Water for People: Pioneering access to clean water and sustainable sanitation
With a commitment to realizing Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6) – ensuring access to clean water and sustainable sanitation for all – Water for People, a prominent nonprofit organization, has embarked on a transformative journey since its establishment in 1980. Bishwadeep Ghosh, the Country Director of Water for People, offered a comprehensive glimpse into its strategic roadmap to manifest SDG6 into reality. He also took us through the compelling “Runway for Water” campaign, a poignant reminder of the water crisis’s disproportionate impact on women and girls.
Here are some edited excerpts from the interview:
Could you tell us about Water For People and its journey so far in India?
Water For People was born in the year 1980, out of the American Water Works Association (AWWA), the largest nonprofit, scientific, and education association dedicated to managing and treating water. Globally we work in nine countries spanning Africa, Latin America and Asia. Our vision is rooted in SDG6 – ‘to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all’, with an endeavor to make this goal a reality for all. We call our strategy to achieve this aim ‘Destination 2030’ and are scaling an impact model (Everyone Forever) to reach people beyond the nine countries where we currently work.
In India, we firmly established our work in 2008. We had adopted a comprehensive strategy to develop and implement sustainable water and sanitation solutions in West Bengal, to begin with. We felt the success of our vision lies in empowering the most vulnerable and marginalized communities. Therefore, we designed and implemented ground-level solutions in both rural and urban slums in the country. The idea was to make water an accessible and sustainable commodity for all, ensuring an improved well-being for the people.
I am happy to share that our initiatives to expand and strengthen WASH systems have now been implemented in 28 districts across West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, Assam, Odisha, and Tamil Nadu. In all, we have positively impacted over 2.6 million people through community drinking water and sanitation projects, WASH in public institutions, and market-led approaches to sanitation. Our success stories range from the provision of water to sensitizing young girls about menstruation and hygiene, and empowering residents of the district/villages to drive community-driven interventions.
We are working towards this ambitious goal by partnering with local community members, businesses, and governments, helping them bring sustainable water and sanitation to some of the most underserved areas of the country. We have a long way to go but we are optimistic about our approach, and hope that our model in India can bring an impactful change in the lives of people.
Recently, there was a campaign that you did, called Runway for Water. Can you walk us through the campaign and the thought process behind the
“Runway for Water” is a two-minute film shedding light on the pressing global water crisis and its disproportionate impact on women and girls. The film talks about the walk that billions of women make for something as basic but important as water. And their accessory, the water jug, is their family’s lifeline.
It is filmed in the heart of Maharashtra, India, and features women and girls from Chikhaldara in Amravali district, who embark on a daily journey to fetch water. This walk is described as the “hottest runway”. The film illustrates the trek undertaken by billions of women for their families’ daily water supply. Imagine, for these women, it’s not just a casual walk once or twice, but an everyday routine that involves carrying pots and cans to a well – six times a day! At times, all they’ve got is one well amidst the vast, arid landscape. They rely on this single source to fetch water for cooking, cleaning, quenching their thirst, and tending to their livestock.
The film is a testament to these women and girls in the country who walk for miles to get the precious water back home. The terrain in this region of Maharashtra is rocky and does not allow water to percolate or recharge the ground even if there is adequate rainfall. And, in the lean months before the monsoons, even if there are water taps, they dry up. As the months get hotter, the ladies have to walk longer distances looking for water sources. The idea was to bring home the fact that, unlike a ramp walk in the fashion world, this walk is not done out of choice. It is a compulsion that makes women and children trudge long distances.
Under the banner of the #RunwayForWater campaign, the primary objective is to raise awareness about the global water crisis, focusing on the burden that disproportionately affects women and girls.
In your experience of working with communities, can you shed some light on some community-driven interventions and innovative scalable solutions for water accessibility?
Community intervention is at the core of WFP’s vision of ‘Everyone Forever’. We believe that every household, community, and public institution should have access to safe water and reliable sanitation for generations to come. While businesses and governments do play a critical role in achieving this mission, these efforts are most importantly sustained by strong communities.
To state a significant example of a community-led project, we initiated in West Bengal what we call the Jalbandhu programme. Many water points in the state, and the country in general, are broken due to poor maintenance. We have tried to address this issue by training water user committees and developing a network of mobile hand pump mechanics known as Jalabandhus or ‘friends of water’. The presence of locally available mechanics improves the sustainability of water points, since pumps can be repaired instantaneously if they break down. We partnered with the gram panchayats to organize a seven-day Jalbandhu training program and further helped in setting up a chain of people trained to help fix the pumps whenever there is a leakage in villages. Currently, we have 30,000 Jalbandhus across the state.
Another example, I would like to highlight from the same state is that of Digambarpur, which won the award for the Best Gram Panchayat, out of the 250,000-gram panchayats in India for its progress in improving conditions for the more than 34,000 inhabitants. The district was facing a dearth of clean drinkable water, with barely any fully operational handpumps. The only solution was a household piped water supply system.
