Innovations in Development Majara

7/30/2019 Innovations in Development Majara

1/14

INNOVATIONS IN DEVELOPMENT

24x7 SUSTAINABLE WATER SUPPLY to Villages of Punjab

Punjab Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project

Drinking Water Supply in Rural Areas of Punjab remained a majorchallenge despite the fact that surface and ground water is abundantly available

in Punjab.

Historically, even the state Punjab has derived its name from the word

"Punj Aab" meaningFive Waters

referring to the five rivers namely the Beas,

the Ravi, the Sutlej, the Chenab and the Jhelum traversing the undivided Punjab

(prior to 1947).

Map of Five Rivers flowing in Punjab before Independence (1947)


2/14

After Independence the state of Punjab has left with only three rivers namely The

Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej.


3/14

These rivers have bestowed Punjab with fertile land and abundant supply of

surface and ground water. However, easy availability of water resulted in its

reckless use, over exploitation of aquifers and indiscriminate pollution of waterbodies. This 'Problem of Plenty' has entailed to serious Quality Problems and

depleting water table. As per Central Ground Water Board, India, out of 138

blocks of Punjab State, 112 Blocks are stated to be over exploited.

Apart from above water pollution has engulfed the entire state thereby

rising water quality issue. In addition to heavy metal pollution the following are

the common chemical pollutant occurring in the ground water of the Punjab.

Ground Water Quality Problems

Contaminants Districts affected (in part)

Salinity (EC > 3000 S/cm at 25 C) Firozepur, Faridkot, Bathinda, Mansa,

Muktsar, Sangrur

Fluoride (>1.5 mg/l) Amritsar, Bhatinda, Faridkot, fatehgarh

Sahib, Firozepur, Gurdaspur, Mansa,

Moga, Muktsar, Patiala, Sangrur

Chloride (> 1000 mg/l) Firozepur, Muktsar

Iron (>1.0 mg/l) Bhathinda, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib,

Firozepur, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Mansa,

Rupnagar, SangrurNitrate (>45 mg/l) Bhathinda, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib,

Firozepur, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur,

Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Mansa,

Moga, Muktsar, Nawan Shaher, Patiala,

Rupnagar, Sangrur

Hence potable drinking water supply becomes a major challenge and matter of

concern in Punjab.

Both GoI and GoP remained sensitive to above issue and accorded highest priorityto drinking water supplies particularly in the rural areas of Punjab through its

flagship NRDWP and PRWSS Projects respectively.


4/14

Paradigm Shift:

GoPs vision and long term strategy aims at covering all the villages of Punjab with

piped water supply called "Medium Term Program". DWSS Punjab in year 2006

with financial assistance from the World Bank, has developed Rural Water Supplyand Sanitation Project (PRWSS), with main objective (i) to cover all Not Covered

(NC) and Partially Covered (PC) villages so as to achieve Fully Covered (FC) status

(ii) ensuring sustainability of water supply schemes, and (iii) initiating measures to

improve sanitation condition of villages.

Prior to PRWSS project water supply systems were being constructed and

operated entirely by DWSS with little or no participation of community (end user)

and designed service level was 40 lpcd, consequently individual water

connections were very less and performance of O&M was poor. However PRWSS

has proved to be a paradigm shift. Active participation Community (end user) has

been ensured right from pre-planning stage to post-implementations stage.

Service level has been raised from 40 lpcd to 70 lpcd. Now, the O&M of water

supply systems are being taken care of by community without financial assistance

from government agencies.

Sustainability:

Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our

survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural

environment. Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which

humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the

social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations.

Sustainability is important to making sure that we have and will continue to have

the water, materials, and resources to protect human health and our

environment.

According to American Water Works Association (AWWA), Sustainability means

providing adequate and reliable water supply of desired quality now and for

future generations in a manner that integrates economic growth, environmental

protection and social development.


