The Hindu : Karnataka News : A drinking water project for the people, by the people

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Friday, Jun 27, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

A drinking water project for the people, by the people

Pradeepkumar Kadkol

Rs. 102-crore World Bank scheme being implemented in Bijapur district

The project is being implemented in ?100 villages
It has panchayat as focal points of delivery systems

The water treatment and pumping station at Baluti village in Basavanabagewadi taluk in Bijapur district.

Bijapur: Bijapur district is all set to implement a novel drinking water project with community participation in 100 villages. The 102-crore project is the biggest multi village scheme implemented by the World Bank.

The Jal Nirman project is being implemented as part of the second Karnataka Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project. The government has set up the Karnataka Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency at the State level and district support unit at the district level in project planning, procurement, construction, operation, maintenance and management of rural water supply and sanitation.

Since the project has gram panchayat as focal points of all delivery systems, the joint committees have been set up at the panchayat level as per the Panchayat Raj Act 1993. The committees comprise presidents of gram panchayats, executive engineer of panchayat raj, assistant executive engineer, three representatives of NGOs in the field of health, sanitation, education and social service.

These committees function as an apex management body to initiate dialogue and coordinate amongst the village level water and sanitation committees, gram panchayats, taluk panchayats, zilla panchayat, the electricity supply company and all other stakeholders pertaining to conception, design, planning, execution and post implementation phase of operation and maintenance of the common facilities of the scheme.

The World Bank has provided 90 per cent of the funds and the remaining has been collected from the beneficiaries. Initially, the officers of the Jal Nirmal faced several problems in convincing the people about the use of the scheme and collecting money from them. With the sustained efforts of joint committees, they were successful in collecting Rs. 500 per house in 100 villages.

The joint committee at Manguli includes 35 villages of Basavana Bagewadi taluk covering a population of 88,513. The headquarters is located in Telagi gram panchayat. The second joint committee at Manadapur of Basavan Bagewadi taluk includes 30 villages covering 76.191 people with its headquarters at Kambagi and the third committee located at Adavisomanal of Muddehihal taluk includes 35 villages covering a population of 33.963 with headquarters at Hiremural. These committees meet on the regular intervals to assess the progress of the work and make the payment to workers. They have also opened joint accounts in Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank (KVGB) in the name of assistant executive engineer and president of the gram panchayat.

With the active participation of the people, total transparency has been maintained in the project.

The contractors and officers should clarify the doubts of committee members on the progress of work and technical aspects. The committee members are ready to maintain entire distribution system by appointing an assistant engineer through gram panchayats. The project would be dedicated to the people in August.

World Bank leader for projects in India and Sri Lanka Oscar Alvardo visited the project site last year and expressed satisfaction over active participation of community in implementation of the project.

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