Over the next few weeks I plan to post blogs detailing the projects I'll be working on during my time in India. To start off, one of my main projects is focused on water security within 6 villages in the Thar desert.
Here's some background information to help set the context of water issues in the Thar:
According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Rajasthan experiences an average of 6 drought years in a decade. This past decade, the Thar desert experienced 7 years of drought which was broken this year (during the most recent Monsoon in July).
Years ago, the Indian government responded to serious drought issues in Rajasthan by digging tube wells. With the construction of tube wells, villagers were promised water at their doorstep. However due to the over digging of wells, the water table was destroyed, leaving water saline and scanty.
Communities rely on naadis -- basically large ponds that fill up with water during monsoons, as their primary water source. This water is also used by livestock and is not clean.
Prior to the project, households relied on naadis as their sole source of water. Women and girls carried the burden of walking long distances from their homes to the naadis several times a day for water.
According to UN Water, women and girls worldwide spend 220 million hours per day collecting water. This totals 40 billion hours every year fetching and carrying water from distant sources that may, or may not, be clean.
In response, one of the primary interventions of the project focuses on the construction of taankas -- large water storage tanks most often located at the household. Taankas collect rainwater during monsoon season and throughout the rest of the year families pay for trucks to deliver water from the naadi into their taanka. This intervention has resulted in significantly higher rates of water security. Families can rely on consistent water available at their home, reducing insecurity due to lack of water while also reducing the amount of time and workload of women related to water collection.
Although taankas has been successful, there continue to be two main problems: 1) taankas are expensive to build and in the short-term not every household has access to one; 2) regardless of increased water access, water quality has not been addressed adequately and therefore rates of water-borne illnesses continue to be high. As a result, a pilot project is being introduced using Wello Water Wheels to provide a short-term solution to these problems with households that:
Don't currently have a taanka and women are walking to collect water
Have livestock away from the home and walk back and forth to provide water to the animals
Have children under age 5 who would benefit from clean drinking water
My task over the next 3 months is to work with field staff to identify households who meet the above criteria and would benefit from having a water wheel. At the same time I'll be working with the staff to develop simple and appropriate surveys and data collection tools that can be used over the next year to monitor the use and effectiveness of water wheels as a short-term solution to water access and quality.
Once I start fieldwork I'll post photos of the naadis, taankas, and water wheel to give you a better sense of the project. Stay tuned!