Tag: water

A New Page in India’s History

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A breakthrough discovery by a study led by IIT Kharagpur has made the colourful Rann Festival of Gujarat a little more vibrant. The researchers have uncovered the earliest traces of the Old Iron Age which is older than 3000 years in the deep stretches of the Rann of Kutch and the Thar Desert. Most importantly the study reaffirmed the theories of human migration from the west to the east induced by climate change.

The region of Gujarat has been a part of many tales from the times of our mytho-history through various historical periods until modern times. Even the Harappan period can be traced to a few rocky islands in the Kutch region of Gujarat. However, till now the Rann which is a prominent geological feature of Gujarat was devoid of any sign of continued human settlement throughout the Early Iron Age to Early Historic Age (~3100 – 2300 years). The lack of evidence even led archaeologists term this period as ‘Dark Age of Gujarat’.

The recent explorations in the coastal settlement of Karim Shahi region of the Rann near Indo-Pak border, led by Prof. Anindya Sarkar from the Dept. of Geology and Geophysics at IIT Kharagpur, however, have unraveled the secrets behind this curtain of silence. The team has found the earliest evidence of human habitation dating back to 3000 years. They also found evidence of Historic to Medieval (~1500–900 years old) human settlement at Vigakot in the Thar Desert.

“We were conducting geological investigations for finding out the past climate change during and after the collapse of Harappan civilization funded by the INFOSYS foundation and IIT Kharagpur. During our explorations we came across numerous archaeological artefacts strewn over the surface of Karim Shahi and Vigakot,” said Prof. Sarkar.

The most intriguing finding is how the human habitation thrived in such water-deprived inhospitable terrain and survived from Iron Age to Medieval period although major Harappan cities were abandoned by that time, he opined. The researchers also did a total station survey to determine the landscape.

“What seems to be an arid landscape today have indications of an active river system and some amount of rainfall during that period as evidenced from the analysis of sediments, botanical remains like pollens and isotopes of oxygen in fossil molluscan shells,” said collaborator Dr. Navin Juyal from Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad.

The researchers also referred to the historical travelogue of Al Beruni of 1030 AD which mentioned the presence of rivers in Kutch.

“Our study suggests that the Rann of Kutch and part of Thar desert were still a hospitable terrain for the sustenance of human settlements from the Early Iron Age till at least medieval times which led to the survival of the civilization under such climate threat situation following the Harappan decline,” he said.

It is long known that from Mature to Late Harappan period (5200 to 3300 years) the number of human settlements continuously increased from the Indus River valley in the west to the Ghaggar-Hakra in the east. This migration following the collapse of the old Indus Valley (Harappan) civilization has been attributed to the decline of monsoon or major droughts by many scientists. But what happened to the people after such collapse? Little is known about the people after the post-urban Harappan period. Some archaeologists believe that there was no demographic collapse as such. Rather populations persisted in smaller less complex settlements dispersed from the original river valleys of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra to more distant areas of the Ganga-Yamuna interfluves or Gujarat and Rajasthan until 3000 years before the present time. In northern India new kind of civilization rose afterward, namely, the Iron Age (or Painted Gray ware) between ~3000 and 2500 years before the present time that was followed by the Kushan period (~1900–1500 years).

“This was indeed a very critical transition, wherein human migration, as suggested by our findings, was far more expansive than thought before. We suspect that the gradual shift of Intertropical Convergence Zone, the main driver of monsoon from west to east over the last seven thousand years, forced people to migrate for greener pastures,” remarked Prof. Sarkar.

An earlier study by Prof. Sarkar on Haryana’s Bhirrana region had shown human migration from west to east due to the weakening of the monsoon. In a way, this created large climate refugees who took refugia were still some little rainfall was available.

“The United Nations framework convention on climate change and high commissioner for refugees in its report warned about such climate refugees due to impending climate change. If it could have happened in the past it will happen in the future too” reminded Prof. Sarkar.