In 2015, we worked conjointly with the then-president of the Gram Panchayat, Rabindranath Bera, to form an operation and maintenance committee of community members. Bera started talking to people, beginning with his neighbours, and soon formed a committee of 21 members – six women and 15 men. Water For People staff, Bera, and local community members worked together to ensure there was a culture of sustainability developed around the water system. The recognition of Digambarpur gram panchayat as the best in the country is the result of exemplary leadership, and the determination of the people of Digambarpur to be a part of something extraordinary.
Similarly, the Sheohar district in Bihar faced a pressing issue related to the shortage of resources for enhancing sanitation infrastructure. In response, we chose local business owners called point of purchase (PoP)and delivered training in diverse toilet technologies and marketing strategies. Additionally, we skilled these entrepreneurs in supply chain management and encouraged them to form a collective, thereby strengthening their ability to secure sanitation materials at competitive prices and maintain local availability.
In our attempt to raise awareness about safe sanitation, we aimed to sensitise the community about the hazards of open defecation and the significance of safe sanitation. This sensitization was carried out through street performances and group meetings conducted with various target audiences inlvoving adults and children in Sheohar district.
Can you explain the challenges that our communities face to make water accessible?
India is the most populous country in the world with only 4% of the water resources. With the changing climate and its effects on water bodies, access to water is only going to become more challenging.
Our country is very diverse in terms of geology, rainfall, demography etc. In several parts of the country, water table is rapidly depleting and its replenishment is not fast enough. As depicted in our campaign, women and girls cover miles to seek water sources. Along with distance, the quality of water persists to be another challenge. These water sources are not necessarily fit for consumption and are also conducive to contamination. The communities that rely on these water resources are also vulnerable to water-borne diseases.
Although the Jal Jeevan Mission is bringing in huge investments to ensure 100% coverage of functional household tap connections (FHTC), there needs to be a proper plan for their upkeep and maintenance. Since this needs to be done locally, it warrants community-level intervention. With the communities lacking skilled personnel to look after these installations, they resort to unsafe water consumption whenever the piped water systems or handpumps malfunction.
To ensure that water remains accessible, communities need to be upskilled and trained about the importance of clean and safe drinking water. They must lead local conversations and work with their government bodies to ensure a regular water supply. It is also necessary to bring about behavioral change. Many a times, communities themselves are unaware of the implications of unsafe water. Awareness campaigns, participation of the government, and ensuring that the red tape does not hamper progress, also become the need of the hour.
What is the importance of WASH for aspirational districts and how are the districts taking these interventions?
The Indian government’s aspirational districts and aspirational blocks programmes consider water and sanitation resources under its main socio-economic theme of basic infrastructure to show improvement in 112 districts. This programme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018 to transform districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas such as basic infrastructure, education, health and nutrition, agriculture and water resources, and financial resources.
All these areas are covered under the Jal Jeevan Mission and consider the provision of tap water connection as a priority. Incremental change in the provision of water supply is necessary to highlight improvement in each district.
In 2022, the government had shared that out of the said 112 aspirational districts 8 of them have access to 100% tap water connection to rural households. At that point, out of a total of 2.77 crore households in aspirational districts, 1.49 crore households (53.99%) were getting water through taps which at the time of the launch in 2019 was only 21.66 lakh (7.83%).
Through the aspirational districts project, the government is committed to achieving 100% tap water connections and keeping access to water, sanitation, and good hygiene practices at the centre of its strategies.
WASH lies at the intersection of health, nutrition, education, and basic infrastructure. Therefore, it necessitates being an important socio-economic theme as its implementation drives overall development. Today, communities are seeking solutions to improve their standard of living. Sonbhadra in Uttar Pradesh has adopted the tanka method for rainwater harvesting and water conservation to deal with the water crisis. Several other districts are also actively setting up rural water supply programmes. Improved WASH practices play a major role for not only in achieving Sustainable Development Goals but also in supporting communities in their endeavour to elevate their lifestyles.
Why is it important for civil society organizations to work in collaboration with local governments on initiatives like Jal Jeevan Mission?
Collaboration between civil society organizations and local governments is the linchpin of our mission’s success. It is not just beneficial; it is imperative. We have to understand that a problem that affects many billions cannot be resolved by a few. We all have to collectively come together, utilize everybody’s strengths, leverage different capacities to overcome the problems at scale. By aligning their objectives, sharing responsibilities, and fostering a sense of shared purpose, civil society organizations and local governments can play a pivotal role in ensuring that every citizen in India has access to safe and reliable drinking water, contributing to the nation’s sustainable development and well-being.
The Jal Jeevan Mission is a monumental endeavour, and by working hand in hand with local governments, we can unlock a powerful synergy. As a civil society organization, we can bring innovation, community engagement, and grassroots insights to the table, while local governments offer the scale, resources, and policy clout required for implementation. To have some success, we need to move beyond shared responsibilities to shared aspirations. There remains an opportunity for deeper and sustained collaboration between the two entities to positively impact the lives of a larger population. While challenges in collaborative action are undeniable, the opportunities and benefits far outweigh the costs and problems associated with partnership.
