A Report on Exposure Visit of Ten Member Team of …wssoup.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/wsso_gujarat.pdfFor official use only A Report on Exposure Visit of Ten Member Team of Uttar

For official use only

A Report on Exposure Visit of

Ten Member Team of Uttar Pradesh

To WaSMO, Gujarat. (April 5-8,2011)

Water & Sanitation Support Organization , U.P. State Water & Sanitation Mission (Department of Rural Development, Govt. of UP) G-3, Akshay Apartment, 2- Sarojini Naidu Marg, Lucknow-226001 Phone: 91-522-3016584, Fax : 91- 522-3016586

A REPORT ON EXPOSURE VISIT TO WaSMO, GUJARAT. A ten member team of Government of U.P. officials drawn from WSSO, SWSM, District De velopment and U.P. J al Nig am, led by Director, WSSO, U.P. (A -1), visited the State of Gujarat from April 5-8, 2011, to get the first hand experience of various activities be ing carried out by W ater a nd S anitation Ma nagement Organisation (WaSMO) in the State, under their program of Drought Proofing and Water S ecurity by I nfrastructure C reation with the NRDWP support of Government of India. The to and fr o tra vel to Ahmedabad wa s financed b y UNICEF, Lucknow at the be hest of Executive Director, SWSM, U.P., on whose initiative this visit was organized. The tea m arrived at Ahmedabad in the evening of April 5 th and visited the of fice of WaSMO in Gandhinagar in the morning of Ap ril 6th, where the tea m was warmly welcomed b y the W aSMO officials led by their C EO & Additional S ecretary, Dr. J aipal S ingh, IFS, who ga ve a very informative presentation on the program and provided all the c larifications. While outl ining the program, activities a nd achievements as below, he a lso informed that a free of charge po wer supply to the drinking w ater schemes is 24x7 through a dedicated feeder throughout the State, for this purpose, the budgetary allocation is diverted to the Power Department at State level:- Scenario of water scarce, drought prone State of Gujarat (A-2): The status

reveals the agony of habitants. A number of 4,054 villages had the water supply through Tankers, while 8,717 habitations suffered with water quality problem, 9,462 habitations were covered only partially, whereas 166 habitations were not covered at all.

Water iss ues (A-3): There ha s been une ven w ater a vailability in the State.

Except for south Guja rat, wa ter w as scarce in rest of the State. Almos t 2/3rd part of the State witnessed drinking water scarcity and more than 50 pe r cent habitations faced water quality / availability issues.

Paradigm shifts (A-4,5,6): They have shifted from Ground Water to Surface

Water based schemes. Inter-basin water transfer has alleviated the problem of water shortage; focus on infrastructure for bulk water transfer to scarcity and quality a ffected areas, be sides State wide drinking wa ter g rid for drought proofing and sustainability.

The visi on of ac hieving d rinking w ater se curity (A-7): This aims a t

mitigation of wa ter scarcity b y sour ce d evelopment, water s ecurity a t village and habitation level leading to water delivery at household level.

Four w ater taps (A-8): They include 4 major i ssues of wa ter a vailability in particular catchment, transfer of bulk water by inter-linking of basins, recycling of waste water and desalinization.

Infra structure creation (A-9): This involves installation of intake structures, setting up pumping stations, construction of head works & filtration plants and large scale lying of pipe lines.

Inter-linking of basins (A-10,11): This has a very ambitious plan for 10 water scarce dist ricts under the Sujalam Suphalam Yojna, whe re flood water is transferred to scarcity areas through canal, filling of dams from Narmada water by la ying 14 pipelines for 10 dist ricts, filling of va rious ponds by N armada water and inter linking of 27 rivers in the State.

Recharge & su stainability measures and their im pact on f alling gr ound

water levels (A-12 to 19): These measures include the following:- Revival of traditional structures like step wells-mission mode. De-silting and deepening of ponds. Diversion channels. Small check dams. Sub-surface check dams/dykes. Conjunctive use and regulation. Filtration wells on ponds. Linking of ponds and diversion channels. Roof-top rain water harvesting. Recharge wells. Hydro-fracturing of sick wells. Bore blasting to develop secondary porosity. A total number of 1,33 ,732 c heck da ms have been c onstructed in 26 dist ricts, besides 1,22,035 bori-bandhs, 2,40,294 farm ponds and deepening of 19,154 ponds., thereby augmenting 6,169 MC M of water, leading to a rise in ground wa ter leve l ranging between 0.10 m in Kachchh to 6.82 m in Saurashtra, which largely depends on the local hydrogeology. Systemic innovations for communitisation (A-20): The mission is not only to

make water available in villages but also to enable the people, who like faceless shadows were onc e wa iting for tanke rs and wa ter tra ins earlier, to become substantive decision makers, leveraging their water resources and manage their own affairs through active community participation.