Apart from the climatic conditions and sustenance of the settlements, the researchers have been successful in stitching a critical section of India’s Iron Age history which lay buried under the deep stretches of the Rann. The recovery of artefacts like pitcher, jars and bull figurines and also numerous animal remains like bones, teeth etc. have helped in reconstructing the social subsistence pattern of the region during the study period confirmed co-researcher Dr. Arati Despande Mukherjee from Deccan College PGRI Pune. The earliest evidence of Iron Age found in Gujarat till now was 2500 years old which has now been pushed back by several centuries in antiquity. At Motichher, a place close to Karim Shahi, iron objects, nuggets, and slags have been found and which would need further investigation. The researchers acknowledged the Indian Army for facilitating the explorations. The areas are so remote and close to an international border that no scientific investigation could have been carried out without the permission of the Indian army.

Talking about a probable occupation of those people, Prof. Sarkar remarked, “both Karim Shahi and Vigakot probably acted as trade centers during this time. In fact, at Vigakot we found 1100 years old Chinese Qingbai porcelain probably manufactured in Guangdong province of south China and Sgraffiato potteries of 10th century Persia suggesting it to be a part of long-distance trade between West Asia and China”.

Prof. M.G. Thakkar from Kutch University and a collaborator emphasized the fact that the multidisciplinary study has proven the near-cultural continuity after the Harappans which the experts till now only hypothesized. He also harped on the point that this finding is going to bring Kutch under international limelight.

The findings have been published online in the prestigious Elsevier journal ‘Archaeological Research in Asia’. Download Paper

Graphic Credit: Suman Sutradhar

Clean India, Healthy India

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Does economic growth have a positive correlation with clean drinking water in India? Researchers at IIT Kharagpur seem to be not only agreeing with this idea but even found concrete proofs. In a recent study published in the Scientific Reports, the link between the influence of economic growth in reducing fecal pathogens in groundwater has been established. These are the pathogens that are considered to be one of the key causes of water-bourne diseases, across India.

Water-bourne diseases like diarrhea have been the cause of 15.5% of total deaths in India from 1990 – 2016. The study has made first-time observations on a significant reduction of fecal pathogen concentration in the spatially variable groundwater from 2002 to 2017. The study, however, reported elevated fecal coliform concentration in potable groundwater in rural regions across India than UNGA’s safe limit of zero pathogens. Download Paper

“Looking beyond the country globally, more than one-third of the total country’s population, living in economically stressed areas of Africa and South Asia still do not have access to basic sanitation, and more than 1 billion still opt for open defecation. Until recently, India has more than 500 million open-defecating population resulting unsafe disposal of fecal waste to nearby drinking water sources poses a serious environmental crisis and public health concern,” says Prof. Abhijit Mukherjee, faculty at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering and Dept. of Geology and Geophysics at IIT Kharagpur who led the research project. 

In recent years, sanitation development to achieve goal-6 of UNGA’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been encouraged across India by implementing Clean India (Swachh Bharat) Mission. But their effect on groundwater quality and human health are yet unquantified until now. The study, published on October 23 on the Nature group of journals, gives long term, high-spatial-resolution measurements of fecal coliform concentration (>1.7 million) and acute diarrheal cases for the first time. The study data covered almost the last three decades to delineate the long-term improvement trends of groundwater quality across India, as a consequence of development.

“A uniqueness in this study to determine economic development was instead of GDP or other economic growth data, we have used satellite-based nightlight (NL) information from NASA for the period 1992-2013 which was used to investigate the statistical trends and causal relationships. In most areas’ economic development, suggested by increasing satellite-based nightlight correlated to the reduction in faecal coliform concentration and alleviation of water quality. While, sanitation and economic development can improve human health, poor education level and improper human practices can potentially affect water-borne diseases loads and thus health in parts of India.” explained Srimanti Duttagupta, Ph.D. scholar at IIT Kharagpur, second author of the research paper which has come out recently based on this study. 

Numerical and statistical analyses were performed on aforesaid culled datasets to understand the efficiency of development in alleviating the water quality and public health, and relationship with economic development. Enhanced alleviation of groundwater quality and human health have been observed since 2014 with the initiation of accelerated construction of sanitation infrastructure through Swachh Bharat Mission.

In the study it was observed that in more than 80% of the study region, night-time light demonstrated to be a strong predictor for observed changes in groundwater quality, sanitation development and water-borne disease cases.

However, the goal of completely fecal-pollution free, clean drinking water is yet to be achieved, Prof. Mukherjee remarked, however, needs more data to confirm.

