Nationwide fluoride testing project in schools

To create awareness on water quality issues with a specific focus on fluoride contamination in groundwater sources, Schools Water Portal and Oracle Education Foundation are partnering on a nationwide programme engaging students from across the country in a water quality testing, analysis and reporting exercise for fluoride in groundwater.

For the success of any field level interventions, presence of strong leaders to take initiatives and act as source of motivation for others at the grassroots level become absolutely necessary. Experiences of working with a few organizations or individuals which are trying to create models of grassroots leadership have demonstrated that such efforts do reap rich rewards. Based on such fruitful experiences Arghyam wanted to support such models of leadership on a larger scale. Thus, the idea to develop leaders from the local communities was conceived and Arghyam initiated its first Small Grants Programme with Mr. Farhad Contractor of Sambhaav and Mr. Anupam Mishra of Gandhi Peace Foundation.

Water supply in rural areas has been the primary responsibility of the state. To this end, the state through the department of rural water supply ensures water availability through various means. The most common is the ubiquitous hand pump that is installed in villages based upon the population and demand for water. Government also provides water through stand posts at certain locations within the village. In non electrified villages, innovations such as gravity based water supply systems havebeen very successful. This technology is applicable in undulating terrains.

Arghyam conducted a survey - called ASHWAS - of citizen’s perceptions of domestic water and sanitation among 17,200 rural households in Karnataka during 2008-09. It was truly a participatory effort involving more than a dozen organizations and hundreds of people.  Following ASHWAS, several organizations expressed interest in conducting an ASHWAS-like exercise. Hence, we decided to put down our experiences and lessons learnt in form of a handbook, titled “ASHWAS Process Handbook: Planning and Execution Guide for Participatory Surveys of Household Water and Sanitation”.

Civil Society inputs on rural water and sanitation for the 12th Five Year Plan's appraoch paper were submitted to the Planning Commission of India on December 24, 2010. These recommendations emerged from the consultations oganised by Arghyam and WaterAid during November-December 2010. [National meeting in Delhi (Dec 13-14, 2010) and the regional meetings (Bangalore, Ranchi, Ahmedabad, Nainital, Bhopal and Guwhati) during November-December 2010].

The third newsletter of the Grants Team at Arghyam attempts to capture the importance of engaging local communities in water sector initiatives. The newsletter examines the following examples where such community mobilisation has worked:

1.Gravity based spring water supply systems in Andhra Pradesh: lessons and steps in community participation
2.Community managed toilets – a lesson in public-public partnerships
3.Reviving traditional water harvesting structures in Rajasthan

An advocacy flyer authored by Arghyam and PLC Shillong to highlight some of the main problems, action underway and potential solutions to cleaning up the water bodies of Shillong. The rivers Umkrah and Umshyrpi that flow through Shillong are victims of expanding human habitats and escalating socio-economic activities. As a result, they have become choked with sewage and pollution, which eventually enter Lake Umiam, which is a reservoir for hydro-electric power.

Kerala: Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts (Forum) in India, in collaboration with the Chalakudi Puzha Samrakshan Samiti and Kerala State Resource Centre of the Forum, is organizing a Training Programme on Understanding and Resolving Water Conflicts from 5 to 8 April 2010 in Kerala More

Bangalore:The Campaign against water privatization in Karnataka is supporting Manthan (Madhya Pradesh) to release their book titled ‘Public Private Partnerships in water sector – partnership or privatization?’ in Bangalore. This book is a comprehensive analysis of all the PPP projects in water sector in the country with a critical look at the one-sided push to eventually and completely privatize water in India. Veteran freedom fighter S. Doreswamy and Siddangowda Patil of CPI have agreed to jointly release the book.