Water Matters
July 2008
Banner photo: R.Maro/version-foto.de
Water Revives a Village
Ajeet Oak, a development consultant, describes how the villagers of Rajura in India installed and managed their own water and sanitation system through a World Bank-funded initiative.
The village water tank
Rajura is a small tribal hamlet of about 40 families on mountainous terrain in India's Maharashtra State. Because of poor soil, the village has so far relied on subsistence farming. The water there is adequate for the villagers during winter and the rainy season, but during summer the water gets very low especially because of droughts in recent years. In 2004 Rajura only had one handpump which broke time and again, and the only well was two kilometers from the village.
For sanitation there was an open defecation system in the village. A few latrines built during a government program had been used as storage houses for animals and for stocking grain.
For these reasons, Rajura was selected as the site for the first part of a project to develop water and sanitation infrastructure involving 25 villages in the Buldana district in 2004. As it was a pilot village, much thought went into setting up the process, and community participation became a central component of the brief. The idea was to let the communities design their own water supply and sanitation systems. The village also had to commit to operating and maintaining the infrastructure and select methods that were within their means to control, in terms of cost and equipment. This was not about engineers and consultants from outside the community going in and selecting for them.
The villagers of Rajura were keen to do as much as possible of the work themselves, including buying the materials and digging a well. They only asked the specialists to take care of small plumbing jobs and electrical work. This empowered the community greatly.
The project was run democratically. At an initial gramsabha or village general meeting in August 2004, a Village Water and Sanitation Committee (VWSC) was elected. After the general meeting many smaller meetings were held throughout the village so that everybody could contribute.
They also discussed what kind of water supply arrangements were the most suitable for the village. Villagers weighed up all the various options and maintenance costs: handpumps were cheap and easy to operate but difficult to maintain; a piped water supply was an option, but would need expensive maintenance. However, after extensive deliberations, and due to women's demand for higher service levels, they opted for a piped system consisting of a well, a small pump, a water tank and common tapstands. These discussions helped increase the sense of ownership among people.
A Joint Effort
At times it seemed that the whole thing would fall apart. In June 2005, the walls of the well that the villagers had been excavating by hand collapsed, because it had filled up with water. A month's labor by the whole village was completely destroyed. But villagers rallied again and excavated another well, saving US$3,000 of the World Bank funding by doing the work themselves. They put the saving in fixed deposits for the operation and maintenance of the water system.
A composting scheme was set up so a kitchen garden could be grown, linked to the community's waste-water. The villagers installed a rainwater harvesting arrangement on the one concrete structure in the village, the school. The water would be channeled through a gravel filter into the riser pipe of the old village handpump, thus helping recharge the groundwater table. The villagers, who had until then only practiced subsistence farming, began to cultivate vegetables to sell, and women traveled to market for the first time. The income generated was ploughed back into the project.
A latrine with taps in front of a house in Rajura
The villagers cooperated with each other throughout, helping each other build latrines, with richer members helping poorer members by subsidizing their materials. The two school-educated women in the community were proactive in setting up a women's group.
After they had made their village "open defecation free" and built up their water supplies, the villagers made a small exhibition-cum-training place. People from the surrounding area came to see what had been done, and there are now about 15 individuals in the village who are able to lead and guide others in the process. The villagers themselves, including the women, gave talks to government representatives about the process they had used, giving them a platform for the first time.
The success of the villagers of Rajura has become a clear example that when impoverished communities are brought together to address their water and sanitation issues, they can, with only minimal assistance, address their collective problems, begin to lift themselves out of poverty and help others do the same.
Ajeet Oak is the director of PriMove Infrastructure Development Consultants (Pvt. Ltd.) in Pune, India, which works with communities to help them design their own water and sanitation systems.