“Nevertheless, in areas with inferior water quality, improper human practices outweigh economic development in affecting human health,” he added.

It has been further observed that very high population density deteriorates the quality of water in certain areas. The problem of overpopulation and slums is an intricate problem that is reflected in all life aspects in countries like India. Different statistical analyses conducted in this study showed about a 3.09 % decrease in fecal coliform concentration and a 2.69% decrease in acute diarrheal cases per year for the last three decades. Groundwater quality with respect to fecal coliform concentration and acute diarrheal cases generally reduced in most areas of India and has been mostly caused by sanitation development, urbanization and related land-use changes.

Since 2014 the government has built over 100 million toilets in six lakh villages and 6.3 million toilets in cities covering a total of 600 million people (almost 60% of India’s population) which is more than the total figure for toilets since 1947. Currently, 93% of village households have toilets with a usage rate of over 90%. On October 2, while celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that India was open-defecation free. But there are facts beyond statistics primarily challenging the initiative at the level of societal and poor human practices.

The researchers opined that use and disuse and beliefs are mostly related to lower literacy rates. In turn, these results in a lack of awareness and encourage malpractice on sanitation, eventually leading to increased fecal waste into drinking water sourced from groundwater. 

 

Building Scalable Water Access for Rural Assam

This summer I had the incredible opportunity, to work with the Tata Trusts and their Tata Water Mission (TWM) initiative, exploring avenues to provide scalable water access to stakeholders in rural Assam. TWM is one of the Trusts’ flagship initiatives in India, at the forefront of ensuring Water Access, Sanitation and Health through multiple programs across the nation. I had the privilege of working with Mr. Divyang Waghela, National Head and Mr. Rajat Pati, Area Manager, North-East and a host of partner organizations across multiple project sites in Assam. I had been looking to spend my summer doing something that was meaningful, challenging and exciting and as I pondered on a suitable endeavor, Madhav Datt, friend, senior at IIT Kgp and part-time senpai suggested I take a look at the development sector. Madhav’s initiatives in this area with his NGO, Green the Gene had for some time captured my imagination. Green the Gene is an entirely youth-run organization, pioneering extremely low-cost technology and data-driven solutions to help local communities in acute and immediate environmental crises across the world. I set off to look for someone who would want a bright-eyed undergrad on their team, and with Mr. Waghela happening to be just that person, a few weeks later I found myself bunking down with a rural community 2 hours out of Guwahati. The experience I had this summer was eye-opening in so many ways. It allowed me to appreciate the sheer scale of the water crisis this nation is facing and the battle that TWM and organizations like it are fighting every single day. It also taught me that context-specific solutions are critical, that there is a need to engage stakeholders at multiple levels and that young people are among the biggest assets in the fight to provide clean water to every individual.

The importance of context-specific solutions became increasingly clear as I spent more time on the ground in Assam. The topography, climate and hydro-geological composition of Assam vary quite significantly throughout the state. When I arrived at my first project site in Nalbari, some 2 hours out of Guwahati, I found it to be humid, hot and extremely wet. It appeared to rain here a good half the year and the whole district was full of sources of static surface water, like lakes and ponds. One could almost start to wonder what sort of water crisis could possibly affect this area. Unfortunately, despite an apparent abundance of water, the one source that was used at scale by the vast majority of the community, groundwater, might be well have been poison. Tata Water Mission was partnering with Gramya Vikash Mancha (GVM), the NGO I was embedded within Nalbari, and Drinkwell Technologies to implement and maintain a few Water ATMs in the district which provided clean drinking water to hundreds of households. Prior to the implementation of these automated filtration and supply systems, communities had been ravaged by chronic gastro-intestinal illness and cases of cancer. Extremely high concentrations of Iron and Arsenic, over 10X the WHO mandated limit, contaminated groundwater reserves in some villages.

