Water is the Driving force of all nature.
-Leonardo Di Vinci
70% of India still lives in nearly 6.5 Lakh Villages. Many of these villages still lack basic amenities including water Sanitation and electricity. Among these are two villages Indratta and Jagasya, Mahoba Dist,Uttar Pradesh, set close to Khajraho, Orchha and Jhansi,historic World heritage sites that have the highest conglomerate of medieval Hindu and Jain Temples, famous for its sculptures. This is story of our effort to provide clean ground water supply to these villages through sustainable means.
Indratta, has nearly 62 houses and Jagasya has 80 houses with nearly population of 1000 in each village.The main occupation in this region is agriculture and livestock. They grow Groundnut, Urd, Moong, Til, Ahar, wheat, Gram, Pea and mustard. An average adult in this region earns Rs 150 a day in which they need to take care of their kids and others in the family. They work in farms for nearly 8 months in a good year, but they have to go out of the village into nearby cities like Jhansi and Delhi to work in construction industry.
Both villages, Indratta and Jagasya, in spite of their proximity to some of the historically famous places of India, lack water, for drinking and sanitation needs, and electricity. Couple of years ago, the government has blessed the region with power transmission lines, but without providing any electricity. With acute shortage of power in India, there is no end in sight before these villages get any electricity
Through few governmental initiatives, few hand water pumps are installed. Villagers spend nearly half an hour to 2 hours every day to bring water to their houses for drinking and other household needs from nearest hand water pump. Much of this drudging work of pumping and carrying the water from the hand water pumps is carried by the kids, who instead could be spending time in schools and, the women, who could have gone to work in fields earning few extra bucks to support the family. There is also an added health risks that come by poor hygiene and sanitation due to sharing of a public area surrounding a hand pump for bathing, washing clothes, cleaning utensils, etc.
Most villagers including women from the region end up taking bath at the nearest hand pump, in spite of cultural objections.
The ground water level in this area is close to ground level for many years until recently when water level starting to go down. In earlier days, people used water from wells that are built by villagers and by various governmental agencies. In recent days, the water levels in this area had recede and some of them even got dry during summer due to change in weather patterns. As told by the villagers, there is almost nil rainfall since last 6 years. One can attribute the receding levels of water to climatic changes as well as the rapid industrialization with growing India population consuming more water than ever.
Haritika, local NGO specialized in bringing hygienic water and sanitation to the remote villages of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh is working with Sunlit Future to provide water to the houses in these remote villages. It’s through their help we have set up to replace their existing hand pumps with Solar water pumps.This project is funded by Just a Drop and One Day Wages.
Haritika built the water overhead tank to store the pumped water along with the underground pipes to each household. The ground water is pumped using solar water pump to the over head tank from where the water gets distributed. The solar water pump chosen for this project is a Grondos Sq Flex Solar Water Pumps which can work through solar as well through regular electricity. If and when the govt supplies the electricity to these villages, we can run these pumps during evening and night time to provide them with more for the growing population. Although not a sustainable option, this pump can also work on a Diesel Generator.
Here are the Technical Specifications for these solar water pumps
Solar Water Pump Installation:
Working alongside a local plumber/electrician from Haritika and bunch of the villagers from Indratta and Jagasya, we completed the installation of solar panels and the solar water pumps in both the villages in three days. Prior to our visit, the bore wells were dug and communal water tank was built along with the underground pipe lines to the participating households.
It was great pleasure to work alongside the villagers who enthusiastically joined the team in assembling and installing the solar panels on the rooftop. The rooftops for setting up the panels for either of the projects are generously provided by the couple of households, which says more about the broad sharing and communal nature of the villagers, a rarity these days.
While elders joined us in assembling the panels, the village kids played around with the Solar panel cardboard package boxes. All the kids joined us and stayed with us during our entire installation time. Their faces, both kids and adults alike bloomed with happiness when they first saw the flashing water from the solar water pump, a technological marvel for those who had never seen electricity in their village.
We provided basic training to the community leaders and a local technicians to operate and check the pump periodically for any maintenance related issues. This enables and empowers the local communities and frees from depending on outside
help for any technical related issues. These projects are self managed by the village communities. The costs of repairing or replacing any spare parts will be paid by the money collected every month from each household.
How did a simple Solar Water Pump bring about a change in these villages?
Provide safe and clean hygiene water to the houses and reduce the chance of contacting water born diseases by use of public spaces for bathing, washing clothes, utensils surrounding the hand pump area.
Save time by nearly 30 minutes to 2 hours they spend on pumping and bringing the water to their homes using hand pumps.
Bring economic prosperity to the villagers by providing them an opportunity to work during the extra time spared from using public water hand pumps and help them break away the cycle of poverty.
Avoid communal clashes among the villagers due to fights over who is first in the queue waiting to pump the water.
Provide better healthy conditions for children.
Make Village Self Reliant through sustainable means.
We have lakhs of villages in India that still relay on Stagnated water bodies, a breeding ground for mosquitos, and lucky few of those villages, on hand pumps. We hope and expect that India will adopt to more sustainable Solutions like Solar water pumps to better livelihoods in our villages.