Sanitation in the form of a water tap and now the first toilet in Rigul village will soon both be available to the community in this remote part of Tibet.

Previously the families of this mountainous region had to transport cooking and washing water from the nearby river by hand, even through the harsh winter months. And now a toilet to serve the community is being built by the local people to bring modern sanitation too.

Khenpo Shenge has sent us this photo of the toilet construction work under way.

As the winters in Tibet are so severe the laying of underground water pipes to carry the water from the stream to the new tap was necessary as over-ground piping caused the water to freeze in winter.

Here the children of Rigul School sit in front of the new water tap at the school.

Learning conditions at the school have been very basic in the past. The new tap follows the building of the dining room for the school children, but before that they had to eat in the open air. There is no solar heating and it must be really cold in the homes, the school and the clinic. Many building improvements still need to be made in Rigul village as when Ringu Tulku visited there in 2005 he found that every building leaked during the rains.