While the Water ATMs provided a steady and reliable supply of drinking water, it became quickly apparent that the severity of the pollution in the water table necessitated alternate solutions. The ATMs hit bottlenecks with maintenance issues and limited supply capacity due to the extreme stress that was placed on the filtration systems. For long term sustainability, contamination-free sources of water had to be identified, mapped and solutions had to be built around them to serve the community. I spent several weeks in Nalbari, trying to better understand this situation and do something about it. Madhav’s work with Green the Gene in developing water purification technology for rural Africa had inspired me to head to Assam. It also gave me a solid insight into how to approach solution building in a rural environment leading me to believe, that while best practices, manuals and handbooks provided a solid understanding into the technical challenges, the actual solution would come from within the community. As such, I would cycle several kilometers every day, through the beautiful bucolic landscape, to a nearby village of about 1500 people, Kothora, that was the project site for the first Water ATM. I spent a lot of time with the community to hear out their grievances and their opinions on feasible solutions. People complained about long lines, travel distances and the significant amount of time spent obtaining water from Water ATM. With most of the village engaged in service and not agriculture, losing an hour a day made a direct impact on that day’s wages and as such proved to be a major inconvenience. Sit downs with village administrators such as the Headman and the Panchayat President highlighted the possible opportunity in utilizing surface water from ponds and lakes that were abundant. Working with the community, I was able to map the water resources in the village, estimate capacity and prepare a plan for a community-scale water filtration system utilizing water from the large ponds in the village. The system has the potential to eliminate 6.5 Lakhs Person Kilometers and 1.3 Lakh Person Hours spent annually on collecting potable water. It also reduces the cost for both the NGOs and the stakeholders by nearly 50%. The sheer potential took everyone by surprise in that only about 15% of the water in a single large pond was capable of providing uninterrupted annual water supply to the entire village.

At Tezpur District, in North East Assam, near the Arunachal Pradesh border, the situation was a lot different. Located at the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas, this was a region with lesser rainfall, a distinct lack of lakes and ponds and whose rocky terrain made it very challenging to sink wells to tap groundwater.

Groundwater Iron contamination had once again been identified as a major problem. The households there had no access to electricity or clean drinking water supply. Residents drank water from fetid streams and small pools of water in the surrounding marshy area. Households had no firm habits in terms of boiling water or even performing rudimentary filtering it prior to consumption and as such water-borne stomach illness was rampant in the community with multiple episodes of illness every year. It was absolutely urgent that a simple, energy independent and scalable solution should be implemented in this region as soon as possible. In Tezpur I worked for a couple of weeks with another one of the Trusts’ partner organizations, Balipara Foundation and another regional NGO, Mahila Shakti Kendra (MASK). It was with Mr. Dhruba Das from MASK that I biked almost 150km a day to visit several village clusters across the district, to listen to grievances and look for possible solutions. We focused on the Bogijuli Forest Village Cluster, a region with around 500 households some 30km from Tezpur. It quickly became apparent that the entire region was crossed by a network of streams and rivulets originating from springs in the foothills. The villagers had additionally diverted these streams to help irrigate their crops. Accompanied by enthusiastic members of the local community we set out to chart and map these streams, following them into the hills as far as we could go. We were able to measure the flow rate, gauge capacities and conduct multiple interviews with community leaders and village elders to gain local knowledge on seasonal flow variations and weather patterns. I also leveraged the wealth of experience the Trust had gained by piloting initiatives across the country to identify an electricity independent filtration system that would work in this context. Having obtained the required information, I was able to design a system that sources water from the running water channels crisscrossing the area to provide scalable water access to this district. As with Nalbari, the potential was massive. < 1% of the annual stream water potential in the region was sufficient to provide for the community.

Both of these solutions leveraged the natural environment and opportunities presented therein. They were also cost-effective when benchmarked against other projects that had been executed. A sensible co-financing structure set up between the community and the NGOs, implemented as an EMI payment scheme by the stakeholders, could fund the projects and sustain them over time at a very nominal cost to both the stakeholders and their NGO partners.

