Marathwada Trail Day II

Modern bhagiraths bring  the Ganges home!

Community of  Karvanji  village successfully solved the issue  of water scarcity with their own initiative and contribution to the Jal swarajya scheme of Mharashtra government.

Karvanji village is situated in Lohara block of Osmanabad district. The village was facing acute water scarcity problem in summer due to drying up of the existing water sources such as bore wells, and open wells. Another issue was to carry the water from  the point of collection in the vicinity to the point of consumption, ie home. This was the cause of  lot drudgery especially for the women who had to spend a lot of time and physical effort in fetching water from the open wells and hand pumps.

In 2007, the Panchayat got an opportunity to resolve their village water issue by participating in the Jal swarajya Scheme. The grant of the scheme was made available to the panchayat after contributing 10% of the required budget. With the help of Technical team of Jal swarajya scheme, an estimate has been prepared. All the 150 families of the village decided to contribute for the scheme. Drop by drop but three lakh, sixty four thousand rupees were collected by the villagers as a contribution.

To implement the scheme, three committees were formed, (1) Mahila committee, (2) Audit committee (3) general committee. Each committee was formed with 30% women members, 30% PRI members. Women committee was responsible for collection of contribution and collection of water charges specially. This had a direct connection with the women for two reasons- one, the fact that the problem of water scarcity and the task of fetching water for the family was primarily of `the women.  Audit committee was responsible for maintaining transparency in all financial aspects and proper utilization of budget and responsibilities of general committee were to look after all the implementation work and major decision making.

As a part of infrastructure development for the scheme, a percolation well was dug on the downstream side of the existing water body, a fifty thousand liter capacity over head tank constructed and pipe line laid in village to supply the water to each house.

To supply the water a proper system was developed, and to operate all the daily operations and maintenance work, a paid person from the village was appointed. The village also decided to treat the water by using bleaching powder regularly.

As part of the system, collection of 6 months advance payment as a water charge from the community was decided and a proper account system was developed to maintain the transparency.  70% of the families are linked with the SHGs that also provide loan to the needy family to pay the water charges in circumstances.

The community initiative to use water from percolation well was appreciable as in other villages of Jal swarajya, generally ground water resources were getting used. Water from well is pumped by using electricity, which is costly so community is planning about solar energy generation system to install for the same.

Karounji community has solved one of their major issues by unity and contribution and their successful operation  of two years without any disputes is definitely an achievement.

My toilet is beautiful……….

One never been thought about it but it is in Bor Nadi village, Ashok Dhanavade a villager of BorNadi understood that, due to the dirty feeling and smelling, people generally avoid toilets to built specially if the space is more congested. To give inspiration to the other villagers, he build his toilet on the entrance of the house and very aesthetically beatified it by planting flower trees around. He also constructed the sock pit in the entrance of the house.
Ashok Dhanawade’s family is using the toilet from last 7 years. In last year the first pit toilet has filled completely. Again he came forward in the demonstrative role and put the manure (compost from human excreta) in the entrance of his house. Dhanadade say that it is son khat (Compost which has value of gold) and is a very rich organic compost. There is no smell after complete composting process and everyone should take advantage of this no-cost compost making unit.    
 

By mobilizing the community, Sarpanch and other senior members of the village Bor Nadi Wadi developed their village through making it completely Open Defecation Free. Swayam Shishkan Prayog and Kranti Jyoti NGOs supported the village leaders in knowledge building and accessing the government schemes for such a great work.   
Bor Nadi Wadi village is situated in the Tuljapur taluka of Osmanabad district. Initially the village has having very unhygienic environment, polluted every were because of open defecation, unmanaged waste management and bad quality roads. There was a badly famous of village in whole taluka. As the village surroundings of hilly and deep valley area for women only road side was the space for open defecation. It was noticed by the villagers that health related in women are in major number. Swayam Shishkan Prayog and Kranti Jyoti NGOs who were working there on women empowerment issues also observed it and sensitized the villagers about it. These NGOs took a meeting of village leaders and informed them about total sanitation campaign and Gadage Baba Swachhata Abhiyan, which is a state level initiative to award the villages every year that has done a great work on village development specially making it ODF and clean.
 All community members with the support of Sarpanch and leaders, decided to make their village ODF. Village participated in Gadage Baba Swachhata Abhiyan, won District level first price, zone level first price and state level third price as Adarsh ODF and clean village. With the price money villager carry forward the development process of village constructed Pukka roads, panchayat house, renovated water supply system, gutter lines and many things.
Sarpanch, community leaders and SHGs formed, played an important role in the whole development process and community members fully and solely supported them in all initiatives taken up by the panchayat. 

Thank you Jal Swarajya…..

“I participated in initiating the scheme and now because of the support of all the women, the water is coming to us now. Thank you Jal Swarajya.”
Sitabai, a 62 year old woman, an enthusiastic women leader of Karavanji understood the importance of Jal Swarajya Scheme and by taking initiative, mobilized all women of Karounji village to support the scheme to bring the water to their homes.
According to her, she had faced difficulties of drought conditions in Karounji village. She says that before this scheme was implemented, she had to walk for some 2-3 km away from the village to fetch water & she had been doing this for many years. But now the times have changed, & with the Jal Swarajya being running successfully, she can collect water from the community tap or the borewell & this has definitely made life easier for her. New generation did not have to face all these hardships and that’s why the importance of this scheme was so evident to her.
She is a SHG member of her group & even introduced a loaning system for the group members to pay the water charges. She is also a member of Village Jal Swarajya committee and is looking after timely collection of water charges, and monitoring quality aspect in the implementation of scheme.