pointoutnews.com march 2015 A bridge between India and Bharat

under Bundelkhand region and faces an
acute shortage of water due to an erratic
rainfall pattern. The overall rainfall has
gone down
Village Hamirpur in Datia district
Madhya Pradesh is located 5 Km
away from district head quarter. The
Population of the village is 641, it has
75 households, out of which 44.5%
are schedule caste, 11.2% schedule
tribes and the rest belong to Other
Backward Classes. The area falls under
the Bundelkhand region and faces acute
shortage of water due to an erratic
rainfall pattern. The overall rainfall
has gone down, from 100 days (740
mm average) per year two decades
ago, to an average rainfall (340 mm) of
40 rainy days per year. Women had to
walk two to three kilometers wasting
considerable time, to fetch their daily
water requirements.
Motivated by the slogan of Mahatma
Gandhi, “sanitation is more important
than independence,” Parhit Samaj Sevi
Sanstha, a local NGO started water and
sanitation project work in Hamirpur
village during January 2004. Parhit
organized an open meeting involving
all households, youth groups, PRI
members, and social leaders. This
resulted in reconstitution of the VWSC
by incorporating active members from
women groups and youth groups. It
was, realized that unless there is an
organised water supply system in the
village, attaining full sanitation coverage
might not be possible.
After a series of meetings, villagers
realized that they need to act on
integrated water resource management
for improving water level of village
and for successful implementation of
any water supply scheme in the near
future. A Village Water and Sanitation
Committee (VWSC), also known as
Payjal Samiti was, constituted for taking
up water supply scheme for the village
under Swajaldhara programme and
also collected Rs. 40,000 as community
contribution but could not get necessary
approvals.
For recharging and conservation of
rainwater, a plan was made to construct
rainwater-harvesting structures in all
houses, well deepening and recharging
trench on abandoned community open
wells and tube wells and construction
of check dams. Deepening of the
village pond, was also carried out,
with the work being monitored by the
VWSC members Construction of roof
top rainwater-harvesting structures
comprising plastic drain -pipes from
roof inserted into pit comprising
sand and gravel was done in all the 75
households, schools and anganwadi in
the village.
VWSC also initiated construction
ofrooftop rainwater-harvesting
structures comprising plastic drain
-pipes from roof inserted into a pit
comprising sand and gravel in all the
75 households, school and anganwadi
in the village. Parhit, a local NGO,
gave Rs 500 to each household and the
balance amount of Rs 1000 to 1200 was
contributed by the beneficiaries.
It was, realized that unless there is an
organized water supply system in the
village, attaining economic growth
might not be possible as most of the time
was spent in fetching drinking water
from distant sources. For Hamirpur, the
journey began with an endeavor to cover
all the households with minimum safe
drinking water, which led to provision
of adequate drinking water supply
following the adoption of ‘Integrated
Water Resource Management’ and
large-scale construction of rainwater
recharging structures. It is a unique
experiment that has yielded significant
dividends. Today, all households have
access to proper clean drinking water.
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