Engaging stakeholders at multiple levels is crucial to the success of any intervention, even more so in an environment that has not been exposed to any such prior intervention. In Nalbari this was quite visible in how the Trust had built its local network. It has partnered with committed local organizations with the motivation and capability to deliver scalable impact, provide them with funding, technology and best practices and then let that percolate into the community down to the individual level. The Water ATM in Nalbari was community managed and maintained, with support from GVM. As a relatively large and experienced NGO, GVM, led by its extremely forward-thinking and tireless founder, Mr. Prithibhushan Deka, an alumnus of TISS has tirelessly been working towards rural empowerment over the last 2 decades. GVM is a well-established and trusted entity in the local community and has a proven history of delivering scalable impact. At the ground level, stakeholders from the project village contribute to the overall maintenance and management of the system. I was privileged to meet Mr. Phaben Deka, a resident of Nalbari and the main PoC in the project village. His assistance was instrumental in obtaining data, performing surveys and the sheer enthusiasm with which he approached the whole exercise was infectious in the amount of cooperation and assistance it elicited from the local stakeholders. In Tezpur the aim is to build similar connections with the communities. The Trust has very strong partners in the Balipara Foundation which has since 2007 carried out experiments in ecological protection and the rapid restoration of the Eastern Himalayan Region through the concept of Naturenomics.

The foundation is very well established, has a large footprint and dedicated team of individuals working across various domains. Mahila Shakti Kendra, the organization at the forefront of initiatives in Tezpur, is another well-established community pillar. Local stakeholders will be critical to the project implementation in Tezpur. Diversions will have to be dug, streams will have to be tapped and all of this requires the local knowledge and assistance of the community. NGOs are increasingly looking at long term solutions to be community-owned and managed after an initial support period. In the long run, this ensures the feasibility of such projects and builds self-sufficiency within the community. Additionally, it is extremely important to build solutions that are aligned with the local context and aligned with the needs and requirements of the local stakeholders.

Young people are among the biggest assets we have in this fight to provide clean drinking water to every individual. In Nalbari, one of the stakeholders responsible for maintaining and managing the Water ATMs is 22-year-old Shashank Bisbaruah. A native of Nalbari, he has been working with GVM for several years since graduating high school. He looks after the technically demanding process of cleaning the filtration system, monitoring its performance and chemical dosing to ensure proper filtration. As my colleague and guide, he was also my biggest insight into understanding the community and their needs. Communities everywhere need more progressive young people who understand the larger context of the challenges faced by their communities along with the technical know-how and entrepreneurial spirit to combat these issues and find scalable solutions. Structured efforts need to be made by NGOs to accelerate the growth of champions from within the communities.

In Nalbari, GVM plans to start a rural youth skilling program devoted to learning and development of safe water access, plumbing and sanitation in the district. Some 30 youth are to be selected for the program and the belief is that they can not only help with the implementation and maintenance of systems but also become business owners in the water sector. Such a group of skilled young youth, well versed in this field would prove to be an asset for any implementation in this sector. In Tezpur, I was able to observe large scale youth engagement programs geared primarily at afforestation initiatives organized by the Green Task Force of the Indian Army. It is never too early for young people to join the cause for access to clean water, among the most urgent and pressing concerns facing this country and the world at large.

My summer experience was extremely humbling, impactful and rather adventurous. My first foray into the Development Sector taught me a lot about how solutions are to be designed and implemented and also showcased the sheer humanity involved in the stellar work that organizations like the Tata Trusts carry out. Looking at the dry, cracked soil across large parts of the country, falling water tables and delayed monsoons, one is reminded of the severity of the problem and the monumental task at hand. However, having spent the summer with some of the most dedicated and talented individuals and organizations working to make access to clean water a reality, I am convinced that the fight is far from over.

Contributed by:

Rohit Sar,
Batch of 2019,
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.

Stronger Economy, Cleaner Waters

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A study by IIT Kharagpur researchers has connected the dots between the impact of economic growth reducing fecal coliform (FC) pathogens in groundwater which is a key factor causing water-borne diseases in the densely populated Indo-Ganges-Brahmaputra river basin.

About 100,000 children in India are dying every year from waterborne enteric diseases like diarrhea. While the study reported the excess of fecal coliform concentration in potable groundwater in rural regions in the said area, it also made first-time observations on a significant reduction of fecal pathogen concentration in the spatially variable groundwater from 2002 to 2017.

“Looking beyond the country globally, more than 2 billion people, mostly living in economically stressed areas of Africa and South Asia still do not have access to basic sanitation, and more than 1 billion still opt for open defecation. The resulting unsafe disposal of faecal waste to nearby drinking water sources poses an extremely serious environmental crisis and public health concern,” says Prof. Abhijit Mukherjee, faculty at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering and Dept. of Geology and Geophysics at IIT Kharagpur who led the research project.

