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Victorious in Virpur |
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Sampad's success |
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Victorious in Virpur |
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Virpur
village in Sabarkantha district, with a population of 1,882,
falls on the Himmatnagar-Idar highway. Dairy products are the
major source of income here.
The village was besieged with problems of water shortage.
Hygiene levels were low. When the young and enthusiastic
sarpanch,
Farookhbhai learnt about Swajaldhara, he collected all relevant
information about the programme and along with the village
community, held meetings with concerned officials. He then hit a
roadblock. When the villagers came to know about the project’s
unique point – 10 per cent contribution by the community – they
had serious doubts. What if the programme never gets implemented
after they contribute? This did not deter the
sarpanch from
going ahead as he convinced the villagers with the logic, “If we
work for ourselves and remain committed, nothing is impossible.”
His words encouraged the community and instilled confidence. The
pani samiti
was formed, contribution collected and deposited in the bank.
The scheme consists of construction of an elevated storage
reservoir (ESR), underground sump, pump house, cattle trough and
water supply pipelines.
The women are now the happiest as their water woes have ended.
Once the water scarcity problem was solved, the sarpanch
initiated activities targeted at maintaining village
cleanliness. Dustbins were kept on the streets of the village
and gutter lines were laid for solid waste and wastewater
disposal respectively.
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Sampad's success |
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Swajaldhara programme
has helped villagers of Sampad village overcome their
decade-old drinking water shortage. Instilling confidence in
the villagers that they could build in-village water
infrastructure according to their needs and maintain it too,
helped.
Sampad village in Prantij block of Sabarkantha district is
situated 20 km away from Himmatnagar. The major occupation of
the villagers is agriculture and animal husbandry.
Prior to Swajaldhara implementation, water was supplied from a
15,000 litre capacity overhead tank into which water from the
village borewell was pumped. After the failure of this
borewell, there was no water distribution system available.
The villagers had to fetch water from far off fields. The
situation worsened during summer months. Pilgrims visiting the
famous Mahakali temple also faced a hard time.
Searching for solutions, sarpanch
Jayantibhai Patel along with a few village elders visited the
concerned GWSSB office. “Here we found out about the
Swajaldhara programme. The GWSSB officials gave us a guarantee
that the programme would solve our water shortage,” informs
Patel.
The villagers however were unsure about the process of pani
samiti formation and how to initiate operation and
maintenance contribution. When the technical team visited the
village they cleared all doubts. Within a week a gram sabha
was held and a pani samiti
formed. The villagers contributed Rs 68,000. Meanwhile the
village pond dried up completely and a borewell had to be
drilled two km away on a site advised by the technicians.
The drinking water problem has finally been solved in the
village. Says Hiraben, “We suffered due to water shortage for
the last ten years. At last we now have enough water for
drinking.”
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