Karnataka - Shimoga   

Every home in this village gets water

Pramod Mellegatti

COMMUNITY EFFORT: The overhead tank at Kallur village in Hosnagar taluk of Shimoga district.

SHIMOGA: Kallur, a tiny village in Hosnagar taluk of Shimoga district, which produced scores of socialists who took part in the historic "Kagodu satyagraha", has exhibited its community strength in getting a public utility. "Kagodu satyagraha" was the first agrarian movement in the country after Independence to remove the land tenancy practice.

The village has been able to overcome its chronic water scarcity by getting in place a mini water supply system under the "Swajaladhara", a Centrally sponsored drinking water supply scheme through community participation.

The demand-based scheme was implemented with grant from the Government covering 90 per cent of the cost of the project and the people of the village contributing the remaining 10 per cent.

The implementation of the scheme was not easy as many people of the village were sceptical about its usefulness. They were reluctant to contribute money. But they agreed to participate in the scheme following the persuasive efforts of Kallur Megharaj, a social worker and convenor of the Shantaveri Gopalagowda Samajawadi Adhyayana Trust.

He made painstaking efforts to convince them about the usefulness of the scheme through house-to-house campaign, which facilitated the smooth implementation of the scheme.

A 15-member Swajaladhara Village Committee was formed to oversee the implementation of the scheme and Rs. 99,000 was collected from the people of the village as their contribution towards the scheme, which was estimated to cost Rs. 8 lakh.

The scheme envisaged supply of water directly to the houses through 1,200 tap connections. The money collected from the villagers was deposited in the joint account in a bank in the name of the Secretary of the Kallur Gram Panchayat and President of the Swajaladhara Village Committee.

The implementation of the scheme was taken up when it was sanctioned by the Government in 2003-04 after it was approved by the taluk and the zilla panchayats. Tenders were called and work on it began in December 2004 and was completed on March 31 this year.

Apart from Kallur, its three neighbouring hamlets of Bikkalidimba, Yalakkikoppa and Toregalle, were covered under the scheme.

The 5-km pipeline has been laid to carry water even to the far-flung houses. Public taps are provided in Dalit colonies and government school. The water is being supplied to all the houses daily taking the average supply of water to 55 litres per house. The water is drawn from the overhead tank, which has a storage capacity of 50,000 litres. The local managing committee has appointed a "neeru ghanti" (a waterman), who maintains the system, ensures payment of electricity bill once in two months and arranges to repair the 6 HP submersible pump installed to draw water from the borewell.

Kallur, which has overcome its water problem with the successful implementation of the Swajaladhara scheme, has shown the way for others.

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