The researchers studied data for the densely populated Indo-Ganges-Brahmaputra river basin, across 234 districts in Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Assam and also Delhi and NCR and a population of ~ 400 million. The study data collected from National Rural Drinking Water Programme, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Govt. of India, covered almost last three decades to delineate the long-term improvement trends of groundwater quality across India, as a consequence of the development.

Figures suggesting the a) trends of decrease in faecal coliform in groundwater between 2002-2017 with the study area of Indus Ganges Brahmaputra basin (Rajasthan, NCR, UP, MP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Assam), b and c) comparison trends of anomalies between groundwater quality and economic development (observed as satellite-observed night-time light), d) changes in economic development across study area, as observed from night-time light

Uniqueness in this study to determine economic development trends and correlations was the use of nigh-time light data instead of GDP or other economic growth data. “We have used satellite-based Night-time Light information based on Defence Meteorological Satellite Program of the US Air Force, archived by NOAA/NASA for the period 1992-2013. In most areas economic development, suggested by increasing satellite-based nightlight correlated to the reduction in fecal coliform concentration and alleviation of water quality,” explained Srimanti Duttagupta, a Ph.D. scholar at IIT Kharagpur, first author of the research paper which has come out recently based on this study.

The other dataset used was high-resolution geographically spatial information of waterborne fecal pathogen concentration in groundwater from the period 2002-2017. Numerical and statistical analyses were performed on aforesaid culled datasets to understand the efficiency of development in alleviating the water quality and public health, and relationship with economic development. The study showed that the spatially variable groundwater faecal pathogen concentration from 2002-2017 has significantly decreased across the basin. From 2002 – 2013, Night-time Light on the surface area as seen from satellites increased by +3.05% per year and faecal coliform pollution decreased -1.39% per year.

The research group observed a significant decrease in groundwater fecal coliform concentration after 2014, in the acquired data. This could be a direct outcome of improved sanitation construction and utilization of sanitation structures, instituted by the Clean India (Swatch Bharat) mission of the Government of India Prof. Mukherjee remarked, however, needs more data to confirm. “Nevertheless, in areas with inferior water quality, improper human practices outweigh economic development in affecting human health,” he added.

It was observed that areas with lower literacy rate and very high population density suffer from poor groundwater quality because of faecal coliform pollution, irrespective of economic development. The problem of overpopulation and slums is an intricate problem which is reflected in all life aspects in countries like India. The study reflects through results that higher faecal coliform concentration in urban, and peri-urban areas, suggesting economic progress may not be the only influencing factor on water quality alleviation.

The researchers opined that social behavior and practices, use and disuse and beliefs are mostly related to lower literacy rate. In turn, these results lack awareness and encourage malpractice on sanitation, eventually leading to increased fecal waste into drinking water sourced to groundwater.

The research was published this year in the Journal of Earth System Science published by Indian Academy of Sciences.

Download Research Paper

IIT KGP Faculty Makes Purified Drinking Water Available for Rs. 1

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Faculty from IIT KGP has developed a model for purified drinking water supply, costing Rs. 1 per family per day, for a village in Southern Bengal. Dr. Somnath Ghosal from the Rural Development Centre of IIT Kharagpur has involved participatory management offering villagers access to purified drinking water in a sustainable manner, using Water Cards, Water ATM Vending Machine, etc.

The unique set-up has been built in the Porapara village in West Midnapore district of Bengal. He has installed a fully automated multi filtered UV treated drinking water facility which can provide close to 1000 litres of purified drinking water to 60 families every day at Rs. 1 per family. While the land was freely provided by the villages, IIT KGP helped built the required infrastructure and water purification technologies and funded the entire project.

With water borne diseases and the cost of medical treatment, Dr. Ghosal took to the task of making the villagers understand the need for the water filtration unit. “It has been my dream to build up a project that involved community participation,” he said. Since such self-managed purification units require little intervention in maintenance, they require one-time investments that can become part of the CSR initiatives of both public and private enterprises. “We will be happy to do more such things through CSR Funding since the Technology and Process is now well demonstrated in this Pilot Project” added Dr. Ghosal.

