Amrod - Caroline

Amrod is a village with whom WaterAid started working in April 2012 and they went through the standard approach of listening to the community and engaging with them in order to ensure that they were bought into the solution that is put in place - this is vital and is the difference between WaterAid and other very well meaning organisations who might choose to buy a well or install a toilet - long term sustainable solutions that can be managed by the village themselves and make a real difference to help them achieve their ambitions as a community.

The funding of the scheme really interested me - if the villagers raise 3% of the funds for the scheme themselves then the local government will fund the remainder. This is the important thing about WaterAid - they use the resources to leverage funds from other sources. So they complete advocacy work in the villages to mobilise themselves, they facilitate the submission of plans, education programmes and the putting in place of an organisational structure. In this way the hours spent in the villages by WaterAid achieve much more than giving the money alone would do.

The major motivational factor of this village for installing sanitation was safety. It's hadn't occurred to me before but hit me right between the eyes. Women and children were being attacked out in the fields if they were seen openly defecating. Imagine being a father or a brother who was unable to protect their family from these kind of attacks. You would want the women of your household to be safe and for them to have dignity at all times. Prabhu spoke to us as a concerned father who wanted exactly that for his wife Soram and their 9 children, just simply safety, privacy and dignity.

So in just less than 4 months the village have managed to complete 75 latrines, and have 9 more to complete by the end of February to hit their programme target. And we, although not sure whether we were a help or a hinderance, proudly helped the community with 3 of those 9 remaining latrines.

The engineering bit was great - basically they construct two circular chambers with small drainage holes in the wall about 1.5 metres deep with a Y-Junction leading to the latrine base inside a brick cubicle. One of the legs of the Y-Junction is blocked so that only a single chamber is filling at any point in time. It will take approximately 5 years for this chamber to fill for an average sized family. When it is full, the junction is changed to divert flows to the second chamber. The first is left for 6 months in which time the liquid leaches out and the solid matter decomposes to leave a good quality compost type material which can be emptied out and used on kitchen garden. And the cycle just continues as such - sustainable and practical.

I'm not sure how good a bricklayer I would make, but we helped which was the main thing and I loved getting my hands dirty. The mason Sitaram said we did a good job, but I think he may have just been gracious! I suspect there might have been a bit of re-pointing going on after we left!

Caroline x

Kumhar - Caroline

In the afternoon we travelled (yes more bumpy roads) to the lovely village of Kumhar in Datia to see a village that WaterAid have been working in for the past three years and who have been managing their own supply for nearly a year.

The President of the Water & Sanitation Committee quite openly admitted that before WaterAid came along the provision for water and sanitation was negligible - there was no drainage and the topography tended to cause pools of stagnant water to form attracting Mosquitos. The village is also in a drought area so is very susceptible to water shortages and all of these things had to be taken into account for the village.

WaterAid firstly engaged with the community about hygiene and the connection with water, and trained two teachers who could do school education and also household level interaction. This was the first step towards a behavioural shift that allows the new systems to function. They also from a practical point of view taught operation and maintenance to the villagers so they could be self sufficient going forwards.

So now for the engineering for those of you that are inclined towards such things....

Rainwater harvesting systems were put in place on all village buildings in order to capture the vital source of water. This runs to a well where a submersible pump takes it up the hill to main storage tank - this creates capacity in the system for times when the electricity may fail due to frequent power cuts. This tank gravity feeds to village and will therefore work even when the pump isn't running. It also takes water from two wells (dual supply) so that the availability of water is maximised. I've attached a schematic which the village have painted on the pump house wall - which by the way is a brilliant way to overcome the problem of as-built drawings!

So far 57 properties have piped water and 77 toilets have been installed in the village and they are hoping to achieve 100% very shortly.

Every house on the system pays 50 rupees (about 75p) a month into a fund to pay the local man who operates and maintains the pump.

So this afternoon for me wasn't about the human face of water issues - although that was clear too - it was about practical sound engineering solutions to the specific issues faced by the village and the need for individual plans to suit the village's need.

Caroline x

Check back for more updates soon!

Jonhar - Caroline

Well, we thought the road was bumpy yesterday but that just pales into insignificance to today! Apparently the construction company have fallen out with the government so work has stopped. One small problem - they had already stripped the whole 50km down to hardcore therefore we are now in pothole hell! And lord knows how you are supposed to know which carriageway you are driving on!

Anyway back to more important things! Our first village today was Jonhar which is the largest of the villages we have seen so far. We were beautifully welcomed as always, presented with flower garlands and blessed by having a red spot marked on our foreheads - a traditional Hindu greeting.

When we began to talk to the villagers it was largely the women that came forward - that is fundamentally because water is seen as the role of the women and it is them that it affects the most. They fetch the water, they prepare the food with the water, they walk for miles to deficate so that men do not see them. The gender divide is well and truly in existence in India and so we see why it is so fundamental to the success of WaterAids projects that they form a women's group where they can talk openly about their water needs.

