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Water and Sanitation | Quenching thirst in rural areas-Aparajita Ray

Quenching thirst in rural areas-Aparajita Ray

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published Published on Apr 23, 2012   modified Modified on Apr 23, 2012

What better elixir than pure water? Thanks to Naandi, a safe drinking water programme, 3,90,536 households in rural areas across four Indian states are benefited. 

Naandi, headquartered in Hyderabad, is a not-for-profit organization which works with governing bodies in rural areas, including Karnataka, to provide clean drinking water to the poor. So what really is their modus operandi? It is essentially a community-run programme where the local governing body or gram panchayat owns a water purifying plant, which is set up and run by Naandi's water division field officers. Funds collected from donors go towards equipping each unit, replete with purifiers. Thereafter, beneficiaries are given a monthly card, which they produce at the unit while collecting their share of water. The cards are duly punched to keep a tab on the quantity of water consumed. The value of each card is equal to the total sum of money paid for the beneficiary's monthly water consumption. 

In fact, 575 families benefit from Naandi plants in Hebbagodi, Kamasandra and Thirupalya on the outskirts of Bangalore. Beneficiaries here shell out Rs 4 per day, per family for five members to procure 20 litres of water. What these beneficiaries are consuming is four times filtered water treated through colloidal filters, 10 and five micron filters. The water then undergoes a reverse osmosis process before being run through a UV lamp filter, ready for consumption. Each water treatment plant has a 5,000-litre capacity and villagers collect their share of water according to the time slots prescribed to them - 6am to 10am or 4pm to 10pm. There are 20 such plants in Karnataka alone; at Chikamagalur, Chitradurga, Yadgir, Gulbarga and Haveri districts. 

This life-reviving initiative is spearheaded by leading entrepreneurs in the country - Anand Mahindra, Maganti Rajendra Prasad and Isher Judge Ahluwalia. Naandi's other initiatives include providing education for all and creating sustainable livelihood opportunities for economically weaker sections. 

Helping spread this goodwill in Bangalore and Karnataka is Gayathri Handanahal, who joined hands with Naandi to give back to her Motherland. ''My father was a freedom fighter and army man, and I was employed in the fashion industry for nearly 30 years until my children found their groove. But right through the years, I had it in mind to give back to society,'' says Gayathri. 

Having lived and worked in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and finally in Bangalore, Gayathri reached a point where she decided 'its enough'. ''I went to an orphanage in Chamrajnagar and was amazed by the kind of work the NGO running it was doing. Inspired, I worked with self-help groups and garment workers to help provide them a platform to work with various industries. Along the way, Naandi's model got me excited. Thereafter I approached Naandi to participate in their initiatives. In 2008, I travelled to distant villages after identifying the water crisis and water pollution levels in these areas,'' says Gayathri. 

During her travels, she convinced villagers, gram panchayats and donors alike to set up water purifying plants. ''Of course, it wasn't easy to convince people that pure drinking water came at a price. But now, they are hooked to clean water,'' smiles Gayathri. 

The Naandi safe drinking water initiative is made sustainable by training a person in each village to control and operate machines in each plant. ''Another person is trained to issue and punch cards. After ensuring smooth operations, we hand over the purifying plants to the village gram panchayats after five years. This system is very different from water privatization - we do not own the plant or have any stake in selling the machinery. These are community-owned plants and all benefits go to the people,'' explains Gayathri. 

Veering this initiative into newer areas, Gayathri, in her capacity as relationship manager for the Naandi initiave in Karnataka, helps bring donors and communities together. Field work and plant operations are handled by a team of six young and high-spirited professionals comprising Arun Naik the state head for the safe water drinking programme in Karnataka and Bharat Manta, Raghavendra, Rachappa, Suresh and Phani Shekhar. Together, this young team marches to villages to interact with panchayats about the benefits of safe drinking water.
 

The Times of India, 23 April, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Quenching-thirst-in-rural-areas/articleshow/12830365.cms


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