looks interesting

By Ned Breslin of Water for People Posted over 4 years ago

The project looks interesting. I would say the same thing about sanitation I said on another proposal - many projects train masons and offer them work/opportunities for a defined period of time (1 year in this project). But what will happen afterwards - what happens when the community grows and people want latrines and there is no subsidy offered? There are tonnes of examples of this approach failing to provide meaningful services over time so what is different here that will make us see that sanitation will continue after the project is completed?

Thanks

looks interesting

By Joe Madiath of Gram Vikas Posted over 4 years ago

Your comment is wonderful since it highlights the core community mobilizing aspect of our approach: the community corpus fund.

Before the project construction can begin, the community is required to raise a corpus fund that is equivalent to Rs. 1000/household. Those who can afford more, contribute more in order to balance those who cannot contribute the full Rs. 1000. Gram Vikas requires a corpus due to the reasons you mention in your questions. The primary function of the corpus fund is to ensure that 100% of the community has sanitation and water facilities even in the future, after Gram Vikas has exited. The interest accrued from the corpus fund is used to provide the subsidy for new households. (The process of creating the corpus also creates a transformation towards social equity that is initiated by the community itself.)

convincing the villagers, previous source of drinking water, water quality of the spring located on the hill

By Meera Hira-Smith of Project Well Posted over 4 years ago

Very neat project. But I am confused by the estimated starting and ending date. Does this means that the project is already running?

It seems prior to introducing the project a lot of work to develop it was involved. I see that the area is tribal and 60% fall in the BPL category. (1) How was it possible to convince most household to pay Rs.1000/- for the water and sanitation just from practice of pisciculture and horticulture?
(2) Do they have good education system or is it just through awareness programs at community gathering? Community feeling amongst same clan is seen to be more than inter-clan or inter-race. It is really kind of those who can afford more, contribute more in order to balance those who cannot contribute the full amount. In the areas where we work even those who are educated and can pay for themselves wouldn’t do easily but the scenario is different because they have alternate water source nearby though it is tainted with arsenic that is invisible in water and nobody in the family shows any signs of skin lesions or any kind of cancer. It is hard to convince them to pay to arsenic-safe water.
(3) Until now what was the source of drinking water of this area?
(4) Just matter of interest, what is the source of water in the adjacent villages?
The O&M of pipeline is not too expensive depending on the area covered as long as they are maintained well, on a regular basis. Spring water usually does not contain any carcinogens but it would be advisable to check it before implementing the project.
(5) Can anybody get the geocodes of the spring and the site where the overhead water tank will be located in the village? It would be great to be able to see the village on the earth google. It would be also good to develop some sort of village level tracking system so that five years from now one can assess the changes of the project. In many areas projects covering larger population fail due to misunderstanding amongst the beneficiaries. As long as there is a strong society to oversee the project and in this case the village executive committee, VEC, is formed and hoping that there should not be much problem even in the long run.

convincing the villagers, previous source of drinking water, water quality of the spring located on the hill

By Joe Madiath of Gram Vikas Posted over 4 years ago

Yes, IT is difficult at the outset to convince poor tribal communities to put an amount of Rs. 1000 as the corpus. But the ways of mobilising the corpus by the community is diverse and varied. They gather all the material available locally for construction work like stones, sand, rubble etc , put in the unskilled labour required for the construction, many household give a monthly donation of a fixed amount towards the corpus and in the process when the construction is going on, the corpus gets collected, etc. We have experience of this having worked in varied contexts, large, multi caste villages, small tribal villages, bi lingual villages etc, but the condition (of Rs. 1000 as corpus) stands the same for all villages.

Literacy rates in Orissa is belwo 50% and lesser for women and much lesser for tribals people. However the social structure in villages and the leadership play a crucial role in mobilising the whole community and sharing the burden of the poor households. We also convince people that if 100% households are not covered then sanitation is not possible and water for all i.e rich or poor will be contaminated . Therefore it is in the interest of the rich to see that the poor are also able to participate and take up the programme. This creates a "win-win" situation for all and that works.

people depended on the open well or a hand pump for their drinking water.

We do a chemical testing of water from any source, open well, dug well, spring etc to ascertain the content of CL, Flouride, Nitrate, Coliform , Iron Arsenic etc. After the testing , if the water is fit for drinking then only we finalise that as the water source.

We have a GPS but we donot use GIS extensivley. Shall surely take the geocodes and upload it. We are trying to work on a longterm tracking system, if you have anyone who can help us it would be great!!