Strength of the Special P urpose Vehicle- the WaS MO (A-21): WaSMO‟s staff, comprising 550 persons located in 26 districts, including PMU, has 43 per cent Social Mobilisers, whereas the Technical manpower is 38 per cent and rest of the staff remains in 19 pe r cent of the strength. The o rganization is autonomous and fle xible having a mot ivated tea m of young pr ofessionals to work in the far flung rural areas.

The CEO, WaSMO, also offered to organize similar visits for other staff, including the members of VWSC and visit to the tribal villages also. There the community is not able to give 10 per cent financial contribution, instead they provide the labour input in the scheme a nd their schemes are a lso runnin g successfully. He also explained as to how the continuous efforts of persuasion with a lot of perseverance could ultimately bear the fruits of community participation. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) System : The Team was taken to visit Kudasan Head Works, Gandhinagar taluka, where under the Sujalam Suphalam programme, a project of drinking water supply from

Narmada Canal, a live demonstration of SCADA System was given by the Experts and staff. It was explained as how the water supply to remotely located 31 villages and ha bitations, covered b y th e main he ad w orks of Kuda sn a nd P ethapur, is supervised and c ontrolled effectively from the System panel installed at the head works itself and the online system of data acquisition from remote locations through GSM/Satellite telemetry system, and transfer of data to remote terminal station and master control station for storage and retrieval was also very well displayed (A-22).

Later towards the e nd of the da y, sessions were he ld in WaSMO auditorium to outline the stra tegy and

approach of W aSMO for ensuring sustainability of water supply sc hemes and lastl y a pr esentation wa s made on efforts made for im provement of wa ter quality a nd Multiple Distr ict Assessment f or Water Safety (M -DAWS).

National Rural Drinking Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance Program: The three important issues of Quality of drinking water, Hygiene and Sanitation are so intricately int er-woven that none of them could be visuali zed se parately. Isolation of any one iss ue can de stroy the whole fabric of human life and health. Realising the utmost importance, the Government of India issued a Joint D.O. No. W 11042/7/ 2005-CRSP, Dated 22 nd August, 2008 (A -23), signed joi ntly by th e Secretary (Health & F W) and S ecretary ( DWS), regarding str engthening of convergence be tween Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Wate r M ission, T otal Sanitation Campaign and National Rural Health Mission program in the States. In c ompliance to these instructions the S tate Governments have to integrate the Rural Drinking Water Supply with Health & Family Welfare program at the State level, Dist rict leve l, B lock level a nd Gram Panchayat W ater and Sanitation Committees level to pr omote greater convergence a t all leve ls of th e of ficial machinery (A-24). By active involvement of ASHA worker and Medical Officer-in-charge o f the Primary Health C entre (PHC) in the activity of W ater Qua lity Monitoring a nd S urveillance, it is in practice in the State o f Gujarat t hat e very ASHA wor ker, while vi siting the P HC, carries along the wa ter samples from her village, for which she is paid an incentive of Rs. 30 to 50 and these samples in turn are analysed with the help of F ield Test Kits (FTKs) and the report is sent to the district level functionary of W aSMO. The sa mples testing posi tive for a ny contamination are tested by laboratory methods. The findings are very encouraging and it ha s been e stablished with the help of supporting da ta that the problems of Salinity, Nitra te and F luoride contamination exhibit a c onsistent fall be tween the years 2003 -2008 (A -25 to 27). Bacteriological safe sa mples have a lso increased considerably durin g th e pr e a nd post -monsoon pe riods fr om year 2007-2008 to 2010-2011 (A -28,29).This convergence ha s greatly b enefited the WaSMO and Department of Health mutually (A-30).

