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.