Report: Water Towers funded by Charity Water - Phase 2

In this project, support for implementing a water supply system has been extended to 25 habitations. The project will ensure a supply of protected piped water to a population of 5321 distributed between 1043 families.

Gram Vikas’ interventions start with gaining 100% consensus in the village, which is a non-negotiable requirement. It ensures the whole village benefits from the development process, irrespective of class, caste, or gender, as well as improving the effectiveness of the programme. Even if one family continues to defecate in open spaces and wash in water sources, it will have a negative impact on the entire village.

Once every household is committed to the project, then the building of the toilets and bathing rooms for each family in the village begins. Every village is required to raise a corpus fund, of on average Rs. 1000 per family; the interest is used to extend the same facilities to new households as the village grows. Construction of the water supply does not begin until every household has completed the brickwork of their sanitation block. The water supply system acts as a “carrot” for completing the toilets and bathing rooms. In addition a lot of effort goes into motivating men, women and children to use and maintain the toilets appropriately. Good hygienic habits are taught; hand washing and nail cutting, as well as maintaining the cleanliness of village surroundings. At the same time, Gram Vikas builds the capacities of the village institution to manage their sanitation and water supply systems.

Wherever possible, Gram Vikas leverages funds from the government for the piped water supply. However, recent changes in government policies have led to greater control of the funds and implementation by the departments, leading to lengthy delays. Some villages have been waiting for nearly two years for funds to be released in order for them to construct the water supply system. This project with Charity:Water enables villagers in 25 villages, some of whom have been waiting a long time for their water supply system to realise the dream of every household having a supply of potable, piped water to their kitchen, toilet, and bathing room, and all the benefits it brings. These include removing the daily drudgery of water collection from women’s and girl children’s lives, enabling women to engage in other income-generating activities, or simply having time to themselves, as well as giving girl children the time to attend school.

The programme is carried out with full participation of the local community so that the responsibility for implementation and post implementation is within the community. The basis for this is formation of local institutions in the villages. In all of these villages, a General Body is established, which includes the male and female head of every household. The General Body is responsible for general decision making in the village, as well as electing an equal number of male and female members (usually 12 in total) for the Village Executive Committee (VEC). The Village institution is also registered as a legal society, which therefore allows it to leverage government funding. The committee is responsible for the day-to-day implementation and functioning of the water supply system. Their duties include, drawing up norms and rules in consultation with the general assembly of the village with regard to village cleanliness, use of toilets, keeping the toilets clean, and controlling the wastage of water.

During this period, in some villages where there was difficulty to convince the government department, matters have been smoothened and government funds made available. In some instances, conflicts in villages have caused temporary delay in the implementation. Therefore some villages that were severely delayed and assigned to the first round of funding from Charity:Water, were swapped with villages from this second round of funding, which were progressing very well.

For all villages, irrespective of the type of the system being employed, the following steps in installation apply:
Identification of a water source
Developing the water source
Identification of land for the water tank
Accessing an electricity connection wherever needed
Construction of the overhead water tower
Laying of the main pipeline from the source to the water tower and the distribution lines and installation.

Over the last six months, the numbers of cases of key waterborne diseases noted in the selected villages are as follows:
Jaundice: 3
Diarrhoea: 28
Dysentery: 5
Typhoid: 66
Scabies: 115
Worms: 23