Water and Sanitation Management Organisation (WASMO) Gujarat
BASHIR PATHAN
Chandrikaben Patel is the sarpanch of Dingucha village in North Gujarat. She is also the chairperson of the Pani Samiti, successfully managing the in-village water scheme, ensuring an adequate daily supply of water to 1,800 households (with a population of over 4,800) in her village. “Before we executed this community-managed project with borewells as its source in our village, women had to walk long distances to fetch potable water. Now, the water flows through the taps installed in each of the village households,” she says. Pani samitis were formed by the Water and Sanitation Management Organisation (WASMO), an autonomous body set up by the Gujarat Government in 2002, to address the problems of the parched villages of the state.
In the five years that the organisation has been around, it has helped villagers form pani samitis in 10,640 of the 18,000 villages across the state. Women head such committees in about 879 villages and in fact, there are several pani samitis, where the members are all women. They monitor, maintain and even operate the water projects themselves, collecting community contribution and water tariffs fixed by the pani samitis and ensuring equitable distribution of potable water and its quality.
The pani samitis are formed in consultation with the Gram Panchayat and Gram Sabha and have representation from marginalised communities—at least one-third of their members are women. Funds are transferred to the samitis along with the responsibility of implementing in-village community-managed potable water schemes. WASMO provides the samitis with all information, technical, managerial and financial support and helps them implement the water schemes efficiently.
“We have set a target of forming water committees and launch community-managed potable water schemes in the remaining 8,000 odd villages by March 2009. About 27 lakh of the total 58 lakh households in rural Gujarat have already been given water taps under this programme and there are plans to provide water connectivity to nearly 15 lakh more rural households by 2010,” says WASMO CEO Jaipal Singh.
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