5/14

SUATAINABILTY THROUGH INNOVATION:

While implementing PRWSS Project it has been observed that on transferring

control of O&M of water supply schemes to respective GPWSCs, sustainability of

water supply schemes remained a major challenge for DWSS to address to. It has

been observed in rural water supply systems that due to intermittent water

supply, consumers store more water than actual requirement; whenever water is

again supplied; they tend to discard original stored water and start filling it again.Due to intermittent supply consumers are also left their taps open so that they

could know that when the water supply is resumed. This practice is resulting in

water wastage that needs to be minimized.


6/14

Water Works of Village Majara in sprawling lawn

It has also been noticed that when water supply is started all the consumers start

drawing water simultaneously; resulting in reduction in supply of water and its

pressure in higher and tail-end areas. Hence, complaints of non-availability of

water starts pouring in, consequently many a time consumers are unwilling to pay

(their water charges) in such situations thereby posing a threat to sustainability of

the scheme.

IEC and HRD efforts undertaken to resolve the issue generally bear little success.

Hence an innovative, bold, pro-active and technical initiative was undertaken by

DWSS in collaboration with GPWSC Majara to address this issue.


7/14

Srinivasa Rao Podipireddy, TTL, WB, accompanied by DWSS officers during visit to Village Majara

Er. J S Chahal, Executive Engineer, DWSS motivated the village community,

GPWSC Members and GP Members of Village Majara of district Ludhiana, Punjab

to release water supply connections to consumers through the individual storage

tanks ( 500 Ltrs -1000 Ltrs capacity) fitted with stop valves placed on the roof

tops. When the storage tank of a consumer gets filled, stop-valve automatically

shuts the incoming supply, thereby reducing water wastage through overflow.

The cost of storage tank was borne by the consumers.

Storage Tank placed on Roof Top


8/14

Srinivasa Rao Podipireddy, TTL,WB, DWSS officers and residents inspecting the Village Majra.

This solution resulted in assured water supply to consumers, as he/she is

confident that his/her storage tank is FULL of water, and also resulted in equitable

distribution of water and pressure to all the consumers.


9/14

Results of this solution were found to be amazing as it not only assured water

supply to all consumers but maintained sufficient pressure in the pipeline

network to deliver water even at the roof top of two-storey houses.

Villagers Pointing to Rising

Connecting Pipe to Storage

Tank placed on Roof Top of a

Two-Storey House.


10/14

Srinivasa Rao Podipireddy, TTL,WB, interacting with resident of Village.


11/14

It is pertinent to mention here, success of solution can also be attributed to large

scale mobilization of women folk of the village through sustained IEC/HRD

activities of DWSS.

Women Participation in the meeting


12/14

Women member of GPWSC actively participating in meetings and discussions.

.


13/14

Individual Storage Tanks placed on roof tops is common scene in village Majara.

Thanks to Innovative solution of Issuing water Connections through Individual

Storage Tanks, residents of Village Majara are now getting 24 hour assured

drinking water supply. GPWSC Village Majara not only met all its expenditures

incurred on O&M of Water Supply Scheme but also generated surplus revenue.

GPWSC Village Majara is operating and maintaining the water supply schemesince 2009, successfully and sustainably without any breakdown

Storage Tank placed on Roof Top


14/14

CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED

Through sustained IEC/HRD effort, motivation of DWSS and cooperation of

GPWSC, most of the consumers had readily agreed to install individual storage

tanks fitted with stop-valves. However, there were few left over, who could notafford the cost of individual storage tanks, they were given individual storage

tanks by GPWSC on credit and these consumers have paid back the cost in

installments as little as Rs.100/- deposited with their water charges bill.

Future Vision

After studying the successful, sustainable and trouble free operation in village

Majara, district Ludhiana for many years; Majara model is suggested to adopted

at other villages of the Punjab state.

Contributed by:

Er. J S Chahal

EE, DPMC, Ludhiana.

Documents

Innovations in Development Majara