IEC & HRD : The Government of India instructions also provide that besides the identification of members, partners and workers for HRD activity at district, block and village level (A-31), the IEC material developed by the State W ater a nd S anitation Mi ssion, WaSMO in the case of State of Gujarat, is to be provided to the ASHA workers for creation of awareness on he alth, sa nitation a nd h ygiene e ducation (A -32). Formation of water quality Team, Group meetings, Street plays, Folk media, Audio-visual, Wall paintings and School programs are to be undertaken (A-33). FIELD VISITS : Next day, on April 7th, the Team departed from Gandhinagar to visit the villages of Salatpur and Timba Kampa of Talod taluka in Sabarkantha district and the village Iswarpura Badpura of Mansa taluka in Gandhinagar district. The warm and rousing welcome given to the Team, in a ll the villages visited, especially in the vil lage of Iswarpura Badpura, ha s e tched an indelibl e im pression on he arts of t he Te am members. The visi t was or ganised for holdi ng int eractive se ssions with the members of Vill age Pani Samiti, which has about 2-3 women members also, and the community, including the women folk, on the issues of water drudgery faced by them in the past, introduction of community managed program, Components created unde r Swajaldhara p rogram, existing drinking water f acilities, implementation, operation & maintena nce of the sc hemes and the final outcome, besides other related issues (A-34 to 36). A member of VWSC in village Salatpur, de monstrated the indigenous use of tec hnology for operating their pipe water suppl y mec hanism throug h SMS se nt by th e m obile number s registered in the system. This makes the operation of th eir pumping we ll, located 6 km away, ti me saving a nd very convenient. At the same time cost

on deployment of a pump operator is also saved. They a re me eting d rinking water demand from thi s project, while surface water suppl y is used for other purpo ses. This village c omprising of 2 64 families, in view of the scarcity o f irrigation facilities, has opted for a single cropping of F ennel (Saunf), a c ash crop whic h fetches them around R s. 2.5 c rore per year.

In the village Timb a Ka mpa, having a tot al population of 3 25, the former vil lage head, in whose tenure the pr oject wa s executed, explained a s how effectively a nd economically th ey are mana ging the manual operation of thei r pumping s ystem in integration with the ope ration of their, community own ed F lour Mill (Atta C hakki), unde r PPP mod el. Rs. 86,000 (10% of the total project cost) has been allocated to the VWSC for O& M a ctivity under Swajaldhara mode, which has been placed in to the bank as a fixed deposit for three years. Here the water needs are met by surface water supply and they use their supply as a standby. He was even able to explain the technique of construction of horizontal collection galleries/ Rennie‟s well approach adopted by them for enhancement of the yield of existing open well. In vil lage Iswarpura B adpura, comprising of 250 fa milies, the head of VWSC, while highlighting the a chievements, also informed that the y ha ve be en a warded as “Nirmal Gram” for cleanliness and sanitation, since every house has its own toilet, ther e is no ope n defecation, muni cipal soli d wa ste or a ccumulation of wa ste wa ter in the village, an award of “Teerath Gram” for having a totally crime free period o f a d ecade and

“Samras Gram” for unanimous constitution of VW SC without hold ing a ny elections. They also demonstrated the operation of R.O. Plant inst alled b y them in the pipe water suppl y s cheme, f rom the matching (50:50) funds , which is providing the drinking w ater, while other ne eds are met by the surface w ater supply. The y also displayed the use o f F TK for testing the quality o f their water. The vil lage g irls, having Post Graduate degree in Bio-technology and Social W ork a re actively participating in the program, which was a ve ry enlightening e xample of empowerment and participation of Women in a leading capacity. The village Primary School, having an ideal method of

schooling whic h c ould be re plicated everywhere, h ad a Roof top Rain Water Harvesting s ystem; and S tandalone Water P urification S ystem, under Jalmani Program, installed a nd func tioning successfully. M embers of the community fully a cknowledged th e ha nd holdi ng support they are getting from WaSMO.

All the members of t he c ommunity in these vil lages, old or young pa rticipated

with equal zeal and enthusiasm to narrate their success story and that how they were able to overcome the hurdles with mutual trust and harmony.

THE LESSONS LEARNT : The interactive and enlightening sessions, held at length with the members of Pani Samities, local community and the women folk, in all the three vil lages visited by the Team, were ve ry in formative, useful and it wa s a great learning e xperience whereby the following focal points were observed:- 1. Lessons related to Processess: (a) Power of Social Mobilisation: Social process have provided a new dimension

to the engineering approach. In several cases, door to door efforts were required for e ffective community e ngagement. Ta king the help of professional social mobilisers has not only helped in engaging the community for drinking water supply programme, but it has led to an attitudinal transformation at the village level. Social mobi lization ha s addressed inclusion iss ues, collection of community contribution and has resulted in setting up of redressal mechanisms.

