The heavy monsoon rain has been very difficult this year in Nepal. As of mid-August, more than 80 people have died and over 48,000 homes have been submerged. Although powerful and deadly, the monsoon is also essential for life and without the rains the main staple of rice cannot be grown. One of our projects is to replace the hand dug ditches that collapse during heavy rains with a cement irrigation system. We continue to partner with the Village Development and Irrigation Committees and Farmer association and have cemented over 3 kilometers of canal in various locations around the village. An independent study of the irrigation project was completed 2 years ago and the report overwhelmingly endorsed the positive results of the project. We are proud that donations and hard work from volunteers and locals has produced such a tangible benefit to such a broad variety of villagers. Hundreds of villages report having larger yields, simply as a result of more water getting to their rice paddy. There are only two times of the year when the irrigation project can be worked on. Best times are just before the monsoon and when the rice crop is completed. The small window of no crops in the field makes transporting of materials to work sites plausible. ICO member Jennifer Wade left with a group in October to work on another addition to the irrigation project. Below are pictures of our latest irrigation addition which was completed just before the monsoon began and was ready to capture the rains.