The Hill Districts of Uttar Pradesh have been facing chronic drinking water crisis since the early 80’s.  Kassar Trust aimed at resolving the acute drinking water problems in those areas. The Trust achieves its objectives by involving the village beneficiaries and the NGOs working in this region.

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Rainwater Harvest

Rainwater Harvesting Systems (RHS) are constructed  for single households. RHS designed for collective use may not work for multiple households, not only for social reasons but also for logistical reasons; for example it would be very difficult to find a large enough space to install a massive RHS for 5 households (the FC tank capacity would have to be approx. 50000 L. thus occupying enormous space used for important household chores such as threshing, drying grains etc. ), besides the tank has to be at the lowest point, a site which may not be equidistant from the households concerned, being therefore a potential source of constant conflict.

This scheme was financed by the Government of Uttat Pradesh

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Health and hygiene

A fundamental aim of drinking and sanitation programmes is to make people aware of the benefits of clean drinking water, sanitation, personal hygiene and focus on issues of health. With this aim Kassar Trust had begun an intense awareness programme last year and has continued it in the current year. The benefits are beginning to show a little. Villages in Pindar area are constructing soak pits and drains for waste water near the tap-stands. The village partners of Okhliya, one of the many hamlets of Waccham village have successfully constructed soak-pits for every tap stand in their area thus avoiding muddy pools of water, specially during the monsoon, for insects to breed in.

Families in Ratmoli, a village in Kanda area where sanitary latrines have not been installed were so animated by the health awareness camps that 39 families resorted to making pit latrines for temporary use till such time when "pakka" latrines are built.

Generally speaking, as a result of these awareness camps in Pindar area the people are more aware about trimming their nails regularly and that of their children. The village paths and courtyards too in Dafort and Kanda areas are much cleaner. Defecation besides village paths is greatly reduced. Washing hands before eating and washing hands with soap after defecation is now not so uncommon in the villages of the Trust’s project areas.

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Sanitation

The demand for sanitary latrines continues to rise as a result of health and environmental sanitation awareness programmes. It is found that people are more willing to install latrines if their neighbours have/ are installing it, hence concentrating on fewer villages produces better results (and saves field workers time) rather than spreading oneself thin over the entire project area. As a strategy this year, a list of priority villages were identified in each area. The execution of the work was planned in winter when people have more time at hand both for attending the awareness camps and for amassing building material such as stone and slate for the construction of latrines (the Trust does not pay for the building). This strategy is proving to be successful, and villages like Kande and Nawgaon in the Dafort Area have managed to install 27 and 11 latrines respectively; Sorag in Pindar Area has installed 12 latrines and Khantoli a village in Kanda Area managed a good 22 latrines. But there are still some problems.

In analysing the sanitary latrine programme data for the period 1993-94 to 1996-97 it is found that on an average the beneficiaries contribute over 81% of the total cost (which includes the overhead costs) of the programme. This is stupendous, as the latrine programme generally, except for a few rare cases is a failure in most part of the country, whether this is undertaken by the Govt. or the NGOs. It is the experience the world over that while it is much easier to cover a target population under protected drinking water schemes it is more difficult to cover it under the sanitary latrines schemes. And there’s the rub, for eventually and inevitably open defecation would lead to contamination of all surface and shallow ground water defeating all attempts at supplying potable water. Rural sanitation covers only 12% of India’s rural population, 2% of UP’s rural population and less than 1% of UP hills’ rural population. For the Dafort and Pindar watershed the Trust was the first to introduce and install sanitary latrines and today the average coverage for these watersheds (including villages the Trust is not working) is 23% for Dafort (where the Trust works only in 60% of the villages) and 22% for Pindar (where the Trust is working in 80% of the villages). We are aiming to further improve the coverage in the coming years.

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Cr�che

There is now a greater awareness regarding children’s education in the region, and parents who can afford it are either migrating or sending their children to urban centres in private schools with preference for English. The standard of teaching in the Balwari continues to remain high. One of the families migrated from Lumi hamlet of Teekh village to Haldwani; their young son who had studied at the Balwari had to be admitted in the local primary school, the teacher was so impressed by him that he inducted him straight in class II and at the year end exams he came first in his class. The primary school teacher in Sorag also continues to praise the children who have attended the Balwari, he recounts with happiness the children’s ability to learn new things and their basic discipline and good behaviour. The  Balwari also teaches the children personal hygiene such as washing hands with soap after defecation, trimming nails regularly.

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Capacity building

The capacity building activities for village organisations have been mainly concentrated in Kanda Area. The Village Water and Sanitation Committees (a body elected by the village community) were given training in the following topics:

. Making Community Action Plan along with Budget
. Designing Drinking Water Schemes in the village
� Conducting Health Awareness Programmes in the village
� Conducting health surveys and wealth ranking surveys
� Management of  Community Drinking Water Schemes
� Conducting village meetings
� Basic accounting
� Evaluation

Details of training programmes during period 1995-98

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Programmes

Rainwater Harvest
Health and hygiene
Sanitation
Cr�che
Capacity building

Programmes

Drinking water
Health and hygiene
Sanitation
Cr�che
Capacity building

Programmes

Drinking water
Rainwater Harvest
Sanitation
Cr�che
Capacity building

Programmes

Drinking water
Rainwater Harvest
Health and hygiene
Cr�che
Capacity building

Programmes

Drinking water
Rainwater Harvest
Health and hygiene
Sanitation
Cr�che
Capacity building

Programmes

Drinking water
Rainwater Harvest
Health and hygiene
Sanitation
Cr�che