(b) Flexible Mechanisms: A flexible approach within broad guidelines is essential

while im plementing the c ommunity dr iven p rogramme. In s everal cases, projects were approved pa rtially a t the beginning or part funds were released for gaining th e wide r trust of the community at village lev el, which was unwilling to c ontribute at the beginning. Lot of interventions were re quired during the implementation pha se a lso. A variety of im plementation opti ons were thou ght of to suit the capacities and sk ills available with the local community. A „one-size-fits-all‟ may not be the best option for community engagement.

(c) Special Dr ives for E nthusiasm: Several drives ha ve also been take n u p on

various oc casions for i nfusing int erest and e nthusiasm in the community. Celebrations of World Water Day, World Women‟s Day, World Environment Day a nd va rious loca l f estivities on a lar ge sc ale has strengthened the ownership feeling of the community. During scaling up, large scale block level motivational mee tings ha ve be en ve ry effective tool for c ommunity engagement. In such meetings, several village leaders took upon themselves the

responsibility of not only mot ivating their own vil lage but also a g roup of villages for joining the programme.

(d) NGOs as Partners: Another important lesson ha s been in the area of

partnering with the NGOs of the state. Scaling up of decentralisation in Gujarat would not have been possible, but for the continuous and unequivocal support of the NGOs in the State. Partnerships with NGO were also developed based on flexibility in approach a s well a s mutual respect which is essential for effectiveness.

(e) Association w ith UNICEF: Where required, UN ICEF has extended full

support to WaSMO in providing technical assistance and manpower for social mobilization a nd I EC activity a t the field level b y pr oviding a ccess to the innovative publicity material, besides organizing trainings and seminars.

(f) Policy of Convergence: Convergence of Drinking Water Supply and Health &

Family W elfare pr ograms ha s pa id very rich dividends b y sensitization & motivation of the community through spreading awareness about importance of hygiene & sa nitation f or their water sourc es, to keep them sa fe f rom anthropogenic/natural contamination, for p rotecting th e c ommunity from various water borne diseases.

(g) Conjunctive u se: At p laces ground w ater is being used conjunctively with surface water for supplementing the drinking water supplies through hand pumps and a lso in the sporadic a nd spar sely popul ated ha bitations. W hereas, surf ace water ba sed sc hemes are e xtremely us eful in the a reas facing the problem of ground water qu ality and de pleting ground water levels, whic h also he lps in mitigating both the problems.

(h) Preference t o Pipe Water Supply Schemes and Sustainability:

Replacement of ha nd p umps b y surface w ater suppl y b ased pipe w ater schemes, besides providing potable water, also relieves stress on the ground water regimen, which in due course of time tends to improve. Ground water recharge with the help of construction of check dams, bori-bands, ponds etc has been e mphatically f ocused which ha s shown a posi tive impact on the recovery o f falling ground wa ter levels leading to the sustainability o f the resource.

(i) Communication Network: For a stron g f eedback, e ffective moni toring and

quick redressal of problems, if any, a strong mode of communication through network of mobile phones and SMS is working successfully at all levels right from VWSC to WaSMO head quarters.

2. Lessons related to the Community: (a) Breaking of Myths regarding the Community: Years of a top-down, supply

driven approach to rural drinking w ater s upply had caused se veral misconceptions about the rural communities a nd their capabilities to plan, implement and manage in-village infrastructure and development works. But the people of Gujarat have put them to rest. Local self-governance institutions and the rural community have proved that they are:

Able to bear re sponsibilities, implement constructions meeting hi gh

standards of quality and maintain financial discipline and transparency,

Willing to contribute towards capital costs for water supply systems as well

as for the O&M of systems and have thus endorsed the „users to pay‟

principle,

Able to resolve conflicts and arrive at a consensus,

Able to understand issues related to water quality and safety up to users‟

level,

Empathetic to socio- economic diver sity and c an plan systems that tak e

care of the underprivileged and labour class,

Conscious about caring for traditional/ local sources and using their water

resources in a conservative and prudent manner,

Able to impose socially acceptable regulations for groundwater or surface

water use so that drinking water supplies are sustainable.

(b) Role of Women in the Rural Society: Women, traditionally relegated to the

background have found their voice and have often led from the front, be it in convincing their husbands to contribute, halt sub-standard construction or clean up their village. Women confess that their experience under these projects have given them the confidence in dealing with other issues as well. Still behind the veil, some address large a udiences fearlessly from a da is, other have tu rned advisors for neighbouring vil lagers and many others ensure that the rules laid down for the use of water are followed by all.

