan Conservation, started technical cooperation in the villages in the mountainous areas of Nepal. The technical cooperation project by ATCHA is one of the earliest activities in the field of international cooperation by volunteers and NGOs. These movies are valuable visual records of the project activities and of the situation of Nepali mountain villages of 30 years ago.

　The below is the outline of the movies followed by some discussions.

　Note 1: Planned by the Japan Economic Education Foundation, Produced by Nikkei Film Production Co. Ltd.

Part 1 of the movie: "The arrival of the advance team in the Sikha Valley"

　The part 1 of the movie is the record of the time period from the establishment of the Association for Technical Cooperation in the Himalayan Areas to the departure of the main members of the project team from Pokhara, a city in western Nepal.

A. To Nepal

　On December 16, 1974, the project team of the Association for Technical Cooperation in the Himalayan Areas, headed by Dr. Jiro Kawakita, departed from the Haneda Airport. All the members of the team were volunteers. Some were university students and others were working people. The fund for the project and required materials were donated by private organizations. It was Dr. Kawakita's belief that genuine friendship and volunteer spirits are the essences of technical cooperation.

　The team arrived in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, via Bangkok. Kathmandu is a big city, strikingly different from most parts of Nepal that are in mountainous areas. The population density of Kathmandu is extremely high, 938 per 1 sq. km., while that of Nepal as a whole is only less than 77. Nepal reinstated the king and opened itself to the world 25 years earlier. Quaint streets of mediaeval times were still remaining then, conserved during the long time of isolation from the rest of the world.

　The team then moved to Pokhara, located 110 km west of Kathmandu. It is a city of distinguished scenic beauty with a magnificent view of Mt. Machhapuchhre and other Himalayan mountains.

B. The departure of the advance team from Pokhara

　On January 2, 1975, Mr. Yoshida and Mr. Chino left Pokhara for the Sikha Valley ahead of the rest of the team. It took four days from Pokhara to the Sikha Valley on foot. On the way, they saw some buzzards flying. There were small tea shops on the road to the Sikha Valley where they had meals and stayed overnight.

　Mr. Chino is an engineer of electric distribution systems from Fuji City, Shizuoka Prefecture. His trip to Nepal in the previous year motivated him to become a volunteer for the project. His skills were indispensable for the construction of the rope lines in the Sikha Valley.

　Mr. Yoshida and Mr. Chino kept walking on the dart road in the mountains. In Nepal, fine whether continues during the winter. A herd of donkeys went by.

　They were coming to the Ghorepani Pass, the most difficult part of the way. There was some snow on the road. As they went over the pass, the Sikha Valley, 2000 meters above the sea level, came into the view. They were going to stay in the valley for six months to implement the project.

C. The arrival of the advance team in the Sikha Valley

　There were terraced crop fields on the mountain side, all the way up towards the top. The villagers cultivated the fields with bulls and sowed seeds. All the work was done by the power of people and bulls. Electricity was, of course, unavailable in the mountainous areas of Nepal. The villagers' life was not much different from that of their ancestors. In between the work in the fields, they went to the hills to get compost and grass to feed the cattle. Fuel woods also needed to be taken from the hills. The rope lines, which were used in mandarin orchards and other fields in Japan, would greatly help ease the hard labor of the villagers.

　Women and children had to carry water from a stream far from the village every morning and every evening. Five years earlier, four students of the mountaineering society of Tokyo Institute of Technology set up experimental running water with vinyl chloride pipes near by the elementary school in the village. The pipes were still in use with sufficient amount of water coming out all the time. According to the villagers, the incidence of diseases declined since the introduction of the water pipe line. The pipe line had not only freed the villagers from the water drawing labor but also improved sanitary conditions in the village.

　Mr. Yoshida held a meeting with the villagers to discuss the project. They agreed to work together to implement the project and decided to mobilize nearly 300 people from four villages in the project area to transport materials from Pokhara. The experimental rope line, installed five years earlier, was too complicated for the local people to repair when it went out of order. Taking that experience into account, it was decided that the new rope line should be of more appropriate technology. The new device was already tested in Shizuoka before the team came to Nepal.

