The Story of Punawali

Located in the semi-arid hills of the Bundelkhand region in southern Uttar Pradesh, the small village of Punawali faces acute water scarcity for all but a few months out of the year. The community, like many across India, is highly dependent on the monsoon rains to replenish its wells and sustain its crops.  In the years when the life-giving rains fail, this scarcity leads to drought and hardship for the villagers: wells become dry, fields lay barren and the precious soil blows away with the wind.

The over 2700 residents of Punawali village live in extreme poverty. Subsistence agriculture is the mainstay of most villagers, though some work as shopkeepers or day labourers.  Many have little education and are illiterate. Only primary education is available to the children and no adult learning or literacy programs have been initiated. Health and sanitation are almost non-existent.  The village is serviced by two doctors (one high caste, one low caste) and a public health care worker, but a lack of proper sanitation and poor water quality lead many, especially children, to suffer from easily prevented gastro-intestinal ailments.  As is the case in most of the rural areas of India, the traditional occupations of women, which include fetching water and fuelwood from distant sources, leaves little time for other income-generating activities.

Getting Involved

Development Alternatives (DA) first became involved with the villagers in Punawali during the ‘Water of Life’ project, sponsored by United Distillers.  From the period between 1995 and 1997, DA built three checkdams on nearby streams and nallahs to capture the monsoon runoff and facilitate groundwater recharge.  The result was an increase in groundwater levels at the village wells and an overall improvement in the villagers’ access to drinking water.  

The success of the checkdam scheme allowed DA to approach the village as a potential candidate for the Government of Uttar Pradesh’s (GOUP) Swajal project.  The goal of the project, which receives substantive funding from the World Bank, is to provide water supply and sanitation facilities to the rural areas of Uttar Pradesh.  Under the terms of the project, the community is responsible for absorbing 10% of the construction costs and 100% of the operation and maintenance costs of their water supply and sanitation distribution system.  

Initially, the villagers were skeptical.  Despite the success of the checkdams and its prior good relationship with DA, the community was reluctant to join a project that would require such high capital investment on their part.  Many hours were spent in village meetings to convince the residents of the merits of the project.  Slowly, and with the help of a few influential village members, the DA project staff began to make progress. 

A Village Water and Sanitation Committee (VWSC) was formed from nine village residents.  As dictated by a GOUP order, 30% of the members were women and 20% from Scheduled Castes/Tribes.   Their first order of business was to assess the needs of the village and to determine the appropriate combination of facilities to meet these needs.   But before even this work began, several challenges had to be overcome by the VWSC.  Long standing gender and social equity issues posed the major obstacle to the effective management of the committee, and also made the collection of the 10% capital contribution difficult.  Furthermore, the community was quickly growing impatient with the lengthy Pre-Feasibility stage and was anxious to see concrete results.  These issues were finally resolved by conducting additional facilitation with the VWSC members and the community as a whole.  In addition, once the construction work began on the water supply and sanitation system, the villagers’ fear were allayed.

The Water Distribution System

The water distribution system in Punawali was designed to reflect the needs of the local residents and to suit the physical characteristics of the village.  One of the most important considerations in the design of the system were the frequent power shortages which made relying on electrically-powered water pumps unfeasible. It was therefore decided to use a diesel-powered generator that could be operated only when pumping was required.  In order for the water to be available to the villagers at all times, the addition of a large storage tank was included in the plans.  Pumping water into the tank from the well would be more cost effective, not to mention reliable, than pumping the water directly through the distribution system.  In addition, by placing the tank on the hillock in the centre of town, the engineers ensured that no further pumping was necessary:  gravity would feed the system and supply the villagers with sufficient water when they needed it.

In February 2000, the pump house was constructed.  The small concrete structure located outside the main village, houses the pump, generator and chlorinator that supply the water tank via 530m of piping.  The well, located next to the pump house, was completed in May 2000.  With a diameter of 6.80m and depth of 9.50m, the well is capable of supplying over 400 litres of groundwater per minute.  By July 2000, 2.5 km of PVC piping has been laid, thereby completing the water distribution network in Punawali. In March 2001, construction on the water tank ended.   

Due to the recent completion of the water distribution system, it is too early to say how effective it has been.  However, tests done on the system over the past few months have indicated that it operates well and community opinion is high.

The Sanitation System

Providing sanitation facilities to the village was part of the Swajal Project’s mandate.  As a result, over 200 latrines were built in the community.  This represents almost one latrine for each household in the village.  Residents were required to contribute 2% of the capital cost for construction of the small concrete outhouses.  Each ‘owner’ was then given basic instruction on how to maintain the system and conduct repairs. 

The simple structures are essentially septic systems where human waste is allowed to decompose in a soak pit and then filter through the underlying soil.  The benefit of this kind of system is that it requires little infrastructure or water for flushing.  This is particularly important in the semi-arid region in which Punawali is located.  For the most part, the latrines have been well-received and are used by the villagers.

The Future

Having access to water and sanitation will greatly improve the lives of the residents of Punawali.  Training programs on technical matters and financial management have already provided much needed support to the residents, who  must maintain and manage their water supply and sanitation systems themselves.  In addition, training courses on diverse topics such as candy-making, stitching, recycled paper-making, etc., have allowed community members to learn new skills so that they may invest the extra time saved during the day in income-generating activities.

Overall, the project has been successful in bringing water and sanitation to Punawali, and residents are looking forward to making full use of the system once all construction work is completed.  No longer subject to the vagaries of the monsoon, the future finally looks bright for this one small village in the Bundelkhand.