Water Saving Banks bring results in this tribal pocket of Gujarat



Vadodara, 23 March 2013

Thanks to the efforts of Water and Sanitation Management Organization(WASMO), some 50 houses in small tribal villages of remote Chhota Udepur in central/east Gujarat now own several ‘Water saving banks’, that provide water for home usage round the year.

Water and Senitation Management Organization(WASMO) has constructed underground water storage tanks to conserve rain water in 50 houses of Chhota Udepur taluka’s Mota Sadhli, Bhordali, Bilwant and Kakadapa villages. Each tank has capacity to store 10,000 liter water and it has been constructed at cost of Rs 27,457. While WASMO’s share is 70%, other fund is collected locally.

The design of this water storage/usage system is simple. Rain water flows to underground tanks through pipeline connection. A hand pump connected to underground water tank is used as outlet whenever water is needed. Every season, the first lot of rain water is allowed to flow outside the tank. Later clean rain water is stored in the tank. According to WASMO’s local organizer Jayanti Rathwa, people didn’t take much interest initially in this offer, but once they saw good results, now more people are seeking to have this facility.

Shroffs Foundation Trust(SFT) and WASMO are actively doing water related works in Chhota Udepur belt. SFT has developed Water distribution system in 127 villages of Vadodara district, to provide safe drinking water to 25,000 households at their door step with support of WASMO. In Chhota Udepur block, Pani Samiti members are trained through refreshers course to test the water. They were also sensitized on the need and importance of rain water harvesting.