Report: Water & Sanitation & Beyond for 107 Villages (MANTRA 2007-10) funded by SDTT

In collaboration with Tata Social Welfare Trust, Mumbai, Gram Vikas is directly implementing the MANTRA programme in Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Ganjam and Gajapati in Orissa. By March 2010, it is planned to reach out to 10,000 families.

In collaboration with Tata Social Welfare Trust, Mumbai, Gram Vikas is directly implementing the MANTRA programme in the districts of Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Ganjam and Gajapati in Orissa, and in collaboration with partner organisations in the states of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra, as well as the Orissa district of Jagatsinghpur.

In the three-year project period from 1st April 2007 to 31st March 2010, it is planned to reach out to 10,000 families through the MANTRA programme under this collaboration.

Orissa with a population of 38 million of which 87% are rural has the distinction of having the poorest coverage of sanitation and protected water supply. While figures on paper keep changing every year in positive progression, in reality most of the “toilets” promoted by the mainstream agency especially government are unusable or are never made. One of the reasons behind this is the attitude that “poor people need poor solutions”. It is evident in the quality of toilets that are promoted under the Total Sanitation Campaign”. Therefore while progress is apparent on paper, there is no visible improvement in quality of life and health conditions of the people in rural areas.

The operational areas of Gram Vikas have a large tribal population and are physically remote with very poor basic services and facilities, rendering them as districts that have low human development indicators. The communities here depend primarily on agriculture and daily wage labour for subsistence. The vicious cycle of poverty and morbidity work together to keep communities in these areas in a perpetual debt cycle that force them to lead sub- human lives devoid of dignity, self-respect, and the capacity to demand and negotiate with external forces for their rightful entitlement.

In this context, the water and sanitation project is an entry point and through the process of 100% inclusion, the aim is to harness the inherent collective potential of poor communities to help them to determine the course of their development. The MANTRA programme of Gram Vikas was initiated as a response to the abysmal health conditions of the people in rural areas.

On deeper inquiry, health problems were found to be mostly in the realm of water borne diseases caused due to consumption of polluted water. Unhygienic waste disposal habit was found to be a major polluting factor in these areas. The core principle of MANTRA is 100 % inclusion of all families in a village. This is important from a total sanitation point of view , but is also a step towards addressing exclusionary practices prevailing in society –mainly towards dalits, indigenous communities and women.

Raising the corpus: Successful implementation of the programme is contingent upon raising the ‘village corpus fund’. The corpus fund is created with contributions of an average of Rs. 1,000 per family , from all families in the village. As an average of Rs. 1,000 is needed, poorer families would pay less an instead contribute in other ways – such as collecting raw materials or providing labour, while more affluent families would pay more to maintain the average.

The village committee then invests the corpus in the local bank. The interest generated is to be used by the Village Executive Committee, only for the purpose of subsidising the construction of toilets and bathrooms for new houses, ensuring 100% coverage, at all times. Increasing capacity of water tank or any other major infrastructural capital expenses that may come up are to be borne by the village as well.

Politics:
At the implementation level, one of the crucial issues faced is village conflicts and petty politics that can hamper the progress of a work even in the middle of implementation. Therefore a lot of time and energy is invested in constantly negotiating with all groups and sections to cooperate in the timely implementation of the project.

In many instances, local politics at the village level have been a major hindrance towards completion of the work within the timeframe in villages. In villages where work was going on smoothly, stray unrelated incidents had potential to hamper the construction of toilets and bathing rooms. In three villages in Keonjhar and Dhenkanal , small issues have halted the work and it took considerable time and effort to negotiate with the disputed groups and reconcile the issue.

Land:
In some instances some houses do not have land to construct the toilets and bathing rooms, therefore are not interested in participating in the process. In such cases the village committee works out mechanisms to allocate additional land to such households if any such land is available in the village. These also hamper the progress of the work as until 100% of the households are ready to take up water and sanitation, we do not initiate the work in such villages.

Weather:
During some periods, there have been heavy rains especially in Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts that slowed down the pace of the work in the villages.

Funds:
On the other front, delay in release of funds for water supply for the villages that had already completed their sanitation infrastructure previously in the districts of Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar have affected the progress of work in the villages taken up in the current year. Seeing the delay in the neighbouring villages, people were not convinced of the assurance of piped water supply to their homes. This has hampered the progress of work and thereafter Gram Vikas had in the month of February 2008 proposed to Tata Trust to allow us to replace villages in Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar with villages in Ganjam and Gajapati Districts.

Government Funding:
Experiences in slow progress of work in the last year especially in Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts due to delay in completion of water supply projects has led us to take up water supply systems in some selected villages from resources mobilized through our own efforts from international aid agencies, thus moving away from sourcing money for water supply schemes from the government. This shift, though is a temporary measure in order to tackle the challenges posed in furthering MANTRA in these districts, and we shall continue to lobby for government supported water supply projects to be implemented soon in these districts also.

Motivation:
Challenges surfaced throughout the process in terms of motivating villagers to achieve 100% inclusion and to complete the hardware within a one-year time scale. Rising costs of raw materials have been a concern, as the subsidy component has remained the same as previous years. This entails more contribution from individual families, which takes a lot of time. Poor families find it very difficult to mobilise funds for the construction and to complete the work within the stipulated time frame. Wherever possible, Gram Vikas has tried to influence the people’s representatives and local governments to provide support or mobilise funds from the banks to support such cases.

Gram Vikas’ approach and outlook to address sanitation and promote hygiene is hinged on “dignity”. In this, Gram Vikas have been an ardent advocate and promoter of quality sanitation infrastructure, not believing in the common attitude of “poor people only need poor solutions. Gram Vikas motivates and enables communities to overcome deeply rooted divisions along lines of caste and gender to come together and achieve high quality solutions, resulting in every household having a toilet, and bathing room, with a tap supplying piped, potable water. Gram Vikas believe that the poor can and will pay for truly beneficial development solutions, however the larger community have a role in meeting the social cost for families, especially in areas where the government makes no or measly investment in water and sanitation infrastructure. In recent times there has been a change in the mindset of government towards budget allocation for sanitation to help speed up the coverage of sanitation.