Report: Gravity Flow Water Supply for Kerandi Village

Kerandi is a tribal village in Raygada Block, Gajapati district having 47 households. 60% of the households live below the poverty line. All of the households, compromising of 104 men and 116 women, including 68 children, would have 24-hour piped water supply to their toilet, bathing room and kitchen. .

Eight boys and 9 girls attend the village school. The village school operating in Kerandi will also be provided drinking water, toilet, and bathing room facilities with contribution from the entire community.

Kerandi is a tribal village in Raygada Block, Gajapati district having 47 households. All of the households, compromising of 104 men and 116 women, would receive a toilet, bathing, and washing block, each having 24 hours of running water.

Gram Vikas staff engage with self help groups of women to impress upon them, the importance of personal hygiene. Small, but instructive messages about using some form of soap (or detergent or ash) to clean the hands after one uses a toilet, bathing regularly and wearing clean clothes are passed on during the regular meetings. Due to the availability of a bathing room, women would find it easier to take care of their personal cleanliness and hygiene. In addition, children are repeatedly guided, in schools, about the importance of hand-washing, keeping their hair clean, keeping nails short and clean etc. Between the mothers and the children, there is often a mutually reinforcing cycle at work, making the need for personal hygiene an ingrained one.

Before construction of the toilets and bathing rooms, young men and women, working as unskilled labourers, are trained in masonry. On completion of the training, they construct the toilets, bathing rooms, overhead water tanks and later on, houses, under the supervision of master masons and technical personnel. These newly trained masons are assured of work for at least one year if they so desire. Some of them go on to become master masons, leading trainings in other project areas, or successfully securing contracts for work in nearby urban centers. Within a year, the income earning capacity of these people increase by at least two to three times. The village fund that accumulates through individual and community contribution as well as interest accruals, can be used at a later stage as collateral to leverage bank loans for community-based income generating enterprises.