Location: Pailoon Village, Diglipur
Total Population: 720 approx.
Beneficiaries: The Community and School students (82 students who study in Primary school Pailoon)
Background
Pailoon in Diglipur, North Andaman is hilly village with about 720 populations. They are landless people from the state of Jharkhand who had come as labourers and now settled in the forest lands for more than two decades. These settlers are popularly known as ‘Ranchis’. People live in villages in Jungles, lost and ignorant from today’s world. There is a Govt. Primary School by the roadside which was constructed by the people who have a deep desire to let their children study and come up in life. The children come from their home which is deep inside the jungles, and about ½ to 1 hour trekking from the school. It is a treacherous route especially during the rainy season.
The Situation Analyzed
Living in encroached areas makes them deprived of all the facilities from Government including water facility for the school. This adds to their insecurity and vulnerable situation each passing day. The school structure was reconstructed by the community. It has about 80 students enrolled. The school comes under the Education Department of local administration teachers & books are provided by this department. However having quality teachers for this remote school is far fetched dream. The source of drinking water is mud walled or ring well or stream which is not in the vicinity of the school compounds to their problem. There are about 9 ring wells in this village and only one provides water during summer.
Ring well in making
EHA’s Intervention
EHA through the partners was closely involved with the community since June 06 also played a key role in motivating them to take up the school construction as a community. As part of the water project since June 2007 we have done Water resource Mapping, Awareness programs on water, water borne diseases, safe handling of water, Formation of community groups and facilitating installation of bore well – hand pumps.
Fallacy of local administration
The problem was identified and the community proposed to do the bore hole – hand pump. The water committee, the people along with the partners, took initiative and approached the Divisional Forest officer (DFO), for the permit to dig bore holes but to no avail. This is a fallacy that the local administration lives; because this is a forest land Education department is permitted to construct only a temporary structure without any water facility. However, when the community approached the Education Department and PRI they recommended for a water structure. The Community went ahead doing the bore hole by hand driven method for up to 65 ft in depth by the school side, in the month of October 07. Unfortunately the bore failed to provide water.
Communities Ownership
With the new approach in place the project team discussed with the community the feasibility of constructing Recharge Wells that could feed the existing bore well. The community once again owned up to the issue. Two SHGs (One named ‘Sahara’ - Men and other ‘Jyothi’ – Women group) owned up the responsibility and sunken two recharge wells braving bad weather conditions of about 15 feet in vicinity of the tube well. To reduce any contamination the rooftop rainwater shall collected in these recharge wells. To the amazing effect as the wells got filled up the tube well started delivering water. This was a dream come true for the community & students. The final touches for the wells are underway. Meanwhile there had been an incidence of forest department threatening to dismantle the structure. However the community keeps hoping that there is water for them as well as their children and the water structure stays like their school and houses - against odds
Total Population: 720 approx.
Beneficiaries: The Community and School students (82 students who study in Primary school Pailoon)
Background
Pailoon in Diglipur, North Andaman is hilly village with about 720 populations. They are landless people from the state of Jharkhand who had come as labourers and now settled in the forest lands for more than two decades. These settlers are popularly known as ‘Ranchis’. People live in villages in Jungles, lost and ignorant from today’s world. There is a Govt. Primary School by the roadside which was constructed by the people who have a deep desire to let their children study and come up in life. The children come from their home which is deep inside the jungles, and about ½ to 1 hour trekking from the school. It is a treacherous route especially during the rainy season.
The Situation Analyzed
Living in encroached areas makes them deprived of all the facilities from Government including water facility for the school. This adds to their insecurity and vulnerable situation each passing day. The school structure was reconstructed by the community. It has about 80 students enrolled. The school comes under the Education Department of local administration teachers & books are provided by this department. However having quality teachers for this remote school is far fetched dream. The source of drinking water is mud walled or ring well or stream which is not in the vicinity of the school compounds to their problem. There are about 9 ring wells in this village and only one provides water during summer.
Ring well in makingEHA’s Intervention
EHA through the partners was closely involved with the community since June 06 also played a key role in motivating them to take up the school construction as a community. As part of the water project since June 2007 we have done Water resource Mapping, Awareness programs on water, water borne diseases, safe handling of water, Formation of community groups and facilitating installation of bore well – hand pumps.
Fallacy of local administration
The problem was identified and the community proposed to do the bore hole – hand pump. The water committee, the people along with the partners, took initiative and approached the Divisional Forest officer (DFO), for the permit to dig bore holes but to no avail. This is a fallacy that the local administration lives; because this is a forest land Education department is permitted to construct only a temporary structure without any water facility. However, when the community approached the Education Department and PRI they recommended for a water structure. The Community went ahead doing the bore hole by hand driven method for up to 65 ft in depth by the school side, in the month of October 07. Unfortunately the bore failed to provide water.
Communities Ownership
With the new approach in place the project team discussed with the community the feasibility of constructing Recharge Wells that could feed the existing bore well. The community once again owned up to the issue. Two SHGs (One named ‘Sahara’ - Men and other ‘Jyothi’ – Women group) owned up the responsibility and sunken two recharge wells braving bad weather conditions of about 15 feet in vicinity of the tube well. To reduce any contamination the rooftop rainwater shall collected in these recharge wells. To the amazing effect as the wells got filled up the tube well started delivering water. This was a dream come true for the community & students. The final touches for the wells are underway. Meanwhile there had been an incidence of forest department threatening to dismantle the structure. However the community keeps hoping that there is water for them as well as their children and the water structure stays like their school and houses - against odds
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