Video Documentary

The Project is shooting a Video Documentary on the water situation of the Andaman Islands. Three products will come out of this effort. The first will be a 30 minute documentary on the water issues facing the islands, the unique factors involved and how the Government and NGO's are working to solve these problems. The second product is 7 minute condensed version of the first and the final, 7 minute, product will focus on the work of the Andaman Water Project.

Abel from AlfredAllanAdvertising, Delhi has been hired to shoot the footage and do the editing work.

The first place to shoot was Ross Island where the British used a desalinization plant (now rusted ) to make the seawater drinkable.

Ross Island also happens to be a beautiful island with aging ruins from the British Empire that has been retaken by the forest.

Monday the team woke up extra early to catch the 4:30am Sunrise over Carbyn's Cove.

After getting his wireless mic set up
Dennyson (the Project Manager)...

...went on to describe the soil layers found on the Andaman islands, and why more then 3 meters of annual rainfall still doesn't produce much of an aquifer.

Then it was time to interview benificeries of a ringwell EHA had made in Attam Pahar.

And then film women collecting water from a bore well and hand pump that EHA has installed also in Attam Pahar.

The team has now set off on a week long tour of the islands to collect footage while Suman (Project officer) sets up interviews with Government officials and NGO's.

Khattakhari

Village: Khattakhari, Nilambur Panchayat, Baratang Island


Beneficiary name: Mr. Johnson Kujur (Male, 40)


The beneficiary community
Khattakhari is a small forest settlement with a population of 212 people. These are landless labourers from the state of Jharkhand who have come and settled here in the forest cleared off land doing farming. This settlement is cut off from the rest of the world. It can be reached only by trekking through the dense rain forest for two hours or one hour boating by dingy (country made boat) navigating through strait and open sea. Like the poor accessibility to any facility, this village also suffers water scarcity especially from the month of February to May. They depend on the katcha well (mud walled Open well) for all purposes. In the peak dry season people trek about a Kilometere into the jungle to fetch water. Because of water scarcity irrigation too is a problem; they are dependent on rain water.

The beneficiary
The condition of Johnson and family was not different from the community. He was also struggling with water scarcity. His family also depends on the katcha well for water which is about 700 m away from his house. During rain, outside water enters in the katcha well and makes it dirty. Johnson and his family know that the water is unsafe but they had no other option. There was not much support by the local governing bodies also.

EHA - The Facilitator
EHA has been working with the community for about a year in training in community based water management including rainwater harvesting and construction of household water filters. With the cooperation of the community a large rainwater harvesting tank of about 22,000 litres and a shallow bore well were constructed.

The changes that was evident
The shallow bore well that was installed gives them some relief and dried up during peak summer last year. Rainwater harvesting tank which was installed last year needed some repair. The trainings that Johnson received made him confident and he had fixed the rainwater harvesting tank with other villagers. The tank now has enough water - 22,000 litres and he uses it for drinking after treating it (boiling). Awareness program helped him on how to treat the water. Today he is leading and promoting the village people to use the available water after treating without any support by the project team.

Photo gallery

Regional seminar -Drinking water

" Water,Water everywhere and not a drop to drink"

Water for life

"The village"

Staff Retreat

The staff got together in Port Blair to recognize the hard work in often trying circumstances of the field staff. The first day was spent in Wandoor doing team building exercises and building communication skills.

Building communication and teamwork skills, Wandoor.

The second day the staff kicked back and enjoyed a day at Redskin Island. Activities included volleyball, a game called "Dog and the bone" and snorkeling. With the weekend in Port Blair coming to a close the field staff will return to their locations to resume their work.

Beach Volleyball with no net requires mediation skills, Redskin Island.

Against Odds ....

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