Self-supporting community- based mitigation program that provides arsenic safe water using modified dugwells along with public education on water related health effects.

Narrative

This dugwell #PW112SU23, is located at latitude 22.90379 and longitude 88.78871 in the village Bishnupur at the Sutia Panchayet in Gaighata.

  • Suparna Mondol of Project Well
    • confidential
    • SMS
    Implementation Status: completed Thu 20 Feb 2014, About 10 Years ago

    Health meeting has been finished. Total-4 families-,people-16.

  • Laltu Mirza of Project Well
    • confidential
    • SMS
    Implementation Status: completed Thu 07 Nov 2013, Over 10 Years ago

    set washer,checkvalve today.

  • Shilpi Poddar of Project Well
    • confidential
    • SMS
    Implementation Status: completed Thu 29 Aug 2013, Over 10 Years ago

    6ft water. 500ml theoline. Gave the hand over folder.

  • Shilpi Poddar of Project Well
    • confidential
    • SMS
    Implementation Status: completed Wed 03 Jul 2013, Over 10 Years ago

    200ml theoline was sold. Rs.4.

  • Suparna Mondol of Project Well
    • confidential
    • SMS
    Implementation Status: completed Fri 08 Feb 2013, About 11 Years ago

    The project programme is finish. Bishnupur foritkati primari school. M-4,F-2,ch-124.

  • Shilpi Poddar of Project Well
    • confidential
    • SMS
    Implementation Status: completed Mon 03 Dec 2012, Over 11 Years ago

    visit

  • Shilpi Poddar of Project Well
    • confidential
    • SMS
    Implementation Status: in_progress Mon 19 Nov 2012, Over 11 Years ago

    . Hand over packet .

  • Jyotsna Sarkar of Project Well
    • confidential
    • SMS
    Implementation Status: completed Thu 08 Nov 2012, Over 11 Years ago

    this well is used by 1 families 6 people.

  • Anonymous
    • Visitor
    • confidential
    • SMS
    Implementation Status: completed Wed 17 Oct 2012, Over 11 Years ago

    water column is 23'.

  • Meera Hira-Smith of Project Well
    • confidential
    Implementation Status: completed Mon 08 Feb 2010, About 14 Years ago

    Visit with AWS to new borewell.

    NOTE: THIS NEEDS TO BE DELETED. THIS IS MY (JANE LIAW) SITE VISIT REPORT, WHICH I WILL REPOST UNDER MY OWN LOG-IN, NOT MEERA'S. I CANNOT SEEM TO DELETE THIS VERSION.

    AWS staff took us around by motorcycle to visit several wells. This was a new borewell. Schoolchildren were around, as was the “owner.” We were told that this well has a lot of users. It’s located on an organic farmer’s lot. Incidentally, we were shown the farmer’s other farming techniques and tools, such as a biodigestor (cow dung is used as gas for cooking and fuel for the entire family. The sludge remains are used as manure.

    Photos to come.

  • Jane Liaw
    • Visitor
    • confidential
    Implementation Status: completed Mon 08 Feb 2010, About 14 Years ago

    February 2010 site visits with AWS staff

    I work with Meera on Project Well, in our Berkeley office. My husband (who is unaffiliated with Project Well) and I were taken around by AWS staff to visit several dugwell sites in February 2010.

    AWS staff took us around by motorcycle to visit several wells. This was a new borewell. Schoolchildren were around, as was the “owner.” We were told that this well has a lot of users. It’s located on an organic farmer’s lot. Incidentally, we were shown the farmer’s other farming techniques and tools, such as a biodigestor (cow dung is used as gas for cooking and fuel for the entire family. The sludge remains are used as manure.

  • Impact Assessment (M&E) Phase Project completed on 31 Dec, 2009 Implementation Phase
  • Meera Hira-Smith of Project Well
    • confidential
    Implementation Status: completed Thu 24 Dec 2009, Over 14 Years ago

    School children collecting water from PW112 of Gaighata on 25th November 2009

    This video was recorded during the field visit of Meera Hira Smith with the technical advisor, Mr. Suprio Das, the field supervisor, Mr. Dennis Baroi, the awareness programmer, Ms. Sassi Pal and 3 field workers, Asit, Biswajit and Shilpi on 25th November 2009 to collect water for bacteriological analysis. The school children near PW112 use the water from the bore dugwell. The school children were asked about the taste of the water. One girl answered that it has smell of medicine (chlorine) and she also said that one day she had heart burning sensation from drinking the dugwell water. This complaint was disagreed by the other pupils. Since only one student complaint about the heart burn condition it was ruled out to be caused by the chlorinated dugwell water.

  • Implementation Phase Project started on 1 Jan, 2009 Preparation Phase

Self-supporting community- based mitigation program that provides arsenic safe water using modified dugwells along with public education on water related health effects.

Narrative

This dugwell #PW112SU23, is located at latitude 22.90379 and longitude 88.78871 in the village Bishnupur at the Sutia Panchayet in Gaighata.

Sustainability

Creating and measuring long-term impact

The users would require to purchase theoline, the disinfectant, and also repair minor wear and tear. The dugwells will be visited by the field workers every month for one year to get technical and utility reports followed by inspection once or twice a year.

Other Issues

Unusual and unexpected issues faced during project execution

Research and Development is part of the project. The Arsenic level is 13 PPB (BIS stnd is 50PPB)and the date of report October 22, 2009. The Total coliform and Fecal coliform are both undetected'. Report date is Dec 7, 2009. Chlorination is done once a week.

Learnings

Knowledge of project and process for sharing

This is the second dugwell in the premises of Mr. Narayan Das. In 2007 PW54SU2 was constructed beside the adjacent school and in addition to 12 families and more than 60 consumers the school students and teachers used water for drinking from this dugwell. (web link). Unfortunately in the beginning of 2009 the school extended their building too close to the dugwell that led it to collapse and abandoned. The learning here is that in the villages houses, boundaries, religious places, clubs are erected without any technical advice of licensed engineer. There is no regulations to inform the panchayet who would send engineers as routine inspection etc as executed in the cities. It is advisable to implement some regulation, at the panchayet level, based on the size and type of construction. And also the local NGO, Aqua Welfare Society, should be informed about such development in the near future so that the site is rejected during selection procedure.

Impact

People Impacted: 6

People Getting Safe Drinking Water: 6

ONLY ONE FAMILY USES THIS WELL. The neighbors obtain water from PW110 for the quality of water is better. The school has installed a deep tubewell hence the students also do not use this source any more as they did before.

____________________________________

According to the register record of July 2011 the total consumers=58; Families=12; Male=31, Female=27, children <5 = 3 and students =19 and students and teachers of the school. Need to get the detail about the consumers of the school
________________

Pending demographic data because this dugwell was being used initially and as on June's record the total number of users is 344 and total number of families is 23. The 344 number is of the students and teachers of the school that use the water during the school hours.

People Getting Other Benefits: 50

Public health education on arsenic health effects and personal hygiene is given to all the dugwell beneficiaries. A training program on the maintenance of the dugwells (including chlorination) is given to develop a sense of ownership and to make the program sustainable. There are five field workers working on the dugwell program who are selected from the arsenic afflicted villages. They are involved in site selection, village meetings during site selection, followed by construction of the wells and also follow up the on the technical faults of the dugwells and the number of users. The villagers are also shown VCDs on how to improve personal health and hygiene through proper practices. The office of Aqua Welfare Society is located in the village. The awareness programmer and experts of geology and technical knowhow are based in Kolkata who visit the village office and sites occasionally to create awareness amongst the user group, prospective users and students of schools. Trades like well-digging, pottery, and masonry, are required for the dugwell program and are benefiting from work generated by the project.

Maintenance/Operating Costs Annual, in US$: $40

Creating and measuring long-term impact

The users would require to purchase theoline, the disinfectant, and also repair minor wear and tear. The dugwells will be visited by the field workers every month for one year to get technical and utility reports followed by inspection once or twice a year.

Implementer: Aqua Welfare Society, West Bengal, India

Aqua Welfare Society, AWS, is the partner NGO. Their office is based in the North 24 Parganas. The 8 honorary board members are located in Kolkata. There are only 5 field workers who are interacting with the villagers and beneficiaries, training the users on maintenance of the dugwells, organizing village meetings and health meetings. A technical advisor of AWS is based in Kolkata who visits the village occasionally and one awareness programmer who is in charge of awareness programs in the communities and educational institutions. There is an accountant and also a data entry person on part time basis.

Funding

funded:
$1,050
Final Cost:
$1,050

Plan/Proposal