UNIQUE ACHIEVEMENTS OF DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION


PARTICIPATORY DRINKING WATER MANAGEMENT

“ You know the value of water only when the well in your backyard dries up”

Water one of the basic requirements of life. For a healthy living, pure potable water is a must. The water, though a “priceless” commodity, is not really given the care and attention it is due. Since it is made available free or with little charge to the people, there is lot of wastage of water. Though lakhs of rupees are being spent every year to ensure supply of pure drinking water, every year cases of water borne diseases appear in the state. It is high time the value of water is brought to the notice of the people. Unchecked drilling of bores for drinking water and agricultural purposes has depleted the ground water level. The water table has plummeted to alarmingly low levels and it keeps going down every year.

Nizamabad district has 1389 habitations constituting 719 gram panchayats in 36 Mandals. There is no village without any drinking water facility. There are either Mini Protected Water Supply (MPWS) schemes or bores or tube wells or open wells to provide drinking water in the villages. If the existing infrastructure facilities are put to proper use a lot of problems related to drinking water can be ameliorated.

To bring about efficient and optimum utilization of drinking water sources, to preserve water, to avoid wastage of water and to prevent the ground water from depleting further it has been decided to form Habitation Drinking Water Committees in all habitations of the Nizamabad district.

The specific mission of the Habitation Drinking Water Committees (HDWCs) is “To ensure proper, clean and pure drinking water using the existing infrastructure”.

The Habitation Drinking Water Committees formed in each habitation will have five (5) members out of which there shall be a minimum of three (3) women members. The members of the committees should be those who are directly involved in the daily fetching of water for the household. They could be members of DWCRA, Yuva Shakti or any other Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the village. Representation of SC/ST/BCs form their habitations, if any within the water distribution area, is a must. There is no bar on Sarpanch /Upa Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat becoming a member of the committee, though better if avoided. There shall be no chairperson for the committee and all members are equal. They can select/decide one of the members as President every time to conduct the meeting. One of the members may be kept as permanent Convener to convene as well as to keep the minutes of meetings. The committee would essentially function as a pressure group or watchdog on the local powers to ensure proper maintenance and equitable supply of pure and clean drinking water in the village, putting into use optimally the existing drinking water sources.
Broadly the functions of the committee would be:

A. ENSURE PURE DRINKING WATER:

  1. They should ensure that chlorination of their drinking water tanks or open wells is done properly, using sufficient recommended quantites of chlorinating agent. Chlorination should be done for every filling of the tanks, if possible in their presence. They should get it done by the Sarpanch/Gram Panchayat or should do it themselves, if necessary. They should do frequent checkup of water quality at the tail end of the supply system to ensure presence of sufficient chlorination there also.
  2. They should ensure that the source of Drinking Water is not contaminated. The surroundings of sources should be kept clean. They should ensure that clothes and cattle are not washed near the source bore. The open wells should be covered with nets to prevent falling of leaves etc into it causing contamination.
  3. In the habitations where water is supplied from OHSR/GLSR, the Committee should ensure that OHSRs, GLSRs are cleaned every week and the date of last cleaning and the date of next cleaning clearly written on the tanks. Signature of any member of the committee can be taken in a register to keep a proper watch on the periodicity of chlorination and cleaning of tanks.
  4. They should ensure that there are no leakages in the pipelines and the leakages, if any, should be identified and (get it) attended to immediately. They should bring these leakages to the notice of the sarpanch/Assistant Engineer (RWS) and get it repaired. The committees can also take up any minor repairs to the supply system themselves, if they can raise sufficient funds from the villagers. As a long-term strategy, the members of the committee can be trained in minor repairs and linked to a taluka level sanitary mart for procuring necessary materials for repairs. These taluka level marts can act as referral centers to give technical support for any major repairs.
  5. They should see that sewage lines, and drinking water pipes are not mixed up.


