New water system empowers tribal women across villages

VISAKHAPATNAM: Till about a year ago, 12-year-old B Madhavi, V Bharathi and Anjali Kumari had to trudge along the hilly terrain to fetch drinking water in metal pots from a stream nearly two to three kilometres away from their homes, not once but three to four times a day instead of attending school.

Of course, the mucky water they collected for drinking purposes required no lab test to tell how contaminated it was considering that washing, cleaning and morning ablutions were all done in the same spring water, leading to various health and sanitation problems.

But today, thanks to the efforts of a non-governmental organization, Visakha Jilla Nava Nirmana Samithi (VJNNS) they are back at school. VJNNS with support from NGO Arghyam, which was founded by IT tsar Nandan Nilekani's wife Rohini Nilekani, has provided 3,798 households in 62 remote villages across four tribal mandals of Vizag -- Chintapalli, GK Veedhi, Koyyuru and G Madugula ? access to 24X7 safe and sustainable water supply at their doorstep, 365 days a year, through the Neeru-Aaroghyam project.

Incidentally, availability of potable water has been a perpetual problem in the tribal areas of Vizag. And though successive governments have announced water projects but they failed to materialize as these require uninterrupted power supply. The beauty of the seven-step VJNNS water supply system is that the gravity-fed water supply system (GFWSS) requires no power or electricity.

Read more here - TOI - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/New-water-system-empowers-tribal-women-across-villages/articleshow/41049165.cms

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