A pond that was being used for open defecation has been cleaned and rejuvenated by a group of motivated youths.

 

 

   That was when they had their first week-long “Jal Utsav” or water festival (January 9-14), which they had organised to celebrate their successes in water management and conservation.

   The members of the Water Conservation Committee consecrated an elaborate “Jal Devi” (Water Goddess) and offered her with prayers, sweets and flowers.

   Besides music and frolic, the festival also had a purpose – to make villagers aware of the importance of water, its proper use and conservation.

   They also had good reason to celebrate because people in the region had now found a solution to end the drudgery of fetching water from nearly two kilometres during the five dry months from March to July.

   “We organised the festival along the lines of the Ganesh Utsavs (a major festival in this part of India where Hindus worship and celebrate the Lord Ganesh) as a strategy to involve the people in water management,” says Keshav Paneriya, secretary of the water conservation committee.

   The festival had all the usual trappings, including a priest who was hired not to chant the hymns but to spread word on the importance of clean drinking water and its proper use.

   The history of the water conservation committee goes back to 2003 when the Centre for Advanced Research and Development (CARD), a non-governmental organisation, began livelihood support activities in Salwaha.

   “The village had a major problem as almost all water sources had dried up and where there was little water, it was dirty and filthy,” said Yogendra Lodhi, who works at the Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) programme of CARD.

   The settlement had five ponds and four wells but water in three ponds and two wells were highly polluted.

   The support of CARD brought together a group of young men who then decided to take up the task of managing and conserving the water available in the village.

   Within two years they have not only restored many wells and ponds but have also managed to involve the elected village council in public works.

   Last year, the committee members also succeeded in getting locals to elect a village headman of their choice and place two of their well-wishers as block level members of the village council.

   In early 2005, CARD took 20 newly elected representatives to New Delhi to show them how parliament functioned and then to Alwar, Rajasthan, to expose them to the work of the Tarun Bharat Sangh, an organisation involved in water conservation.

   Upon return, the representatives narrated their experience at the Gram Sabha (village council), which motivated some local youth present to do something similar on their own.
 
   Salwaha had only one well with water throughout the year but the supply was still far short of the needs of the population of 1,712. The only alternative sources of water were two hand pumps in nearby settlements.

   “We began to think about this, but whenever we took up the matter with the village elders, we were told that it was not our concern and Panchayat or government would look into the problem,” said Paneriya.

   Dinesh Chowksey, another group member added, “We were fed up with the impasse. Women were faced with growing water problems everyday but the authorities did little to find a solution.”

   The first task the committee took up was to clean up the main well and went around the village to raise the 1,000 rupees (about 22 U.S. dollars) needed to hire a pump and diesel generator.

   Within a week, the well was as good as new and the job had been done at a cost many times less than what the village council said would be needed for the task.

   The council members initially even suspected the interests of the committee members, fearing that they were challenging their political standing.

   “After the cleaning was done everyone was full of praises,” says Akhilesh Paneirya, another committee member.

   Next the group decided to take on the village pond, which was also being used as an open-toilet by the villagers, including family of the community members themselves.

   More villagers turned out to lend a hand in the clean up this time.

   Then the youth set out to convince people to build toilets and even took on guard duty – to get villagers that still defecated near the pond to clean the mess.

   The committee was at odds with the village council once again in mid-2005 when a dog fell into the well and people stopped using the water.

   The members approached the village elders for permission to clean the well but were not allowed to take on the task. That was when public opinion began turning against the headman who eventually met the committee president Raghuvir Agnihotri to seek his help.

   With a clean pond, the committee decided to raise fish in the waters, for which, again, they needed approval of the village council.

   Their application was rejected but undeterred, they borrowed 3,000 rupees (about 67 U.S. dollars) from CARD to purchase fingerlings and released them into the pond.

   Although they still do not have permission from the village council, they have not faced any resistance either.

   “Many people have been working as volunteers so we will try to ensure that there is a fair distribution of the revenue from the fish,” says Keshav. “We also need money to pay watchmen and take up other cleaning and restoration jobs in nearby villages.”

   Their water conservation activities have also helped warm up relations with the village elders. According to CARD’s Lodhi, the Samiti has recently been offered a work order by the council.

   And it was the opposition that the committee still faces from time to time that led it to think about having a water festival.

   Every committee member was given specific responsibility – writing songs, rehearsing dances and street plays and the embellishments, and planning the seminars and other competitions.

   The celebrations over, the Jal Devi or water goddess now rests at the bottom of the pond where she was immersed amid chanting of Vedic hymns.

   Knowledge of her presence there as guardian of the waters serves as deterrent to people that would have otherwise polluted the surroundings.

(END/AWW/IPSAP/SM/BB/100406)