UNOPS in India provides strategic and technical expertise for collective behavior change and capacity building.
UNOPS, for the Water-Life Mission of the Government of India, has developed training options for the capacity building and long-term operations and maintenance of Panchayat Raj Institutions.
Vinod Mishra, the country manager of UNOPS in India, says, “On this Women’s Day, we are celebrating the important role of women in furthering the water life mission. Most women have been managing water at the domestic level.
Therefore, it is important to strengthen women to ensure participation in decision making at the village level. The strength of women through leadership is not just a approach – it is an imperative to shape water stability and community tolerance. ”
Strengthening from water -testing training – Bharti
Bharti of village Bamera of Babina development block of Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh is a housewife of an ordinary family. There was a serious lack of water in Bundelkhand, especially in summer, the situation would become even more difficult.
Bharti says that earlier there were daily fights to get water in her village. When the water life mission came into force, people adopted it with great enthusiasm.
Bharti took special tests on the use of a field-testing kit for water quality testing and started regularly work for water. She is also making women skilled by going to other villages by teaching women’s technology techniques.
Now drinking water is reaching every house in Bamera village, and has got rid of the quarrels over water.
Due to reduced hours of water filling, this change has brought a big change in the lives of women, especially women. Now women are taking time out for themselves and are bringing changes in their own life by participating in the works of water life mission.
Water cleanliness guard – Reena Ahirwar
A total of 356 families live in village Imilia of Babina development block of Jhansi district. After the implementation of the water life mission, water started reaching every house from the tap. But with this, the problem of waterlogging in the village also became serious.
Drains, gray water (dirty water) started to remain full. Water started accumulating in every way and public places. To solve this problem ‘United Nations Project Services Office’ – UNOPS On the initiative of the village, the women of the village started united.
Reena Ahirwar, who commanded this campaign, who not only inspired women, drinking water to save, but also played an important role in freeing the roads and streets of the village from waterlogging.
With the help of UNOPS, two leach pit were built in the village, which helped in gray water management. Seeing its success, Reena, along with the panchayat, raised the demand for soak pit and leach pit in the entire village and held meetings to make people aware and carried forward the campaign through public participation.
The result of these efforts was that the panchayat made 13 soak pits in the village, which could make a permanent solution to the problem of waterlogging. Now the paths and public places through the village of Imilia are completely free from waterlogging.
This campaign of Reena Ahirwar has now become an example for the surrounding villages.
Water test recognized Ramkumari
Ramkumari of Imilaya village in Babina block of Jhansi district was once an ordinary rural woman. There was no opportunity to get education, dreams also remained incomplete. But the water life mission changed the direction of his life.
Under this campaign, every house was trained to deliver clean and safe water and to protect against waterborne diseases, five women of the village were trained to check water. Rampyari was also part of this team.
However, it was not easy to fulfill this responsibility. Initially people used to laugh and taunt – “What will this do?”
But Ramkumari started doing his work with full hard work. After water testing, she updates her investigation report on the government portal, joining the panchayat meetings and keeps her suggestions on the quality of water. The special thing is that now not only the panchayat listens to their suggestions, but also implements them.
They get an amount of 20 rupees for every testing of water, due to which their income has also increased. But they have the real pride that due to their hard work, the diseases caused by water in the village are now ending. Now pure water is reaching every house.
Ramkumari says, “I got a new encouragement with UNOPS. Now people look at me with respect, call me by name. First where it was difficult to dream, now the same dreams are coming true.
New path from baby’s spirits
Bajna village, located in Bundelkhand area of Jhansi district, is located about 21 km west of the district headquarters. This village is full of natural beauty. But here people used to be troubled by the water gap. The population of the village is settled in different hamlets and mazars spread within a radius of five kilometers. It has been a compulsion of the people to decide a long journey for water every day.
29 -year -old baby, resident of this village, has been a victim of foot disability since birth. When the water life mission started in the village, the baby also joined this campaign and he pledged to overcome the water problem.
In the year 2019, she vowed that she will not marry till water reaches every house in the entire village. She became part of the Water Investigation Committee and went to every locality of the village with full enthusiasm and went to every house to ensure that no family would be deprived of safe drinking water anywhere.
Baby, together with the team of UNOPS, explained to people from house to house to stop wastage of water and monitored the quality of water through water-testing. On getting bacteria in water, immediately conscious to the villagers, solutions were also suggested.
Baby says, “Due to lack of water, girls of our village were deprived of education. I want every daughter of the village to educate and fulfill their dreams.”
Resolve to deliver pure water to every house – Sheela Parihar
Women of Sijwaha village of Babina block of Jhansi district had been struggling with water scarcity for years. Water life mission came as a new hope for him in the year 2019.
Sheela Parihar took responsibility for the leadership of this campaign in the village. Sheela decided that now every street of the village, clean, safe and quality water will reach every house. He learned the technology of water testing with the help of UNOPS and started checking the water regularly every six months.
She not only examines the purity of water, but also explains to the people why clean water is necessary and how can a waterborne diseases be avoided.
Although it was a little difficult to convince people in the beginning, Sheela’s hard work paid off. Many women of the village joined them and on seeing it, it became a strong team. Now Sheela and their fellow women are working not only on the quality of water, but also on water conservation.
He, along with the panchayat, completed the work like repairing the ponds, rigorous so that the sources of water would become durable and there is no problem of water in the village in the future.
Sheila says, “Quality water is not only a need, but everyone’s right. When women come forward, the change becomes possible.”
And as the district advisor to UNOPS in Jhansi, Anujo Parmar says, “We selected some women – taught five women to check the hand pump of the village and upload it on the UP portal, which earned them income at ₹ 20 per test.” Now the government has instructed that even after every five houses, testing is to be done, so they are also earning money by uploading the results.
Rakam is small, but this is their own income. With this, she feels a different kind of pride. “
