Value Water or Repent! UNOPS introduces new participatory approach to mobilize community

Have you ever received a message from your bank about an enormous amount of money getting credited for unknown reasons? I can literally hear your heartbeat here! Well, do you know that we should get the same feeling when gallons of rainwater are wasted down the drains, every monsoon.  

Years of water misuse, over-extraction and contamination of freshwater supplies have aggravated water stress. At the same time, demand for water is rising due to rapid population growth, urbanization and increasing water needs from a range of sectors including domestic, agriculture, industry, recreation and energy. The widening demand-supply gap is further compounded by other challenges, viz. depletion of groundwater caused by over-extraction, poor recharge, low storage capacity, erratic rainfall due to climate change, presence of contaminants, poor operation and maintenance of water supply system and so on. 

Half of the world’s population could be living in areas facing water scarcity by as early as 2025. Some 700 million people could be displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030. The current scenario stresses on the need to take urgent action to conserve, manage and sustain water resources.

CLNOB mapping exercise in UP

As a sector partner for Jal Jeevan Misison, a flagship programme of Union Government to provide tap water connection to every rural home by 2024, team United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)  facilitated a  Community Leave No One Behind (CLNOB) mapping exercise in 137 villages of Bundelkhand, Vindhya and Praygraj regions of Uttar Pradesh. This a new participatory approach to make the village community understand the current status, challenges and possible solutions for drinking water supply, grey water management and sanitation practices in and around their households.

The community's response was better than expected! Especially from women who play a central role in water related chores in the family. For instance, women from Itwan village of district Chitrakoot realized that walking for almost 3 kms to and fro, consumes 3-4 hours of their time and much more of their energy. Collectively, they agreed that schemes like Jal Jeevan Mission will only succeed with their support and they enrolled themselves in the Village Water & Sanitation Committee (VWSC) of the village. 

Under this approach, mapping is done in clusters to make sure that all households are mapped and ‘Leave No One Behind’ categories identified. The idea is to inspire and motivate people through participatory methods  such as discussion on relevant topics like day to day water needs and how they are fulfilled, identifying left out people and why they are left behind, possible solutions to address root causes and ensuring accountability for LNOB. 

The mission and vision of Jal Jeevan Mission coincides with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal-6. UNOPS intends to build a ‘Model Village’ where the community takes ownership of the tap water connections provided by the government and maintains it themselves. This includes taking charge for water sustainability through rain water harvesting and ground water recharge, water quality monitoring and surveillance as well as grey water management to make their village look more clean and green. 

Taking cognizance, informed and alert community women with the support of SHG women leaders, Bank correspondence Sakhi and ASHA health workers took immediate action to clean clogged drains and roads in village Parausa, Block Kadaura, District Jalaun.

Similarly, after an insightful CLNOB mapping of the grey water situation in Etura Vavani village, District Jalaun the community realized that most drains meet the pond directly and there is no system to properly manage grey water. At many places, grey water gets accumulated and it not just looks filthy but is also a grave concern for several diseases in the village. Alarmed the community took ownership and started a 'safai abhiyan' to clean the drains themselves.

CLNOB instills an emotion of unity where no individual is left behind and everyone participates in the process and reaps benefits from the outcome. The approach was originally designed to be integrated into Phase II of Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen (SBM-G). During the challenging environment of Covid 19 in June to October 2020, a pilot was implemented in five rural districts of India by Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and the Sanitation Learning Hub at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK.

A living handbook documenting the learning was virtually launched on 8th July in order to inform policymakers and stakeholders about this new initiative and to provide guidance to facilitators and practitioners at all levels for effective CLNOB implementation in their respective fields. An empowered community with a do it yourself spirit will go a long way in sustainability of any government scheme. 

Link to access the handbook

(By Madhuri Shukla, 
Communication & Knowledge Management Consultant, 
United Nations Office for Project Services [UNOPS])