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

Narrative

This bore-dugwell # PW163CRG3, is in the Swarupnagar Health Center, in Charghat village of Swarupnagar block of North 24 Parganas district. The head of the medical department, Dr._____, personally had requested to Aqua Welfare Society to construct this bore-dugwell within their premises close to an existing tubewell. He appealed for it to reduce pressure on the tubewell.

  • Animesh sarkar of Project Well
    • confidential
    • SMS
    Implementation Status: completed_overbudget Thu 01 Aug 2013, About 11 Years ago

    Health meeting held in this bi tech wel.Total people-10.M-8.F-2.

  • Animesh sarkar of Project Well
    • confidential
    • SMS
    Implementation Status: completed Wed 31 Oct 2012, Almost 12 Years ago

    good water , 1 family of 3 people use and also used by some visitors and patients who come to the health clinic.

  • Biswajit Karmakar of Project Well
    • confidential
    Implementation Status: completed Wed 19 Sep 2012, About 12 Years ago

    AWARENESS Program using projector.

    On 8th sept. Charghat hospital about 60 people attended. The meeting was 1pm-2pm and at the end they had shown a 10 mins movie on arsenic. 3 female doctors had also attended. This projector program was organized because from bore-dugwell only one family is using water for drinking and cooking and the people who visit the clinic. There is a tubewell nearby that is readily used. This bore-dugwell was installed here upon request made by the physician of the hospital.

  • Impact Assessment (M&E) Phase Project completed on 31 Dec, 2010 Implementation Phase
  • Rudi Dundas
    • Visitor
    • confidential
    Implementation Status: completed_partial Tue 23 Nov 2010, Almost 14 Years ago

    November 23, 2010 - Rudi Dundas and Chris Majors

    This well is located a the Charghat Primary Health Clinic. It is next to a tube well on the same property. The tube well has heavy usage, and even though the bore-well PW163 is arsenic free, people were reluctant to change their habits. We did a taste test with one of the villagers judging the water from PW 163 against the old tube well. She said it was quite good. When asked if she would then use the water from PW163 now, she replied, ïf everyone else will..." in other words, education is needed here. The director of the Clinic was very responsive and let us interview him. He said that PW 163 is very good and is usually used more than it was that day. 50-60 people use it daily.

  • Implementation Phase Project started on 1 Nov, 2009 Preparation Phase

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

Narrative

This bore-dugwell # PW163CRG3, is in the Swarupnagar Health Center, in Charghat village of Swarupnagar block of North 24 Parganas district. The head of the medical department, Dr._____, personally had requested to Aqua Welfare Society to construct this bore-dugwell within their premises close to an existing tubewell. He appealed for it to reduce pressure on the tubewell.

Other Issues

Unusual and unexpected issues faced during project execution

The construction of this bore-dugwell is just completed in July 2010. Some finishing work is going on like the masonry job and the arsenic test is done. The community has been trained to apply the disinfectant and field workers visits to check its functionality.

Learnings

Knowledge of project and process for sharing

Need to visit and encourage people to drink water from the bore-dugwell because their mindset towards dug well is still negative. Literally need to have people taste the water in order to show that it tastes better than the nearby tubewell, they mentioned that the dugwell water tastes lighter than the tubewell water but still they will start drinking if others do. There are some ardent users of the dugwell water.

Impact

People Impacted: 55

People Getting Safe Drinking Water: 55

this borewell is located at the health center of Swarupnagar as an additional source since the tubewell adjacent to it is often over crowded.

Maintenance/Operating Costs Annual, in US$: $40

Creating and measuring long-term impact

Implementer: Project Well & Aqua Welfare Society

Aqua Welfare Society, AWS, is the partner NGO of Project Well. Their office is based in the North 24 Parganas. The 7 honorary board members are located in Kolkata. There were only 5 field workers who were interacting with the villagers and beneficiaries, training the users on maintenance of the dugwells, organizing village meetings and health meetings. This year four more field workers including a management trainee have been contracted due to expansion of the program to other districts like Nadia and Murshidabad. 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.

Funding

funded:
$800
Final Cost:
$1,050

Plan/Proposal