Report: Arsenic free dugwell (PW112SU23) funded by Blue Planet Run Foundation

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.