(c) Elections as Strong T ool for Pe rformance: Re-formation of VW SCs every

two years – especially after the local governance elections – has come out as a very stron g audit measure wherein, the existing VWSC has to explain all the procedures a nd transactions in cluding accounts and ph ysical work b efore the Village Assembly. Commendation for performing Committees and criticism for slackness has been observed and in some extreme cases even recoveries were made by Village Assemblies.

(d) Performance based Incentive Scheme: The performance based incentives are offered to the Gr am Panchayats as motivation and e ncouragement fo r further improvement, besides they are also awarded for their achievements in the fields of sanitation, peace and harmony.

(e) Participation of Schools: At the village level, Science Teachers and S tudents

are also actively involved in Information, Education & C ommunication ( IEC) activities for spr eading a wareness about the importance of sa nitation a nd hygiene, sanitary protection of water sources & water bodies and their relation with human health.

3. Lessons related to Systems: (a) Allocative Efficiency: Due to a process driven approach, the programme is

based on p reference re velation and de cide in an open platfo rm before the community whic h ha s resulted int o de mand driven re source a llocation and utilization. The c ommunity h as also to contribute towa rds the capital expenditure and long term O&M which leads to a tendency for efficiency and preferential spending at the village level. The peer monitoring by community, social audit and elections of local self governance have been acting as a strong tool for accountability.

(b) Technical E fficiency: The suppl y d riven pr ogramme leads to information asymmetry. The demand driven and social process based approach has led to revelation of hidden information and most often it has led to better design and solutions wherein traditional loca l knowledge h as played a major role for better and efficient technical designs of the in-village water supply schemes. Several villages have adopted 24x7 water supply systems still making lot of savings on total water use and electricity savings.

(c) Services Suited to the L ocal Needs: Management of se rvices being shouldered by community itself, local level solutions have been put in place which are cost effective, effective and rapid. The community has developed its own innovative mec hanism for ensuring equity in water distribution to all its members. Fixation o f time for wa ter de livery, use of potable wa ter for drinking and inferior quality water for other purposes, minimal use of water, good sa nitation c onditions near storage struc tures, augmentation of sour ces, concern fo r everyone a s we ll a s socia l e quity issues are a ddressed b y the community in a very prudent way.

(d) State P ower Policy: The State poli cy for pr oviding fr ee and 24x 7 power supply to the drinking water schemes has changed the scenario of water scarce Gujarat completely, where the women folk were compelled to fetch drinking water from very long distances in the past.

(e) WaSMO: As a spe cial purpo se ve hicle it ha s a ve ry stron g and e ffective autonomous organizational structure ha ving e qual number of S ocial Mobilizers as compared to the Technical staff. The y are a tea m of young professionals willing to work in far flung rural areas, having close interaction with the community and membe rs of VWSC. They mobilize a nd h elp the community in preparation of village water security plans, assessment of their drinking w ater d emand, a nd se lection & d esigning of an a ppropriate c ost-effective scheme, best suited to their need.

(f) Role of PHED and WaSMO: Their roles are well defined, where PHED is responsible only to bring the water supply u p to the village, ther e a fter WaSMO takes over the job for pr oviding publi c a nd domesti c w ater connections within the village in mission mode.

(g) Chemical Laboratories: Their Chemical Laboratories are fully equipped with advanced e quipment & suit ably sta ffed a nd a re he aded b y qua lified S enior Scientists.

TEAM WORK : Working toge ther in h armony in an y p rogram or activity makes every task possible and delivers all the goods (A-37 to 39).

(N.K.Choudhary) (Meena Agarwal) Consultant, Hydrogeology Director WSSO WSSO

Annexure-1 Members of Visiting Team

S. No. Name of Officials

(sitting left to right) Designation

1. Smt. Meena Agarwal Director, WSSO

2. Sri D.K. Saxena Unit Coordinator (Technical), SWSM

3. Sri B.K. Litoria Engineering Consultant (DW), SWSM

4. Sri Daya Shankar Prasad Distt. Development Officer, Maharajganj

5. Sri S.P. Singh Distt. Development Officer, Banda

6. Sri B. D. Ragi Distt. Development Officer, Pratapgarh

7. Sri Sulabh Sahai Senior Geophysist, U.P. Jal Nigam

8. Sri N.K. Choudhary Consultant Hydrogeologist, WSSO

9. Sri Shri Krishn Tripathi Distt. Development Officer, Faizabad

10. Sri Rajiv Kumar Project Manager, U.P. Jal Nigam