World Water Day, March 22, 2021
Bhubaneswar, Jaipur

About World Water Day

The World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness on the global water crisis. A core focus of the observance is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030. World Water Day, is observed world-wide to understand what water means to people, its true value and how we collective can protect this vital life-saving resource.

Context

In Bhubaneswar and Jaipur, communities living in urban settlements live with very frugal water resource. Access to safe and adequate drinking water is a challenge especially for women, elderly, transgender and persons living with disability. Even those who are receiving adequate water supply face concerns related to erratic provisioning, low pressure and depleted quality of water. Specifically, In Bhubaneswar, the devastation caused by climate change, including FANI and Amphan cyclone, and in Jaipur the torrential rains leading to flooding of kutchi-basti have further heightened the risks for those living in informal settlements. The issue of water further assumed greater importance in the context of COVID-19 with handwashing becoming a pre-requisite for prevention.

Community efforts to conserve and manage water

Against this background, in both cities, Single Window Forum and Community Management Committee members and community representatives have taken several steps both to use water judiciously and manage the distribution, storage and conservation to Leave No One Behind.

At the household level re-use of greywater collected from washing clothes, cleaning utensils is a common practice. This water is also used to wash courtyards and toilets, mop floors, wash cycles, water plants. At the community level, SWFM-CMC has facilitated innovative foot operated hand wash stations, ATM, water tanks, community toilets with PwD supportive design elements for the most vulnerable in accessible locations and supporting water testing to ensure safe drinking water.

On World Water Day 2021, in both cities SWFM-CMC, Male Forum and communities’ representatives came together to:

• Demonstrate in different creative ways what water means for them and its importance in different settings – household, school, community toilet, and public spaces through cards, messaging, wall writing, games
• Share their association with water using different creative forms- Rangoli, Cloth Paintings, Songs, Rally to name a few
• Organize Water Dialogues- awareness meeting, exposure visit, training, public interface to share the efforts made by the community, support of stakeholders and steps to be taken to strengthen access to water
• Document on video, photos, voices of positive community efforts on water reuse and conservation
• Reaffirm their taken to conserve, reuse and plan water access for all

Bhubaneswar

March 19, 2021: Day 1: Water Dialogues: Clean and Safe Drinking Water for All; Rangoli competition

Basti Vikas Ward Office 26

Single Window Forum, Slum Development Committee, Frontline workers, Single women, Elderly, SHG members interact with Mr Sabyasachi Behera, Piramal Sarvajal Pvt Ltd

Water ATM provides pure drinking water. Safe water is directly linked to our health and wellbeing. I appeal to everyone to keep the surrounding areas near the Water ATM clean is important to prevent any kind of contamination- Mr Sabyasachi Behera, Piramal Sarvajal Pvt Ltd

Water gives us life. All pregnant, lactating women, elderly should ensure that drink water only from the ATM located in this basti to prevent any health risks, knee and joint pains. All residents in this settlement must take steps to prevent any form of wastage of this precious resource -Jayashree Das

In earlier times we used to stand in long queue to collect water from the tube well. Now through our joint efforts every household received supply water. We have an ATM for drinking water. So, we must ensure that we use only clean and safe water to drink- Gitanjali Bagha, Single Window Forum

March 20, 2021: Day 2: World Water Day Campaign

Janata Nagar Ward No 21, 20 and 26

Jala Sathi, Mahila Aarogya Samiti, Anganwadi workers, Single Window Forum, Community Management Committee, SHG members

Jaipur

March 20, 2021: Day 2: Public Messaging though Wall Painting by Single Window and Water Committee members from Kishanbagh, Harijan Basti and Bapu Basti

Public Health and Engineer Works Office, Sector -3, Vidyadhar Nagar Zone

Geeta, Rekha – Water Committee, Asha, Ganga Devi, Poonam, – Single Window Forum Member, Subhash, Hafiz Khan – Male Forum with Mr. Pawan Agarwal – Executive Engineer, PHED and Mr. Hanuman Prajapat – Assistant Engineer, PHED

Adolescent Forum paints earthen pots with messages on water preparing for World Water Day

Jaipur

March 21, 2021: Day 3 : Public Messaging though Wall Painting by Single Window and Water Committee members from Kishanbagh, Harijan Basti and Bapu Basti