The land on which the filtration unit has been installed was donated by a villager, Kshitij Mahato. In other words, it stands on land owned by a villager. The entire operation of the unit, its upkeep and daily management, is done by the villagers who have formed three committees to manage the operations. It is thus an ‘install and self-operate’ arrangement. The current, and future, financial needs are to be met by the villagers from the funds collected in the form of the daily payment (Rs 1 per family per day) for the purified water. A 17-year-old boy, Dhananjay Mahato along with three other youngsters, is in charge of the daily running of the filtration unit and the daily dispensing of filtered water from 5.30 to 8 AM. Full community participation becomes possible only if villagers have a sense of ownership over a project.

“None of this would have happened had they not placed their faith in us and trusted their own abilities. The land belongs to the villagers. They alone are now responsible for the proper functioning of the project,” remarked Dr. Ghosal. He no longer takes any part in the running of the filtration unit. In fact, he takes prior permission of the villagers before visiting the site.

Not a drop to lose

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At Porapara, an IIT Kharagpur initiative has become a unique model of participatory civic management

Porapara is a tribal hamlet around 15 kilometres away from IIT Kharagpur. It has seen several initiatives from the academic community of IIT Kharagpur, which has set up a primary school and has also tried to install smokeless chulas for the convenience of the villagers. The people of the village are mainly daily wage labourers, working in the surrounding agricultural fields or sometimes in Kharagpur town. Having grown used to the community of IIT Kharagpur, they are not averse to the entry of those who can easily be branded ‘outsiders’. Yet, they do not easily embrace change.

This was evident to Prof. Somnath Ghosal, Assistant Professor of Rural Development at IIT Kharagpur. It was his ‘dream’ to build/implement a project that involved community participation. For a region with perennial water problem, it wasn’t difficult to identify what project would benefit the people. Prof. Ghosal worked hard to convince the villagers of the need to build a water filtration unit even though there were frequent cases of water-related diseases. The diseases took a heavy toll on the health of the villagers, who had to shell out hundreds of rupees for treatment every month.

“Once the villagers were convinced,” says Prof. Ghosal, “they came forward to help spontaneously.” Kshitij Mahato donated the land where the building that houses the filtration unit was constructed.

Amidst the red hue of Porapara’s unpaved roads, the thatched mud houses and the green all around, the bright yellow structure of the “Multi Filtered UV Treated Drinking Water Facility” constructed by the Rural Development Centre of IIT Kharapur enjoys pride of place. This is a fully automated multi-filter water purification unit, installed by Prof. Ghosal with funds sanctioned by the Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy wing of the Institute. The filtration unit provides 60 families with close to 1,000 litres (15 litres per family) of purified drinking water every day at the nominal cost of Rs 1 per family.

What is unique about the project is not merely the technology and design of the filtration unit, but also its management. The entire operation of the unit, its upkeep and daily management, is done by the villagers who have formed three committees to manage the operations. It is thus an ‘install and forget’ arrangement. The current, and future, financial needs are to be met by the villagers from the funds collected in the form of the daily payment (Rs 1 per family per day) for the purified water.

It was not easy to bring together representatives from all 60 households when it came to decision-making. “Since they stayed away from their homes during the day on work, I had to come to the village almost every evening to talk to them,” says Prof. Ghosal. Getting the construction completed was also harrowing, particularly during the monsoons. Since Porapara has no metalled roads, commuting to the site was nightmarish.

The memories of that struggle however cast no shadow on the crisp morning we visited the water purification unit. A small group gathered immediately on our arrival. A sheepish 17-year-old boy, Dhananjay Mahato, came forward with the keys. He has been chosen to perform a role which not too many teenagers can lay claim to. Dhananjay, together with three other youngsters, is in charge of the daily running of the filtration unit and the daily dispensing of filtered water. He starts the unit at 5.30 am every day and shuts down the operations at 8 am sharp before going to school.

The villagers of Porapara have taken over the running and maintenance of the filtration unit completely. They maintain the apparatus, take care of cleanliness inside the filtration unit and the upkeep of the equipment. Purified water is dispensed through a vending machine which works on Rfid cards allotted to each household. Each household is entitled to one card that gives it 15 litres of water every day. The card is recharged every month with Rs 30 (Rs 1 per day) by the boys.