B. REGULATION OF WATER:

  1. Switching On/Off the Motor: In many places the motor is kept switched on permanently, thereby causing automatic pumping up of water whenever 3 phase power is available, resulting in wastage of water and damage to motor. The committee should see to it that motors are switched on and off as per requirement.
  2. Regulate supply between wards/branches of distribution pipelines: Most of the MPWS schemes are designed for public tap supply with pumping of water for (16) hours. But in rural areas 3 phase power supply is available only for (9) hours which results inadequate filing of tanks. Moreover the number of tap connections has gone up tremendously, including a large number of house connections. This has resulted in insufficient supply of drinking water. The committees should put valves and regulate the supply of water among wards/ distributing pipelines to ensure that there is equitable distribution of water. They can regulate the supply by assigning time slots for water supply to each area, using the concept of “pani panchayat”.

C. SAVING OF WATER:
The committees should ensure that drinking water is saved to the extent possible, avoiding any wastage.

  1. They should prevent open taps in their area. In most of the villages, the taps fitted to the pipes are missing resulting in continuous wastage of water, till the tank is emptied. This also results in formation of unhygienic puddles in and around the taps. The committee should make the house-holders in and around the tap to protect the taps and if they are not preventing the theft/breakage of the taps, they may be fined for wastage of water or the tap may be plugged/sealed.
  2. The committee can undertake a survey of the tap connections taken from distribution line. They can get the illegal connections removed. Sarpanches may not take any action against these illegal connections as these may cost him votes. The committee being a non-political one can exercise pressure for the removal of such illegal connections. Some house owners have, after taking illegal connection on their fiscal/physical strength, constructed sumps inside their compound walls and garner disproportionate share of the public drinking water. Some of them have even fitted motors to the lines and lift water to the overhead tanks in their houses. This results in inequitable distribution of water and is a burden to common people. The committee, as a collective group, can put a check on this type of high-handedness.
  3. The committee can help proper collection of water tax by Gram Panchayat.
  4. They can take steps to conserve run off rain water by constructing recharging pits and run off breakers.

D. CLOSURE OF UNDER GROUND PIT TAPS:

In most of the villages, it is seen that the villagers have dug pits near the pipelines to collect pipe water. This is to overcome the drop in pressure in the tail end areas due to insufficiency of water. The prevalence of these pits taps is one of the most important reasons for the incidence of Gastroenteritis cases during rainy season. These taps are in pits and mostly are kept open, resulting in filling up of the pits due to overflow or rain water. This dirty water is sucked into the main distributary line causing the supply of contaminated water in all the taps.

To ensure that equal pressure is maintained to all the tap connections the pit taps should be closed. The committees should ensure that all pit taps are closed.

F. DRILLING OF NEW BORES:

As per law, drilling of new bore wells within 100 mts of an existing drinking water source and within 250mts of an agriculture bore well is prohibited. The committee should watch against the violation of the law.

G. TRANSPARENCY:

The committee should be made aware of the estimates of the borewells/ MPWS schemes. They can be informed details like depth of the bore well, the number of pipes used, cost of construction/repairs etc. This would help them in checking misappropriation of funds. The committee should keep track of all drinking water sources in the villages and maintain their history sheets.

The committee shall meet once in a week and discuss about the details.

Already 1151 HDWCs have been formed covering all the habitations in the district. These committee members are to be given detailed training in their roles and responsibilities, checking the quality of water, necessity of drinking potable water, awareness about water borne diseases, in conservation of water, in taking minor repairs, in effectively utilizing peer pressure to see that their suggestions/directions are carried out in the village without undermining the powers of statutorily elected bodies like gram panchayat and sarpanch etc and resolution of conflicts through discussions, conducting of meeting, maintaining records of the meetings etc. The committee should strictly be non-political in nature and should be able to function in the interest of villagers as a whole.
The initial response has been good. Conflicts are bound to come up when the collective decisions go against the interests of the dominant people who were hitherto getting away unchecked utilizing and wasting the public drinking water as they liked.