THF strives to preserve living historic cities. Living cities are subject to change, and they must confrom to the aspirations of their residents. That means for example people living in old neighbourhoods want better water supply and more hygienic forms of drainage. By improving the water and sanitation situation in the old town Lhasa for example, THF could demonstrate the feasibility of rehabilitating the old town and turning it once again into Lhasa's most attractive quarter.
Since then, most THF projects have a water and sanitation component.
Picture on the right: THF's water and sanitation team, managed by engineer John Niewoehner and Lundup Dorje, connect that most venerable of institutions, the Lhasa Jokhang temple, to the Chinese sewage system.

John Niewohner (center), Tomoaki-san (left, who created the Tibetan version of THF's website) and Ken Okuma inspect THF's work in the Lutsang courtyard of the Jokhang. We excavated several truckloads of soil that had accumulated in order to restore this courtyard to its original level. This was necessary to stop water infiltration into the wall of the Jokhang, and to make the courtyard useable again. THF also paved the courtyard and installed drainage pipes (summer 2000).
THF team provides basic hygiene education to the residents of a rehabilitated residential building in Lhasa.
THF workers that were trained in doing water and sanitation installations were invited by the Jokhang to improve drainage of the Nangkor courtyard (summer 2000).