On the ground

Poor supply facilities force the community to supply itself with contaminated water. The lack of adequate toilets is a cause of open defecation.

Valagonda is a village in Pathikonda Mandal of Kurnool district. There are 170 families with a population of 743 including children. The Government of Andhra Pradesh has constructed an Over Head Service Reservoir (OHSR) and two small storage tanks. It is connected to the bore well which is at a distance of 6 Kms from the village. As there is no sufficient water in the bore well, the people are able to get the water two days in a week which is not adequate for their drinking, cattle and other purposes. Due to this situation, they fetch the water from contaminated water sources located at a distance of 1.5 Kms from the village. Thus, they have been suffering for want of water.

Rollapadu is another village in the same mandal where RDT / Vicente Ferrer Foundation built the permanent houses for 24 families belonging to poor Scheduled Caste (SC) community in the year 2010. At that time, the toilets were not built as part of the houses. After launching of massive Swachh Bharat Mission program, the mind sets of the people are changed and those who have constructed the toilets are using them. But, 22 out of 24 families at Rollapadu do not have access to toilets and only 2 of them have built on their own. Therefore, the 22 beneficiaries made a request to build the toilet cum bathrooms. As of now, they are going for open defecation causing harm to the environment which creates health issues to the people.

In detail

Taking these problems and issues into consideration, it was proposed to construct the water supply system at Valagonda village and toilet cum bathrooms for 22 families at Rollapadu village.

This project contributes to improve the accessibility of water and stop open defecation in proposed two villages. The people have continuous water supply for their drinking and other domestic needs. Simultaneously, the sanitation project was proposed for construction of toilet cum bathrooms helps the people to take bath and use toilets regularly. Especially the women and girls have a respectful life as it stops open defecation which is a humiliation for them. Moreover both water and sanitation projects leads to improve the health conditions of the communities and addresses the most important problem of the humans..

No other local partner has participated in this project. RDT / Vicente Ferrer Foundation directly has executed it by involving effectively the beneficiaries and project implementation committees. At the same time, the Civil Contractors have also not been considered as the cost of project will go up.

The Habitat Sector of RDT implements the project through its Civil Engineers and Community Organizers under the supervision of Regional Engineer and Assistant Technical Director. The Area Team Leader takes the responsibility to implement the project under the administration of the Director – Habitat and the Regional Director.

Prospects for sustainability

The proposed activities have been implemented by Habitat Sector of the organization with the help of its Engineering Team. The Community Organizers working at grassroot level looked after the social aspects of the projects. Any Civil Contractors have not been considered in order to achieve the better quality as well to make the project more cost effective. The utmost importance has been given for quality of construction. The Central Procurement Department has supplied the quality materials like cement, steel, paint, etc., and the local materials like stone, sand, bricks and storage tanks has been procured by involving the local committees and the beneficiaries.

In addition, meetings and workshops has been conducted to enhance the knowledge among the beneficiaries, committee members and village panchayat members. Once the project was completed, the water supply system was handed over to the village panchayats for the future maintenance and sustainability. Each village panchayat will maintain it with the help of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Department of Government. The individual toilet cum bathrooms will be maintained by the concerned beneficiaries.

Apart, RDT / Vicente Ferrer works in these villages on long term basis. The staff at grassroot level will take care of the follow up and provide handholding support for the sustainability.