WASH

Jalanidhi Rural drinking water scheme and sanitation project

About Jalanidhi

Jalanidhi is a World-Bank funded project under the Kerala Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency. The focal theme of the project is to introduce reforms in the rural water supply sector is based on principles of demand responsiveness, community ownership and sustainability of investments through cost recovery and participatory operations and management. During the first phase of Jalanidhi, 112 Gram Panchayats were covered. It included 3694 small drinking water projects. During the second phase, importance were given to areas facing water scarcity and water related problems.

As the supporting agency of Jalanidhi, TIES is providing technical support for the implementation of the water management scheme of Jalanidhi at Meenadom Gram Panchayat in Kottayam district of Kerala. TIES completed fifteen drinking water projects including six rehabilitation projects and supplied water to 1531 families in 30 beneficiary groups (BGs). TIES won the “Best Performing Supporting Organization” award in Jalanidhi project.

TIES projects under Jalanidhi

TIES carried out 15 drinking water projects and 5 groundwater recharging projects in the Meenadom Panchayat. Of these, 9 drinking water projects were new and 6 were rehabilitation projects of either Kerala Water Authority or the local Panchayat.

• Check Dams: Six check dams were constructed in order to recharge nearby open wells and ponds which are sources for one or more drinking water projects. This has benefitted hundreds of people, many of whom are not direct beneficiaries of the project, as the wells in private compounds had sufficient drinking water even during peak summer months.

• Wells: Each drinking water project has been provided with a new well as a perennial source of water. GIS (geographic information system) and RS (remote sensing) mapping was done to estimate available groundwater resources for the area and water availability was measured through pumping tests. Based on this data, carrying capacity of each source was fixed and the number of houses were restricted within the maximum limit.

• Storage Tanks: Each drinking water project has a storage tank of average capacity ranging from 50000 lit to 1 lakh litre. Pipe connections along with water meters were provided to each house to restrict water usage at the rate of 70-90 lit./head/day.

• Awareness and capacity building classes were provided for the beneficiaries on water conservation, water quality improvement, hygiene and sanitation, rain water recharging etc.

As part of the Swachh Bharat Mission, TIES provided 198 modernised toilets for individual households under the Open Defecation Free (ODF) project.

Resources

• Projects reports

Links:

• https://jalanidhi.kerala.gov.in/

• http://lsgkerala.in/meenadompanchayat