D. The departure of the main body of the project team

　In the mean time, materials for the project arrived in Pokhara. It took a whole month for them to arrive after they were sent out from Calcutta, India. The villagers and the food for them arrived as well. Mr. Ito, the team member who brought the materials from India, is directing the whole party. Mr. Sakai, aged over 60, is a managing director of a private company. There is another Mr. Sakai who is a doctor. Mr. Koyama is a post-graduate student of Tokyo Institute of Technology. Mr. Kobayashi is an undergraduate of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. An inspector of the Nepali government joined the party, too.

　Team members and villagers from the project area opened the packages of materials and other goods.

　Finally, the main body of the team departed from Pokhara. Dr. Kawakita was going on the back of a horse that villagers brought for him. The party moved on the mountain road carrying silver-colored long shining rope lines.

　In the beginning, Dr. Kawakita came to Nepal for academic research. However, as he repeatedly visited the country, he developed empathy for the people there and felt urge to contribute to the improvement of their life. Dr. Kawakita and the villagers started talking about the idea of the project to install rope lines and pipe lines ten years earlier, as they discussed by the fire place over what were necessary to make their life easier. Ten years had passed since he promised to the villagers of a technical cooperation project and now it was becoming reality.

Part 2 of the movie: "The start of the construction"

　The part 2 of the movie "Our Development: the implementation of Himalayan projects"（Note 2）is the record of the construction of the rope lines and the pipe lines in the Sikha Valley and a narrative by Dr. Kawakita on the technical cooperation project. It includes views of the Sikha Valley of 30 years ago with only about a quarter of the present number of houses. It is a valuable visual record of the area.

　Note 2 The title of the movie shown in it is as follows:
　HILLS HAVE BEEN ALIVENED  -DEVELOPMENT THROUGH PARTICIPATION-, NIKKEI FILM PRODUCTON CO LTD.

E. The installation of the rope lines

　On February 3, 1975, the main body of the project team departed from Pokhara. The villagers transported rope lines in coils that were strung like beads.　Each villager carried a coil of about 30kg.

　After walking for four days, they arrived in the Sikha Valley at the foot of the 8000 meters-high Mt. Annapurna. The village is situated halfway up to the top of the mountain with terraced fields and grazing lands extending above and below. Forests were found on the slopes that were far away from the village. The ones surrounding the village were completely destroyed.

　The construction of the rope line system started immediately. All the villagers participated in the work. Some of them went down the valley to the other side to take one end of the line there. The station was build by digging up the earth. In order to withstand the several tons of weight that would be put on it, the station needed to be built very firmly. To build the station, locally-available ragstone was used instead of cement, by heaping it in the technique the villagers had inherited for generations. This enabled the villagers to participate in the construction and thereby they would be able to feel that they were the owner of the project.

　The station was completed and the rope line was pulled hard. Finally, the whole system of the rope line was completed. The team members then held a meeting with the villagers to explain to them how to use the rope line safely.

　It was April 1975 and the red mountain roses were in blossom. The opening ceremony of the rope line was held. As soon as Dr. Kawakita cut the ribbon, fuel woods and grasses that were hung on the rope line rapidly came down the slope of the other side of the valley and immediately arrived at the station on this side. All the people concerned were clapping hands joyfully.

　The team members rented five houses in the village to stay during the project. They collected data, including those of whether, as the construction progressed. They often had meetings among themselves, in which the data and the remarks of members were recorded on labels and organized into KJ-method charts. They planned actions to take and drew the schedule. For them, cooperation activities and researches were mutually related. The more they concentrated on researches, the more love they felt in the nature. Dr. Sakai offered consultations at the clinic as well. Every member provided unique services utilizing stills of his own.

