Water

Country Water Action: India
Village Committee Summons Water Goddess to Raise Awareness
April 2006

Aridity reigned in dust-covered Salwaha village in Central India, and whatever little water the village had was unsafe and filthy. This is no longer the case today. Young women and men, who had the audacity to challenge the wisdom of village elders, called upon the water goddess for help and were granted more than the clean drinking water they expected.

Contents Invoking The Water Goddess Dry Wells And Unresponsive Villagers Community Clean-Up Efforts Jal Devi Watches Her Water

A week-long "Jal Utsav" or water festival in Salwaha, Madhya Pradesh was held in January this year to celebrate the success of the tribal village's water management and conservation efforts. Young members of the Water Conservation Committee who organized the festival offered prayers, sweets, and flowers to the 'Jal Devi,' or Water Goddess. The Jal Devi was instrumental in increasing villagers' awareness on the importance of water conservation.

"We organized the festival along the lines of the Ganesh Utsavs as a strategy to involve the people in water management," says Keshav Paneriya, secretary of the Water Conservation Committee. Ganesh Utsavs are major festivals in this part of India where Hindus worship and celebrate Lord Ganesh.

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The Centre for Advanced Research and Development (CARD), a non-government organization that began livelihood support activities in Salwaha in 2003, brought together a group of young women and men to manage and conserve the water available in the village. Once organized, the group became the Water Conservation Committee.

"The village had a major problem as almost all water sources had dried up and where there was little water, it was dirty and filthy," said Yogendra Lodhi, who works at the Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) programme of CARD. The settlement had five ponds and four wells, but water in three ponds and two wells were highly polluted.

"We began to think about this, but whenever we took up the matter with the village elders, we were told that it was not our concern and the Panchayat or government would look into the problem," said water committee member Akhilesh Paneriya.

Dinesh Chowksey, another committee member, added, "We were fed up with the impasse. Women were faced with growing water problems everyday but the authorities do little to find a solution."

Within two years, the Water Conservation Committee restored the wells and ponds, but water supply still fell short of the needs of the 1,712 people in Salwaha. The only alternative sources of water were two hand pumps in nearby settlements.

The committee also succeeded in getting locals to elect a village headman of their choice and place two of their supporters as block level members of the village council. In early 2005, CARD took 20 newly elected representatives to New Delhi to show them how parliament functioned and expose them to other organizations involved in water conservation. When they returned, the representatives narrated their experience at the Gram Sabha (village council), which motivated some local youth present to do something similar on their own.

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The committee first took up cleaning the main well and raising 1,000 rupees (about US$22) for hiring a pump. Within a week, the well was as good as new. The job cost many times less than what the village council said would be needed for the task. "After the cleaning was done, everyone was full of praises," said Paneirya.

The council members initially suspected the interests of the committee members, fearing that they were challenging their political standing. In mid-2005, a dog fell into the well and people stopped using the water. The members approached the village elders for permission to clean the well but were not allowed to take on the task. That was when public opinion began turning against the village chief, who eventually cooperated with the committee.

The group then decided to take on the village pond that was being used as an open-toilet by the villagers. More villagers turned out to lend a hand in the clean-up. They also tried to convince people to build toilets and even took on guard duty to get villagers that still defecated near the pond to clean their mess.

With a clean pond, the committee decided to raise fish in the waters, for which, again, they needed approval of the village council. Their application was rejected yet again. Undeterred, they borrowed 3,000 rupees (about US$67) from CARD to purchase fingerlings and released them into the pond. Although they still do not have permission from the village council, they have not faced any resistance either.

"Many people have been working as volunteers so we will try to ensure that there is a fair distribution of the revenue from the fish," says Keshav. "We also need money to pay watchmen and take up other cleaning and restoration jobs in nearby villages."

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The Water Conservation Committee's activities have helped warm up relations with the village elders. It was the opposition that the committee still faces from the village council that led them to think about holding a Jal Ustav.

The Jal Devi is now believed to be resting at the bottom of the pond where she was immersed amid chanting of Vedic hymns. Knowledge of her presence there as guardian of the waters serves as deterrent to people who would have otherwise polluted the surroundings.