This village has no protected water source - the one they do have is a well, but this is not protected from cattle or waste dumping which can infiltrate the supply. It is also greatly affected by the seasons - both the levels of water available and the quality of the supply. Most villagers suffer from typhoid every rainy season here due to the water supply.

We spoke in detail to Awadh who was very vocal in the earlier meetings in terms of the need for not only water, but has aspirations for a piped supply to each home. They are very mistrustful of hand pumps as the government installed one a number of years ago but due to lack of maintenance it now no longer works.

Awadh has 4 sons and recognising the importance of education, two are now teachers, one is in college and the fourth is still in school. She is lucky as although she doesn't have water and sanitation she has land on which the family grows mustard, wheat and grains as well as farming buffalo for the milk.

However as we continue our conversation with her the worrying thing that she tells us that when she collects the water from the well she is getting chest pains which indicates the strain that her body is under. She is 50 years old and should not be experiencing this. What also catches our attention is that her daughter in law Sangeeta, who lives in the same house, is pregnant. She is due in June, which is just before the rainy season when typhoid will be rife in this village so we hope she will be one of the lucky ones.

Awadh was generous with her time and showed us the well and how they fill the vessels with water - there is a real skill to it - at present you have to lower the vessel about 20 feet, but later in the year it will be double that as the well levels drop.

Our eye was caught by a lone girl who the translator was talking to. Her name was Sumon and she had missed school especially to see us today. She is 14 and collects water for 11 people in her family home - she is the only one that does this and she makes a lot of trips every day both before and after school, and if there isn't enough water she misses school to keep carrying. She aspires to learn sewing and be a dressmaker when she is older, but her face seems to say she has no hope of doing it. It saddens me greatly and I wanted to teach her there and then like my Mum did for me.

WaterAid are in the process of just starting to work with this village so there is some hope. They are unsure at the moment until they do some survey work whether it will be possible to meet the aspirations of the village for full piped supply, but they are confident that whatever they are able to do will make a difference.

Caroline x

Day 4 19th feb -Erica

Another 5.30 start and off again at 7. The roads to the pre intervention village were terrible, it was more like off roading and we swapped and switched between carriage ways every few miles. The government and the contractor building the roads fell out a year ago, im glad they finished the bridges first before downing tools! 3 hours later we arrived a Jonhar this village welcomed us warmly and we spoke to women about their troubles. The water makes them ill particularly in summer and they get malaria which makes them ache and feverish. The women collect water from a well that has no covering so they also get typhoid. Every morning the go to and from the well up to 5 times carrying at least 10 litres of water at a time.
The villagers have no toilets and they can not deficate in the agricultural fields around their homes so they have to walk about 2k to the road to go there. At night the girls are scared to go alone so their mothers go with them. The villagers want piped water to their homes and there is a government scheme to help with this and WaterAid is supporting by doing an initial analysis and survey to understand the villagers needs. They will then help with sanitation too. We spent the morning with Awahd and her family, they have electricity and a quite big house. They have land that they farm and a calf. she has 4 sons, 2 are still studying and 2 are now teachers in another village. They have no clean water and sanitation. They want clean water and toilets so they can be clean but also to save time so they can work to earn more money and spend more time with their children to help with their studies. Awahd gets up at 6am and goes to the loo by the road 1- 2k away, she then comes back to clean her teeth. Then she and her daughter in law go to collect water. They each go back and forth 4 times in the morning. They then go to work in the fields when they come back they collect water again. Awahd's husband, has to help her collect water which is rare, this is because lifting heavy weights gives her pain in her chest and heart, she also has liver problems.
we also met Sumon a 14 year old girl she has 6 brothers and sisters but she is the only one who collects water and cooks she also goes to school. Carrying water hurts her neck. She wants to learn to sew so she can make clothes for herself and others.
Again, we have lunch on the way to a post intervention village. Another huge welcome awaited us in Kamhar! 70% of the households have toilets and they have got rain water harvesting on every house. There is a pumped well that provides piped water to people's houses between 6 -8 am. There is also another well that is used as a back up if the first well runs dry. This village has a problem with drought so there has been lots of resiliance built in. there are check dams as well. Some one donated the well to this village so they now have a safe water supply.
I have noticed that water and sanitation really does change people's lives, it gives people time to earn more money to help work themselves out of poverty and it helps children go to school. They seem happier, healthier and very proud of what their community has achieved.
Sorry if my last two blogs are a bit pants, I wrote them on the train on my phone. I promise to do a proper review of my trip once I get back!