Public Health and Engineer Works Office, Sector -3, Vidyadhar Nagar Zone

Anisha, Shabnam, Shaheeda, Noorbano – Single Window Forum Member, Gyaarsi Devi and Manju, Elderly Bapu Basti, Subhash, Kamlesh Male Forum and Sanitary worker, Aarti, Adolescent Forum and Mohini, community representative

Bhubaneswar
March 22, 2021: Day 4: World Water Day 2021
Mr Sharda Prasad, E & Y seeks to understand the Single Window led FSM Initiative with Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation

Mr Prasad is documenting the joint initiative of ULB and Community Forum across different districts in Odisha. He spent time with the Single Window Forum members at the BMC FSM Cell and closely observed the working, management, operation and tracking of cesspool vehicles

Community Speak

Jyoshna Dutta, Single Window Forume Member, Sabar Sahi, Ward No-46

If we talk about water, it is as valuable as life. It’s very useful in our daily lives. Especially, we the women are very much associated with it as we have to perform many functions like drinking, cooking, washing dishes & clothes, cleaning the house. Every house has supply from pipeline in our settlement. Each house has a tap and meter. Earlier before the installation of meters, a lot of water was wasted but, now people are aware and use water according to their daily requirements Now water is now available at our doorstep and there is no rush to fetch water.

Bharati Behera, Class 12, Student

Many water related issues like water scarcity, insufficient drinking water, water wastage are now resolved. This is because people are now aware and water meters and piped supply has come to every household. People are now more conscious about water wastage and they keep the tap closed at all times.

Madhusmita Mallick, SHG member, Sabar Sahi

Earlier a lot of water was wasted due to lack of awareness among people about the worth of water in our life. Now things have changed. Every house is provided with two taps and water meter. People have become conscious of wastage as they know that it will lead to additional charges in their water bills. Most people also understand that wasting water will lead hardships for future generations. Now water bills are collected on a regular basis. Any damage or leakage in water connections is attended within a short time when we make a complaint. We all are happy for this service.

Rosalin Nayak, Water ATM Volunteer, Pichupadia Basti

Water is supplied twice a day from 7 to 8:30 am in the morning and 5 to 6:30 pm in the evening. We have sufficient supply water and store it for use during the day. Water ATM has been a good source of drinking water and most people are aware.

Manorama Dhala, MAS Member, Nalabandha Munda Sahi

We get limited water supply from 4 to 4:30 pm once a day and this is actually not sufficient for the whole day. So, we have to store the water in buckets and utensils to use it for drinking, bathing, cooking and all other household activities. We cannot think of wasting this water.

Jaipur

World Water Day, March 22, 2021
In Jaipur four different events were organised to mark the World Water Day
Rally with Public Health and Engineering Department, Vidyadhar Nagar Zone, Jaipur

World Water Day was observed with Public Health and Engineering Department, Vidyadhar Nagar Zone, Jaipur. On the occasion as rally led by Single Window Forum, Community Management Committee, Adolescent Forum and Male Forum members was flagged off by Shri Satish Jain, Superintendent Engineer, PHED. Single Window Forum members carried earthen painted pots on their heads with messages for conserving water, access to safe water for all and water for life painted on them. These pots were filled with water and SWF handed over these filled water pots to elderly, pregnant, lactating, single women and persons with disability who did not have access to safe drinking water. At the end of the rally all officials and community took a joint pledge to improve access to safe water for all.

Training of Community Management Committee members on Water-purification, conservation, testing, quality and distribution

A training of 15 community management and water committee members was conducted by PHED officials in ward 6 & 7 on themes of water purification, conservation, testing, quality and distribution.

Launch of TG Signage for Public and Community Toilets by Jaipur Greater Municipal Corporation

Implementing the Supreme Court’s Judgement and its guidelines to ensure that the Transgender Community have equal opportunities and equitable access to all services and schemes, the Honourable Mayor of Greater Jaipur, Ms. Soumya Gurjar, launched the signage for- Transgender Signage today that would be used in all the community toilet complexes in the jurisdiction of Jaipur Greater Municipal Corporation. Shri Harshit Verma, DC, Jaipur Greater was also present at the event.

Launching the signage, the Mayor said, “We are committed to ensuring gender inclusiveness at all levels. Today is yet another opportunity for us to convert our intent into action. Today on this remarkable occasion of World Water Day, we take immense pleasure and happiness in announcing that all the CTCs /public toilets (PTs) under Greater Jaipur Municipal Corporation will now carry a signage for men, women and transgender. I also want to congratulate Nai Bhor and Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR) for engaging with us for over a year in making this possible today.”