Filtration begins at 5.30 am and continues till 7.30 am. Water is dispensed till 8 am sharp. The boys close the unit immediately after. Three boys have been trained in the basic task of maintenance, repair and recharge operations. The filtration unit is a restricted area. Only those given prior responsibilities are allowed to gain entry into it. Even Prof. Ghosal has to seek permission to visit the facility.

There is a ‘finance committee’ consisting of three adult villagers. A single bank account has been opened in which they are the joint account holders. They have the operational rights to the account. Money obtained from the sale of purified water goes to this account. The money thus accumulated is to be used to pay for the electricity bill (expected to be around Rs 1,200), replace or repair components of the filtration unit, paint or maintain the structure.

An advisory committee, consisting of one member from every household, usually the seniors, advises the villagers on how best to manage the filtration unit and the need for improvements. The selection of the present operation committee was done on the basis of the recommendations of the advisory committee.

“None of this would have happened had they not placed their faith in us and trusted their own abilities,” says Prof. Ghosal. Full community participation becomes possible only if villagers have a sense of ownership over a project. This has been made possible in this project. The land belongs to the villagers. They alone are now responsible for the proper functioning of the project.

West Midnapore has been the site of such experimental models of community participation. This was where the world famous Arabari model of forest management was created by the initiative of an Indian Forest Service office, Ajit Kumar Banerjee. Joint forest management committees, consisting of local villagers, still look after the forests and have not only stopped the depletion of forests but have also turned forest management into a successful business model. But in this case, the forest is government property after all, and the villagers share part of the profit, the rest of which goes to the government. In Porapara, the villagers have complete ownership of the project, which is part of a CSR initiative of IIT Kharagpur.

Prof. Ghosal, says that given the steady deterioration of the quality of groundwater and the tap water supplied by the government agencies, such self-managed filtration units will increasingly become necessary, particularly for water-scarce areas in the entire region which has laterite soil. Since such self-managed purification units require little intervention in maintenance, they require one-time investments that can become part of the CSR initiatives of both public and private enterprises.

 

IIT KGP’s ReWater Research to Redefine India’s Potable Water System

Economic Times   Business Standard   The Week   Jagran Josh   India Today   Indian Express   Millenium Post   NDTV

IIT Kharagpur on its 68th Foundation Day has taken up the challenge to resolve two burning issues of urban India – sewage disposal and access to clean potable water. The Institute is setting up the Aditya Choubey Center for Re-Water Research, seed-funded by alumni Anant Choubey and Aneesh Reddy to remediate, replenish and rejuvenate water resources.

“The scarcity of water for drinking and domestic use is becoming acute and will only worsen in the coming years. On the other hand, urban areas are witnessing massive sewage problems. The idea of linking these two crises and coming up with one viable solution was challenging. Having done that, we would be networking with government bodies to take up this technology and the process and meet the water challenge in various cities” remarked Aneesh Reddy.

The Institute is setting up an on-campus plant which will daily convert 1.35 million litre of sewage water from the hostels to 1.2 million litre of potable water. The pilot plant at IIT Kharagpur is expected to be ready by March 2019. The water processing and output will be monitored in real-time and conform to IS 10500-2012 standard for drinking water. “We will conduct quality assurance tests demonstrating the suitability of the technology for treatment of sewage and the suitability of the treated water for consumption and infuse confidence among all agencies and the public at large related to water supply, treatment” said Prof. M M Ghangrekar, faculty at the Dept. of Civil Engineering who will be heading this project.

Further, the researchers would be developing an operationally viable technology so that the plant can be profitably commercialized. “We are working towards bringing down the cost to less than Rs. 10 per kilo litre. This will allow the manufacturer to invest the additional fund towards setting up more plants in the urban areas. The project is being developed to attract potential entrepreneurs and government agencies to take up sewage treatment at a large scale and with a business model for banks to gain confidence in funding such businesses.” explained Anant Choubey.

Prof. P P Chakrabarti, Director, IIT Kharagpur opined that similar models of water sustainability have been adopted in foreign countries. India would have to make a move towards reclaiming, recycling, reusing, rewatering, remediating, replenishing, rejuvenating. “We are looking forward to participatory models in villages to implement this technology. We would also engage international water experts and professionals from the industry as researchers and advisors in this Center. Aneesh and Anant will be advisers as well” he said.