Day three 18th feb -Erica

After a 5.30 start and a quick breakfast we were on the road. We stopped for a toliet break at an office of one of WaterAid's partners where we were given gifts! We then drove for miles and miles to the middle if nowhere to a small village called Nayagoan. This village has no clean water supply and no sanitation. They earn money by collecting fire wood from a forrest 3k away and live on less than £1 a day. We spent some time with a family who invited us into their home and explained their situation.The family was made up of the father; Srilal, mother; kamala and 4 children. The girls and women collect water from a spring about 1k away and have to go 5 times a day they fill up metal containers and carry 2 of them on their heads. I tried and it was so heavy, just standing there with one hurt my neck and back. They have no where to go to the toilet so they just have to go a little outside the village. The town where they sell the fire wood is 15km away they have no cattle cars so they have to carry the wood there the day after they have collected it from the forrest. they get about100 rupies for 50kg of wood.
The family were very welcoming and the main thing they thought they would gain from a safe water supply closer to the village was time. Time to work to earn more money. we asked one of Srilal's daughters what she would want for her children in the future. She said she didn't know, all she would worry about was getting enough money to feed them.
After lunch we drove to a post intervention village called Mahadev Pura. What a welcome, just like at Nayagoan the whole village was there to see us arrive. There was drums and dancing, children running about and village elders looking at us with a small smile. We were treated like royalty! This village has been self sustaining for 4 years. It was so clean and basically a model village. There is 100% sanitation and 3 hand pumps. People have been trained to build and maintain pumps and toilets and now their services are in demand in other district sanitation programmes.
The village has seen its income increase and health improve greatly, from a group of 108 villages they are the only village who has not had an outbreak of malaria since WaterAid started.
What a busy day!

Mahader Pura - Caroline

The vibrant village of Morena welcomed us as old friends, even when we arrived 3 hours late to their village - but boy were we glad we made it.

I cannot possibly express what a difference the intervention of WaterAid has made here and what a contrast this village is to the first one we visited.

The first thing that strikes me is the community spirit clearly visible and the pride these people have in their village and their achievements.

So, WaterAid started working here in 2004 when there was little knowledge in the village about the link between clean water, sanitation and ill health. And as the President of the Womens Group later attested to - the villagers thought that WaterAid were crazy, and in fact that she had also gone crazy for listening to them!

But as we listened to the senior members from a number of committees talk to us about their 8 year journey with water it became clear that now the whole of the community are bought in and understand the importance. As a colleague of mine on the trip commented, there will now be a whole generation of children being born who will not know the old practices, and in this way expectations are raised.

WaterAid actually withdrew from this village in 2008 as per the plan, and the village themselves are now driving the continuous improvement through the committees set up by WaterAid and their partners. The village have been recognised by WaterAid India by winning the Open Defecation Free Award in 2012 and earning themselves 50,000 rupees for their hard work which is now being reinvested in operation and maintenance of the now established system.

The village was also the only one not to have a single case of Chickun Guynai (fever, rashes, headaches, aching joints) during a recent outbreak and this is solely due to their rigorous approach to water and sanitation.

So if you have any doubt that WaterAid makes a difference, trust me - it does. This community was empowered, educated and most importantly of all healthy - all due to the work of WaterAid. That cannot be overestimated. And those of you out there that have organised, walked, climbed, driven etc for WaterAid in the past should be very proud of yourselves. You have done a very good thing.

Caroline x

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Nayagon - Caroline

We arrived in the village of Nayagon after an experience of a journey - we call it an experience as we really have no other way to describe it! A drive punctuated by small shrieks from those at the front of the bus who could actually see what was coming, and those at the back landing back in their seats after savage bumps! But nevertheless we got there in one piece....and all knowing that the best place to sit in and Indian bus is in the middle!

And the welcome we received was well worth the drive - we were welcomed like royalty by warm people only too happy to share their lives, and left a lasting reminder of our visit by signing our names on their wall....

We met Srilal and Kamala who opened their homes to us generously and told us about their daily struggle with water. They have 2 sons and 2 daughters, but regularly accommodate further extended family in their home. As Kamala led me by the hand to the water source - a natural spring approximately 1 km away - she did so caringly and with great dignity. The source itself is a spring which you have to climb into a tunnel to access - it isn't protected from cattle or other animals and the girls diligently fill small vessels which are then transferred to larger ones outside of the tunnel.

Each of the girls does this at least 3 times a day and carries 10 litres of water on their heads back to the village, leaving themselves aching and sore. And trust me, we've tried and its heavy - I could hardly lift it, never mind put it on my head. But they have no option - no water, no life.

The source is blessed by a lady who physically lives at the stream - Mira - she spends all day praying there to ensure that it continues to flow and protect it. Sadly I fear that this may be beyond her control....

We were interrupted during our time in the village by two elderly ladies who had walked from the next settlement specifically to talk to us who shocked us with their words regarding water - "fetching water is killing us" - these are ladies that in the UK we would treasure and care for - they are people's Grandmas - it shocked me and will make me hug my Granny a little tighter the next time I see her.

And this village is relatively lucky, at least at this time of year...as their water is relatively uncontaminated and it only makes them sick occasionally - 2 or 3 times a year they get fevers which are likely to be Typhoid - although they never seek medical attention so no one knows for sure.

The lack of clean water and no sanitation means that the hygiene is poor, which in turn leads to illness in the family - this village truly is part of those statistics that get quoted - 2000 children due everyday due to lack of clean water and sanitation. It's not just a number - I have seen the faces of the people it affects.

Thanks for following our journey and keep checking back for updates..

Caroline x

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