Government of
India supported Sector Reform Project was implemented in district Hardwar of
Uttaranchal State. Village Subhash Nagar was one of the Gram Panchayat out of
the 91 Gram Panchayats taken for Batch-I of the project. This village with 450
household has a total population of more than 4500 people. Though one old water
supply scheme already existed in the village yet it could not supply enough water
to all the households because of sudden rise in migrant population in the
village. In the beginning it was difficult for the villagers to accept that
they will have to pay 10% capital cost contribution for the scheme. However
when repeatedly convinced by the District Project Management Unit and as well
as by the district administration, the village people agreed to pay the desired
contribution for the scheme. Thus, a pumping scheme with Over Head Tank were
designed costing Rs. 56.57 lakhs the village community formed their own User
Water & Sanitation Committee (UWSC) and total Rs. 6.43 lakhs were collected
for capital cost contribution and for initial operation & maintenance cost
of the water supply scheme. The scheme is big one with total 22 km pipeline and
over head tank with a pump house near which one conference room and a rest room
have also been constructed by the committee.
The construction
work of the scheme was supervised by the members of the UWSC as well as by the
villagers and the work was completed in time. The scheme has covered nearly
1200 consumers who are paying Rs. 30 as monthly water charges. Now, the UWSC is
providing new connections only after payment of Rs. 1550 as connection charges.
Water supply scheme is providing chlorinated water and one local person has
been employed for looking after the water supply scheme. The committee is
paying electricity charges and salary of the operator regularly. To ensure
sustainability of the water supply scheme, the UWSC is saving approximately Rs.
1 lakh per annum in their account as fixed deposit. Besides successfully
operating & maintaining water supply scheme some other works like
construction and maintenance of drainage lines for waste water, repair of roads
etc. is also being done by the UWSC after obtaining assistance from various
sources like Vidhayak Nidhi, Zila Panchayat, Zila Yojna etc. The User Water
& Sanitation Committee of village Subhash Nagar is also looking into
sanitation aspects of the village and they are creating awareness for construction
of toilets. Most of the households already have their household latrines and
the owners of the new houses in the village are being requested for invariably
constructing a latrine in their house.
The instance of
this water supply scheme has taught the villagers that public utilities can be
successfully managed by their own institutions and thus it has changed the
mindset of the people making them to realize that for better facilities
collective management and ownership of community assets is necessary.
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