F. Development with conservation

　Dr. Kawakita said "Due to the rapid population growth in recent years, local people have come to struggle for survival. In the past, with limited number of inhabitants, there was an equilibrium between people’s life and the environment surrounding them. However, it has now been lost completely. If they proceed with the present way, not only the people's life but also the nature itself will be destroyed. The landslides that occur frequently here are one manifestation of the loss of the equilibrium."

　"The rope line will allow the people to get fuel woods and grasses within a designated area and under certain control. They will be able to get more woods and grasses without degrading the forest. By being protected, the natural environment will be more productive and will lead to the increased yields of crops and milk. Thus, in our project, development and nature conservation will be compatible."

　"The rope line of our project is light, can be used for a long distance and very durable. It was developed by a Japanese company as their new product and meets all the demands coming from the severe nature of the Himalayas. In technical cooperation, it is necessary to employ the technology that suits to the characteristics of the local environment so that we will be able to incorporate the nature into the project. "

　In Paudwar Village, there were members of a cooperation organization from the UK. Their project was to improve the animal husbandry and agriculture in the area. The cooperation beyond national boundaries was becoming an important issue for the human beings.

G. Construction of the pipe lines

　The next activity was the meeting for construction of the pipe line. Mr. Yoshida explained the basics of the project and asked the villagers to comment on it. Then, together, they drew the design on a big piece of paper. The villagers became enthusiastic when they found the ways that seemed best for them by themselves.

　The survey of the planned site followed. After the place for the pipe line was determined, the villagers carried PVC pipes, metal pipes, shovels, wires and other materials to the site. The wire would be used to send the pipes to the other side of the valley. In international technical cooperation, the most advanced technology is sometimes useful.

　A tank was build at the end of the pipe line. Ragstone slates were heaped and fixed with cement. Then, a faucet was placed. As soon as the faucet was turned on, the water burst out of it.

　In the opening ceremony of the pipe line, Mr. Ito and representatives of the village cut the ribbon. The village was filled with joy.

　Dr. Kawakita said, "The pipe line is required because it is not possible to build channels for water in this area. Due to the geological conditions here, channelling would cause landslides."

　“The pipe line has brought about various ripple effects. The excess water is used in orchards to grow pears. The success of the pipe line in Sikha Village led to the adoption of the system by the Nepali government. Now UNICEF has a large-scale project of pipe line construction.”

　Upon the completion of the initial phase of the construction, Dr. Kawakita left Nepal ahead of the rest of the team. The scene of his departure from the Sikha Valley in the movie has beautiful snow-covered Dhaulagiri Range in the background.

Aiming at the conservation of the ecosystem

Start of technical cooperation as a pioneer in the field

　As was described above, the Association for Technical Cooperation in the Himalayan Areas (ATCHA) started a technical cooperation project of construction of rope lines and pipe lines in 1974 and 1975 for the conservation of the ecosystem and the improvement of the people's life in the Sikha Valley.

　The following is a review of main events leading to the start of the technical cooperation.

　In 1953, Dr. Jiro Kawakita visited the Himalayas in Nepal for the first time as a member of the Manaslu Climbing Party. In 1958, he conducted an academic research in the Torbo Region.

　Dr. Kawakita always aspired to be a pioneer. After becoming the one in mountain climbing and in academic expedition, he decided that technical cooperation should be the next field. During the academic research in the Sikha Valley in 1963 and 1964, he planned a technical cooperation project and promised to the villagers to realize it. In 1974, he established the Association for Technical Cooperation in the Himalayan Areas (ATCHA) to kick off the program of technical cooperation.

　During the 21 year-period from 1953, Dr. Kawakita continued to be a pioneer, first in mountain climbing, next in acadimic research and, finally, in technical cooperation.

　On the other hand, Mr. Keiji Nishioka who joined Dr. Kawakita in the academic expedition party to the Torbo Region in 1958 started technical cooperation in Bhutan in 1964.

Problem-solving approach with respect to the local ecosystem

　For the technical cooperation in the Sikha Valley, Dr. Kawakita employed the "action research" method in which they proceeded with research and technical cooperation simultaneously. The key-problem approach in which they focused on key problems was also employed instead of a systematic one.

