Background
Thrissur district, Kerala, has 6 lakh households in the district with 4.5 lakh open/dug wells. As per 2001 census, 71 per cent of the total population of the district depends on open wells for drinking. Estimates indicate that the aggregate household investment in open wells comes to about Rs. 1,800 crores and the wells have a combined capacity to yield 6.6 million m3 per day. Though it gets an average annual rainfall of about 3,000 mm, about 70% of these wells are non-perennial.
Additionally, because of heavy surface runoff, groundwater levels in several blocks has fallen sharply, coupled with saline intrusion at an accelerated pace, leading to water quality problems. In order to address the issues of quantity, quality and sustainability the District Administration in collaboration with the PRIs launched a process driven, participatory well re-charge programme called Mazhapolima at an average cost of Rs. 1,500 per open well.
The total cost of about Rs. 920 million (Rs 92 crore) was to be financed largely by households themselves through demand generation, combined with ongoing decentralized programmes such as NREGP/GOK-GoI, and sponsorships. Informed decision-making, a menu of simple technical choices, strong IEC and awareness creation following social marketing tools for demand generation on a campaign mode, and process orientation were fundamental to the programme. The overall goal of the programme was to improve the health and welfare of communities through improved access to drinking water.
The process
Since this was new initiative of the District Administration, I started a discussion in 2008 on the Water Community to elicit views and suggestions from our sector partners and practitioners to help make it more effective. I requested the members of the Community to share experiences and lessons from similar programmes in India and abroad that have made water available in an environmentally sustainable, cost-effective manner. Suggestions were specially invited for issues related to social marketing tools for demand generation based on hands-on experiences of similar nature, simple and/or traditional technology options, as well as inclusive and innovative financing options and experiences from existing monitoring and evaluation frameworks that will encompass the diversity of approaches, need based implementation arrangements and multiplicity of processes based on outcome.
Through this discussion, the Bangalore-based organisation Arghyam came to know of the programme. They supported the implementation of the programme. Arghyam supported a team of technical experts to advise and guide panchayats in formulating their own well-recharge programmes. They documented the process by which the programme was implemented.
The Kerala government sanctioned Rs 2 crore for the programme, of which 50 per cent was released in early 2009. The Water Community organised a regional meeting in Kerala in June 2009. The Principal Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management, Ms Nivedita Haran, who was present at the meeting, expressed the desired to scale up Mazhapolima across Kerala. She requested the Arghyam team to submit a report on the Mazhapolima processes at the panchayat level. The scale up plan would depend on the report.
The Kerala government decided to implement the programme across Kerala. It issued orders to the effect and the Mazhapolima programme in Trissur is being taken as the template for the rest of the state. I presented this and other findings at the Annual Forum of the Water Community in Kolkata in October 2009. A proposal developed on the basis of the learning from the experiment got approval from GoI for implementation through the Ground Water Board in Kodungalloor one of the coastal Taluks of the district and the Adat Grama Pangayath won national award for its decentralised water security initiative. The programme has also won many recognitions including one in which the project was nominated by Government of Kerala as the best water conservation initiative to be considered under the Bhujala Samwardhan Award.
Specific Inputs
Based on the responses to the discussion, we incorporated the following into the Mazhapolima programme:
•Mr. S. Vishwanath from Arghyam shared their experience and gave several suggestions. These include
- Understanding the hydrology of the area
- Neighbourhood walks for a quick assessment of the water situation
- Solid waste management for better well water quality
•The discussion led to a collaboration with Arghyam for their technical support, Action Research and Monitoring Water Quality
•Water Community members suggested interventions like tree plantation. They had different suggestions for the coastal, hilly and midland areas, which were incorporated
•We also incorporated several suggestions regarding water quality monitoring from the discussion pertaining to measures to monitor water quality and reduce pollution of wells from surface runoff
•Members suggested backwashing using rainwater to reduce salinity in wells
•Suggestions included ways to ensure the quality of rainwater by allowing the first flush to flow away and then diverting water to the wells. They also included construction of simple sand bed filters to remove impurities
•People also suggested ways to raise money to support community initiatives. We have approached several agencies for support, including NABARD and nationalised banks
•We incorporated suggestions about the involvement of women and the need for women-friendly designs
•There were also many suggestions about community mobilisation that we incorporated into the project
•Arghyam’s assistance helped us to take the project to scale. Based on their study of the pilot in Trissur, the state government decided to implement the project across the State. This was made possible through the Water Community’s exposure of Mazhapolima, because of which Arghyam came forward to work with us.
Outcome
The Mazhapolima programme has been scaled up throughout the State because of effective knowledge sharing through the Water Community. We interacted with the Community at different points of the programme life-cycle and found the members’ responses pertinent at all these stages. It has grown from a well-recharge programme to one of ensuring household water security through low-cost means in a sustainable manner. A well-centric approach to drinking water security has been pushed to the fore.
This demonstrates the consistency of the Water Community’s approach. We worked together at different stages of the project. Sharing information about Mazhapolima helped us to scale it up through the state government in less than a year. We were able to tap the expertise of several water practitioners in the process.
During the Water Community’s Regional Forum in Kerala, several rainwater harvesting practitioners shared the scientific basis for rainwater harvesting. This demonstrated its viability as a concept that can be taken to scale. It also helped refute allegations that it will not work in certain areas and doubts about its cost-effectiveness. These points assured us that we are on the right track, and convinced the Principal Secretary to extend further support to Mazhapolima. The district panchayat president who was present on the occasion also said he would support the programme as it would be a sustainable way to address the summer water shortages in Trissur and since then PRIs at various levels have been allocating funds for implementing Mazhapolima at the household and institutional levels, and also in schools. I also spoke about the entire process at the Annual Forum of the Water Community in 2009 and interacted with professionals from other parts of the country.
I have been part of the Community since the beginning. I have participated in several other discussions based on my experience. I am a Resource Group member of this community and have assisted in designing the road map. For me being a part of Water Community is like mutual cross learning.
The Annual Forum 2009, was a unique opportunity for the members of Water Community. There is no other event like this in India. I also had an opportunity to learn about water and sanitation issues in the east and north-eastern part of the India. The field visit to the South 24-Parganas district was highly enriching, where I got the opportunity to visit the household-level arsenic programme. My association with the Community has been highly enriching and professionally rewarding for me.
This experience was shared by Dr. V. Kurien Baby on the basis of two discussions on the Water Community, called Participatory Well Recharge Programme - Mazhapolima – Experiences
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