Despite the fact that it might be an uncomfortable subject to discuss, the Rural Development Institute at HIHT has made it one of their primary topics. We’re talking about water and sanitation, toilets, open defecation and waterborne diseases. These uneasy topics have a crucial role in the village areas in India, where 250 million people still practice open defecation and struggle to find easy access to clean water. Such things that might be a basic living requirement for all human beings is still not available to many.
Even though there has been a lot of improvements made by various organizations, there are very few that take the approach of RDI, which is to help communities in need to help themselves. This is done by education, funding and community-created water supply schemes. RDI lights a flame in these individuals, only to teach them how to sustain the flame so that it can keep on burning.
How does a community go from no sanitation to high-quality sanitation?
There are various planning parts before the implementation can commence but RDI believes that the strength comes from the community itself. Therefore, they let the members create their own water and sanitation committee which they plan, partly fund, implement and maintain after the project has been completed. All of this is done with the help and guidance from engineers, supporters and the RDI water and sanitation team.
Pre-planning, Implementation, Operation and Maintenance
In the pre-planning phase, the water and sanitation committee is assembled by the community members. This committee brings up questions like “What sources can be used?” and “How do we measure this water source?” When the questions have been answered and clarified, the committee develops a scheme layout where they choose between the available technical options. They present this layout to a team of engineers who prepare a design based on the presentation. The community then get to review the design and give their opinion. This makes the members in charge of their own project which gives them a sense of ownership.
In order to measure the outcomes of the project, RDI establishes a study of the current health problems along with mapping out the current issues.
A few difficulties that might arise are a lack of awareness, political conflicts among community members and lack of technical knowledge for toilet constructions. These tests are answered by hygiene and sanitation activities as well as training throughout the process. Based on these challenges and solutions, the overall process of going from no water to clean drinking water usually takes 18 months to complete.
The Woman’s Role
The women in the villages are the ones that are mostly affected by the lack of clean water. Before the water schemes are developed, they are expected to travel four to five hours each day to collect water from outside the village. Some of the women are young females who have to skip school for this task. This program saves them tremendous time but also gives them a feeling of dignity and safety.
RDI organizes training for different small groups including female groups which aims to help them improve their quality of life and self-confidence.
Athoorwala Village
In Athoorwala, Uttarakhand, 2500 families have benefited from clean drinking water since 2012 as a part of the Sector Wise Approach Program (SWAP) funded by the World Bank through the Government of India.
Before that, the water that they had access to was very limited and unclean which led to diseases and health issues.
A member of the SWAP program approached the community and inspired them to start planning two different schemes to cover the whole village area. They formed a User Water and Sanitation Committee (UWSC) and collected 10% of the overall cost for initial operation and maintenance of the water supply scheme. The cost was there to make the community members feel a sense of ownership over the project. The committee then planned the rest of the scheme with the help of the RDI team.
Today, the women in the village save time and avoid heavy carrying. There are no waterborne diseases and the members of the village have improved their living standard.
As compiled by Ms. Nina Mujdzic, a volunteer from Sweden