Spearheading this initiative, Mx Pushpa Mai, Founder, Nai Bhor, a transgender CBO and Member Transgender Welfare Board, Rajasthan said, “The transgender community faces a lot of challenge in society, and their access to sanitation is even more challenging. This is not just a signage but a sign of inclusion and acceptance. Our community members now neither need to defecate in the open nor be worried of not being able to access the Community Toilet Complexes anymore. We worked closely with CFAR and we are thankful to JMC for this initiative that will be a role model for other states to follow too,” she added.

Public Messaging though Wall Painting by Single Window and Water Committee members from Transport Nagar

Public Health and Engineer Works Office, Sector -3, Vidyadhar Nagar Zone

Community Speak

Rekha, 45, Single Window and Water Committee member, Kishanbagh, Ward 27, Jaipur

We are a family of 9 members live in Kishanbagh Basti. The quantity of water we get every day is limited. To save water, we store the water in the pots, buckets and small vessels and cover them. To manage with this little amount of water, I tell my children and daughter –in-laws not waste water and use it carefully. If there is no supply of water on the next day, we make do with whatever little we have.

Many households in the basti have no meter. This does not mean that we waste water. We reuse the water after washing clothes to flush the toilets and the water after cleaning the floors is reused to water the plants. We cannot afford buying water from private agencies, so we divide portions of water for drinking, washing, using toilets, cooking food proportionately. I personally go to house to house and sensitize neighbors to close the tank covers after use and not to let any water overflow because if we cannot save water today, we will face the scarcity tomorrow.

Geeta (Indira Devi) 55, Water Committee Member, Bapu Basti, Ward 26,Jaipur

We are a family of ten. We make do with whatever water we get as we understand that not a drop should be wasted. We have water filter. We collect water which flows out from the filter in a a bucket and use it for washing dishes and utensils, and cleaning the floor. The waste water from washing clothes, is used for cleaning toilets.

Phooli, 25, Tila No. 2, Jawahar Nagar, Ward 97, Community Representative,Jaipur

I work as a domestic worker. We are a family of five. We live in the rear end of the settlement near the hill and forest. There is no attempt to connect our households with water connection and there is no bore well or pipeline. Every evening I get five buckets of water from the main road, and it takes half an hour for me to reach my home One bucket I use for cooking and drinking, two for bathing and cleaning and one for washing clothes, and one I keep for the next day. There are hundreds of houses here who do not have any access to basic water, and go down the hill fetch water for their use.

Meena Solanki, Tila No. 3, Jawahar Nagar, Ward 97, Single Window Forum Member, Jaipur

I am a housewife and live with a family of six in Jawaharnagar Tila No.3. There is water supply from Bisalpur line for 45 minutes every day. The first fifteen minutes the water supply is muddy. Whatever we get for the next 30 minutes, we use it for all the household needs. Earlier, in this slum people did not care and wasted water. They would leave the taps open. As a Single Window Forum member, I reached out and appealed to them to stop this practice. Now almost nine of the ten households are saving water which is a good sign.

Mr. Pawan Agarwal, Executive Engineer, PHED, North Zone, Jaipur

PHED’s role is to ensure that every household gets water regularly Our salient responsibility is to ensure that clean drinking water reaches everyone. In Jaipur, the current water source is Bisalpur line . As demand is huge we are working towards different alternatives to align the supply with the demand. We are also working towards reducing the wastage of water and for this PHED is exploring technology intervention which can be used by the community. Our teams with Assistant and Junior Engineers are working with the community in the settlements to educate and seek their support to conserve water, During this World Water Day, we pledge that PHED will work to supply adequate water, take steps to address grievances and conserve water. 

Yashodha 45, Shehnaz 55, Single Women, Residents of Jawaharnagar Tila No.2, Jaipur

Both of us are single women and do not have anyone to take care of us. We live in a small jhopdi nearby the forest, no water reach our houses. The pipe lines were laid many year ago but no connection has been given. We fetch water from the main road and come back with great difficulty. As roads are damaged we often fall down and our hands and legs are injured. We are hopeful that some good will happen and have recently submitted applications to the PHED for water connection. We are waiting for the day when water reaches our homes.