　On the other hand, based on the approach taken by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), he decided to make the whole Sikha Valley, rather than respective villages in it, the unit area of the project and aimed at the development of the area as a whole.

　Thus, the practice in the Sikha Valley was to solve key problems by carefully avoiding adverse impact on the local ecosystem.

The evaluation method was yet to be developed.

　In 1977, the evaluation team was sent to the project area. The report of the team included: "Many pipe lines were out of order and the team needed to repair them"; "Some of the nine rope lines were intensively used, but others were not much used" and other findings.

　However, the team did not really "evaluate" the achievement of the project. They rather confirmed the status at the time of the visit and pointed out problems they observed. At that time, methods for the evaluation of technical cooperation projects were not yet developed.

Successful reforestation

　The movie shows the status of the forests in 1974. The ones surrounding the villages were lost, but there were dense forests found in areas far from the villages. It is easily suspected that villagers cut trees in the forests near to their villages to avoid the hard work of going to the ones far away.

　Given the fact that the forests near to the villages were destroyed rapidly, managed use of the trees in the remaining dense forests far from the villages seemed to be an obvious solution for the project.

　Later in the Sikha Valley, a new project of more active forest conservation, i.e. reforestation, was implemented and the rope lines were no longer required. As of 2004, only the ones in Chitre Village and Khibang Village were used. The rope line was the starting point of the process to afforestation and, then, to the managed use of forests and, therefore, it was the basis of the whole project of the forest conservation and reforestation. We cannot overemphasize the significance of this very first achievement by the Association for Technical Cooperation in the Himalayan Areas.

The need for population control

　In 1963, the Sikha Valley was already caught in the dilemma over uncontrolled development and environment conservation. The increase in the occurrence of major landslides was one of the consequences of uncontrolled development. Rapid population growth, which was the main cause of uncontrolled development, is still a trend. In order to protect the local ecosystem, some means of population control must be implemented.

Almost all households have access to running water

　Initially, PCV pipes were used for the pipe lines, but running water with plastic hoses was later introduced. By now, many systems of running water have been constructed in various places. By using the sources located high up, the quality of the water has been improved. The running water has greatly contributed to the improvement of the quality of life of the villagers.

The need for tourism development with environment conservation

　In 1974, there were few trekkers visiting the Sikha Valley and there was no lodge for trekkers there.

　However, the situation has changed completely since the development of the trekking route from Ghorepani to Tatopani through Sikha and Ghara. In the villages located along the trekking route, the cash from trekkers has become an important source of income and drastically changed the lifestyle of some villagers. At the same time, new environment problems including a large increase in the fuel woods consumption by the lodges for trekkers have emerged. Tourism development with environmental conservation and active development of eco-tours will be required in the future. Training of trekking guides will also be necessary.

　On the other hand, the villages located off the trekking route have no such sources of cash income and, therefore, the differences in the living standards between the two types of villages are enlarging. Getting cash income is becoming an issue of greater importance for the people living in the villages off the trekking route. Many of them go abroad in search of employment.

Development of information-handling ability: a great challenge in the future

　Provision of information from visiting foreigners to the local people is one of the important aspects of international technical cooperation. What type of information should foreigners provide to the local people? One is that on the broader world and the other is that on the knowledge and thoughts of the people living in other villages in the same region of the country. Surprisingly, villagers do not know much about the knowledge and thoughts of the people of other villages. Needless to say, new information coming into the village needs to be processed in order to produce meaningful outputs.

　In the future, the development of information-handling ability for both foreigners and local people will be vitally important. However, this point is not yet recognized well by many of those who are concerned. The conditions for such development have not yet been sufficient either. This will be a challenge for the future.

　Reference
　"A Dream Bridging Japan and Himalayas: activation of mountain villages based on ecology and participation" written and edited by Jiro Kawakita, Bunshindo Publishing Co., 1995.