Arghyam, www.arghyam.org, (the organisation that runs the India Water Portal) is conducting a water and sanitation survey in the state of Karnataka. One of the most intensive efforts of its kind, the survey will cover 17,200 households in 28 districts of Karntaka. This will be a people's survey where the surveyors will be from among the people and include students, women members of self help groups, local NGO partners and other interested volunteers. The survey is entering the intensive phase in December, with the preparatory phases completed and the actual survey work beginning. Through a series of posts here we'll trace the survey process and provide an inside look at what it takes to execute a project like this. To see the entire series, click here : https://www.indiawaterportal.org/blog/?s=Anatomy+Of+A+Survey ====== The ASHWAS water survey is being implemented through partner NGOs in different districts of Karnataka. Each partner NGO will take up the actual groundwork of the survey in a specified number of villages that have been randomly selected. How to communicate the actual methodology and practice of the survey to such a large number of people - 42 survey teams spread across the state? For this, first a Training of Trainers was organised in Bangalore from 25th to 28th November 2008 where co-ordinators of the survey from each organisation attended to learn the survey methodology. During the current and next week these trainers have gone back to their local areas and have been training the surveyors who will actually be going to the field. Among the topics covered in the training of trainers: Village Mapping: One of the exercises of the survey will be to create a village map regarding domestic water. This process was covered in the training Water Quality testing: The surveyors will be testing water quality on-the-spot during the survey. The testing kits were introduced and the co-ordinators each tried out the kits. A detailed discussion of the questionnaire to be used was undertaken Discussion of how to approach the villagers, interview techniques, ensuring of authenticity of the data were other topics covered. Documentation: You can download the full agenda of the training, the list of organisations who attended and particapated and photos from the training are below. There is also a report on the training as compiled by the reportees themselves ! Click on the particular document below to view it: Report on the training prepared by the trainees Agenda Details of attending organisations and persons