{"id":8097,"date":"2024-10-14T02:38:24","date_gmt":"2024-10-13T17:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/?p=8097"},"modified":"2024-09-15T00:13:52","modified_gmt":"2024-09-14T15:13:52","slug":"how-women-volunteers-are-shaping-indias-water-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/sdgs-2\/how-women-volunteers-are-shaping-indias-water-future\/","title":{"rendered":"How Women Volunteers Are Shaping India\u2019s Water Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Manipadma Jena<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BHUBANESWAR, India (IPS) <\/strong>\u2013 \u201cDaily squabbles at the lone water point in Bhubaneswar\u2019s slums, where hundreds of households depended on this single non-potable water source, have now receded into the past,\u201d says Aparna Khuntia, a member of a large cohort of water volunteers who have played an important enabling role in ensuring households in the eastern India city now have their own on-premises potable running tap water available all 24 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No mean feat this, considering that the capital city of India\u2019s eastern state, Odisha, is flooding with much of the outbound rural to urban migrants. Of Odisha\u2019s 8.86 million rural households, one in three has an out-migrant according to government data. Of this, 70% move within the State, a majority landing up in Odisha\u2019s fast developing capital city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For new migrants into a city, they may set up a shelter using discarded flex advertisement banners with a few bamboo poles but access to water, let alone potable water, remains a huge challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven government-recognized slums like our colony in 2019 got just two hours of water supply in a day. Large families who could not store enough faced untold difficulties. Many had to pay for a water tanker every other day. Illegal water connections were rampant, resulting in huge revenue losses for the government,\u201d 36-year-old Khuntia told IPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2030, 2 billion people will still live without safe drinking water<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe midpoint of our journey to 2030 has passed. The world is on track to achieve only 17 per cent of the targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG),\u201d reveals the recent 2024 United Nations SDG report card<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goal 6 focusing on ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, found between 2015 and 2022, the proportion of the global population using safely managed drinking water increased from 69 to 73 per cent according to report. Although more people now access safe drinking water, in 2022, 2.2 billion still went without this basic human right. Achieving universal coverage by 2030 will require a sixfold increase in current rates of progress for safely managed drinking water, it warns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, the UN said, roughly half the world\u2019s population experienced severe water scarcity for at least part of the year. One quarter faced \u201cextremely high\u201d levels of water stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such situations were experienced this extreme summer 2024 in India\u2019s largest economic hubs Bangaluru and Delhi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change worsens these issues. Rating agency Moody\u2019s in June warned water shortage may hit India\u2019s future economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even so, according to the report<\/a> 93.3% of India\u2019s population are now using at least basic drinking water services which UN rates as \u201cmoderately improving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women Benefit the Most From Women Water Managers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To further progress on SDG-6, in 2020 when Odisha launched the \u2018Drink from Tap Mission\u2019 to dispense certified quality drinking water 24X7 from piped supply installed at each urban household, it created a pool of the women water volunteers. Designated Jal Sathi or water partner, they were stringently selected from among local Self-Help Groups (SHGs), trained and raring to make a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And a difference they did bring about. The government\u2019s implementing Housing and Urban Development department \u201cincreased their water tariff collection by around 90 percent,\u201d said Khuntia. Representing community partnership in urban water management, they are key stake-holders in a novel initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key government official G Mathi Vathanan, who once headed the State-owned non-profit company Water Corporation of Odisha (WATCO<\/a>) that rolls out the water mission for the State government, even went on to write a book on the women volunteers giving them much of the credit for the initiative\u2019s success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe women from SHGs are the ones who helped make reality the goal of bringing water to the doorstep of each household. The mission\u2019s success was due to (their ability to) building people\u2019s trust in the government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service these women volunteers provided to households turned the tide against diarrhea, jaundice, and poor gut health that plagued the poor, especially children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN\u2019s Sustainable Development Report 2024<\/a> ranks India on SDG progress at 109 out of 166 indicating a \u201cscore moderately improving\u201d but \u201cinsufficient to attain goal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\u2019s federal government is mulling replicating Odisha\u2019s Pure Water Scheme\u2019s success in other States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These women managers helped other householder women by bringing drinking and cooking water to their doorstep, eliminating the disproportionate burden of water on women in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Change-Makers\u2019 Contribution: A Working Day in a Water Partner\u2019s Life<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each woman volunteer works with 1,200 designated households, both in her own tenements and higher-end households. This familiarity with her gives her an edge with her clients\u2014of trust, of openness in interactions helping her to achieve what government staff are unable to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every month she visits her households, reads the installed water meter, generates the bill and often gets paid too. But for those who are unable to pay, the water-partner will visit again and again urging, cajoling payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe urge them not to waste such a precious commodity like water, and for those who lagged in taking new connection we convinced them to do so,\u201d said Khuntia. With water meters installed and payments mandatory, households tend not to waste water. In slums, bills often were no more than 50 to 65 rupees (less than one dollar), affordable even for the poorest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, this tap drinking water mission was a win-win for both government and consumers,\u201d Khuntia, a mother of two told IPS. It also ensures Sustainable Cities and Communities under SDG-11. Revenue accruing to the government ensures water infrastructure maintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On water-users\u2019 request, Khuntia said they tested the tap water with kits they carried. They also reported water-related issues and information of pipe leaks that compromised water purity, to the government\u2019s maintenance staff who attended immediately.
\u201cEarlier, people would rarely call the staff if they noticed water pipe damages; sometimes it was deliberate, for water theft. But because we visit families often and they are comfortable with us, we get this information very quickly,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SDG targets 6\u20131 of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals call for universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all. The drink from tap mission is a move to achieve this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to WATCO, by March 2023, 4.5 million urban residents in 29 Urban Local Bodies out of 115 ULBs in Odisha State have access to or be in line to drink from tap utilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the scheme, not only water equity is ensured, but sustainability is also ensured by fixing water meters for every household water pipeline. Since households pay for their water, they tend not to waste it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, after four years of service, these women volunteers have been demanding better pecuniary recognition for their services. What they get now is 5% of their total bill collection as an incentive, 100 rupees if she enrolls a new customer for a water connection, and a bicycle. Aparna Khuntia told IPS she gives 4 hours a day to this work while her monthly income approximates 5000\u20137000 rupees (60\u201384 USD). Much of it is spent supplementing her husband\u2019s 15000 rupees (180 USD) income from plying a three-wheeler auto rickshaw for household expenses, including their one-room rent. What is left over is spent during festivals or when we visit relatives in the village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith a government change in the June election this year, Odisha\u2019s new government is reorganizing the entire women\u2019s self-help group set-up. The Jaal Sathis will possibly get a new designation but the programme which has been highly successful, will continue,\u201d WATCO\u2019s chief operating officer, Sarat Chandra Mishra, told IPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

INPS Japan\/ IPS UN Bureau<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is brought to you by IPS Noram<\/a> in collaboration with INPS Japan<\/a> and Soka Gakkai International<\/a> in consultative status with ECOSOC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Manipadma Jena BHUBANESWAR, India (IPS) \u2013 \u201cDaily squabbles at the lone water point in Bhubaneswar\u2019s slums, where hundreds of households depended on this single non-potable water source, have now receded into the past,\u201d says Aparna Khuntia, a member of a large cohort of water volunteers who have played an important enabling role in ensuring households in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,9,21,16,32,3],"tags":[101],"class_list":{"0":"post-8097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-asia-pacific","8":"category-goal6","9":"category-health","10":"category-news","11":"category-regions","12":"category-sdgs-2","13":"tag-ips-noram"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8097"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8099,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8097\/revisions\/8099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}