Start Date: 2009-09-01

Completion Date: 2010-08-31

Technology Used:

The following activities would be undertaken in the village.
• Deepening of existing well; Use of Gram Panchayat well for lifting water for drinking purpose. For getting sufficient water, this well has to be excavated by 5 meters.
• Pipeline for carrying water from well to water tank.
• Fitting of electric motor for lifting water from the well to the water tank.
• Construction of water tank
• Distribution system

It is planned to promote and implement the cost effective and community managed drinking water project which would benefit the deprived and vulnerable community of small villages/hamlets as per the village situation and their demand. It is planned to excavate and construct the existing drinking water well and to install 5 h.p electric pump on the well to lift and transport drinking water through underground pipeline and the water would be stored in the newly constructed water storage tank of 18000 ltrs. Capacity. The water would be distributed through construction of 2 stand posts.

The main concern and issue of water and sanitation is very much related to women as they are the ones who have to face the brunt. The SHGs are formed in the village and these are federated into the Apex body called SMS. The SHGs and the SMS play an important role in the social developmental activities specially they will be actively involved in water and sanitation activities.

The drinking water and sanitation project would be implemented through the SMS (Apex body of all SHGs) drinking water and sanitation project. The SMS will be responsible for implementation, supervision, quality control and monitoring of activities with the support of village development committee and WOTR staff. The funds would be released directly to the pani samittee bank Account. The committee would hand the transaction and would be responsible for maintenance of accounts. The technical and social mobilization support would be provided by WOTR (a separate unit for implementation called SIED) The Pani samittee and the village development committee’s capacity building would be done by the implementation team. After the successful completion of the project the water committee and VDC would be responsible for the distribution of water, collection of water tax and also repairs and maintenance of the project.

So far WOTR has successfully implemented 1,542 decentralized drinking water projects through BPR benefitting 1542 households and 9653 individuals. Besides this, at present we are implementing drinking water and sanitation projects in 11 villages in 4 districts of Maharashtra benefitting 886 households and 6,183 individuals. Our past experience in all drinking water and sanitation projects, shows that when women are given the responsibility to implement the project they have done it with interest, full dedication and successfully. Since they are the most effected and face the brunt of drinking water and sanitation problems. They take the initiative to solve the same problem by organizing the village community and approaching the local Gram Panchayat (local elected government).
Therefore, the implementation of the project is being done successfully as per the plan involving the entire village community. Our learning from the past BPR projects are under -
1. The drinking water activity has helped the village community together for common causes and helped them to strengthen their unity, integrity and cooperation.
2. The illiterate rural women are capable to implement honestly parsimoniously large projects with large budgets by maintaining transparency if their capabilities are built through training interventions and given opportunities to implement the projects.
3. If the drinking water problem is indentified and the work is initiated by women the strong support and cooperation is possible from the local governance (Gram Panchyat), CBOs and main folk irrespective of politics, groupism and bureaucratic interference.

Issues of concern:
1. Delay in getting the electric connection from the Electricity Board after completing the physical implementation of the project.

2. Due to electricity power constraint, the load shedding of electric power in the rural areas is of 12 hrs. per day. This leads to irregular water supply to the community.

Phases:

The project would be completed in one phase.

The funds would be released directly to the Water Committee in 3-4 installments. After the monitoring of the first installment disbursed and on satisfaction of work as per plan, the next installment would

Community Organization:

The Kachner Tanda No. 1 hamlet is selected by WOTR for the promotion of watershed in 2008. The actual physical watershed has been initiated from December 2008. Under the capacity building, the exposure visits, SHG trainings have been conducted and in the due course of time of next one year as the watershed activities continues the other trainings such as project planning and management trainings (3 trainings) and SMS trainings (Part 1 & II) and other issue based trainings would be conducted to capacitate the CBOs & village community

Besides these 2 specialized trainings would be conducted for the women’s Water Committee and the Village Development Committee in which topics on management of drinking water, sanitation, health, hygiene issues and post drinking water project management would be covered.

In the initial stage, the participatory PRA was conducted in the village to understand the local situation and to collect the basic data of the village such as no. of households, population, their locations, infrastructure and facilities available in the village, natural resources, land irrigation cropping pattern, drinking water facilities, sanitation situation etc. At the time of the problem analysis it was realized that “drinking water” is one of the important issue in the village. After the organisation of the women in the SHGs and SMS the women have decided to solve the drinking water problem and they have taken the initiative for the same. The initial planning of the project is being done through the PRA by the village community and the technical plan and estimates are prepared by WOTR staff. As per the WOTR’s norms the village community has to agree to contribute minimum 20% of the total cost either in cash or in kind. Accordingly the village community has agreed to contribute 20% of the total cost. The source of water which is identified is the village drinking water well owned by the gram panchayat (local self Govt.) who has given the permission to promote the project.

After the completion of the project the women’s Water Committee would be responsible for the repairs and maintenance and post management of the project.

Government Interaction:

To provide the safe drinking water to the villagers is the prime responsibility of the State Government.

The joint drinking water scheme was promoted by the Govt. for 2-3 villages which included Kachner also. But so far (since 2002) Kachner has no access to potable water due to technical fault and insufficient water source to the well. The local gram panchayat is ready to give all the necessary cooperation and support to implement this project and has given permission to use the drinking water well which is located in the main village.

Ancillary activities:

At present the watershed developmental activities are being implemented in the village. The soil and water conservation, agriculture development, livestock, human resource development, livelihood activities have been initiated in the village. There would be synergy between VDC, water committee, SHGs, SMS and Gram Panchayat for implementation of the drinking water project.

Other Issues: