World Water day-Today

Children are able to go to school instead of spending the day trudging to the nearest well; the health of the entire area improves and it becomes easier to grow, produce and care for livestock which can then be sold at local markets.

However, often the installation of a pump is only half the battle. The communities which need these pumps most can be remote and isolated.
Today is World Water Day, an initiative from the United Nations to help get sanitation and drinking water to those who need it most. Held every March 22, it celebrates its 20th anniversary today.

In Britain, if a tap stops working or a water source becomes contaminated, we call a plumber or a water authority. When the water source in question is a pump in a remote village in India, the solution isn’t so simple.

For this reason, British charity WaterAid came up with a plan – one which would ensure water pumps could be fixed quickly while also helping to empower people.
In Mahoba district in India, WaterAid’s partner organisation, Gramonati Sansthan, has been training a group of women as water pump mechanics for the past few years.
Each mechanic is responsible for looking after the pump in their village and when large, more complicated repairs are required, they join forces. Before the scheme launched, there were more than 4,000 broken pumps in the district, but the newly-trained mechanics have now fixed more than 300, turning water back on for 30,000 people.
The women, who spend much of their day up to their knees in mud, still in their colourful saris, may appear to be unlikely mechanics but the work they do is especially important in areas where the sole source of water is a government pump.
The training the women have been given doesn’t just ensure a reliable source of water, but has allowed them to change the way they’re perceived in one of India’s most culturally conservative areas.
The women have been given bicycles to allow them to travel between villages, along with tools and equipment with which to test the water quality.
They have also been taught about sanitation and the diseases which can be passed on through contaminated water, which is especially important in a country where 320,000 children die from diarrhoea before their fifth birthday each year.
The newly-trained mechanics pass on sanitation advice to people living in the villages they visit, and as a result, the health of the villagers has improved considerably.
‘Life before we got clean water from this pump was different,’ said 15-year-old Nandini Hayarban.
‘The water was very dirty, especially in the monsoon season, when we would get very ill with fever and diarrhoea. When the clean water came, I was so happy. We are healthier and cleaner.’
Ram Rati, 45, a water pump mechanic in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, has trained ten other women from neighbouring villages.
‘Before us, there were no female mechanics,’ she said. ‘I was confined within the four walls of my house but now I can go out and I can work. I have new skills – I can ride a bicycle, motorcycle and have now also learned how to drive a tractor. I have more money thanks to my hard work and diligence.
‘The water and sanitation situation has definitely improved in my region. People were drinking contaminated water from the open wells and they got sick often, but now we get safe drinking water from the restored hand pumps and our health has improved.’
The recent gang rape in Delhi has put the issue of women’s rights in India firmly in the spotlight, and while there’s still a long road ahead, Water Aid’s project proves that change is possible.
However, WaterAid’s efforts aren’t just confined to India – their projects can be found all over the world and one of their latest schemes is in Bangladesh.
Two years ago, Thames Water joined forces with WaterAid to launch a four-year project to help bring safe, clean water to villagers in rural areas.
At the halfway mark of the project, the charity have installed almost 1,000 new toilet facilities in four villages, providing a further 15,000 people with access to sanitation, and 724 new water facilities, providing 13,000 people with access to safe water. The project has raised half of its £2m funding target.
WaterAid is backed by social enterprise Belu, which donates all of the proceeds from the sales of its bottled water to the charity. For World Water Day, it is selling special packs of water exclusively in Sainsbury’s stores. Belu has raised more than £300,000 for WaterAid in the past 18 months.
Back in India, WaterAid manager KJ Rajeev said: ‘Women are key to successful projects. We believe in involving women in projects not only because it helps make the work sustainable but also because it has a positive impact on their positions in the community.
‘I see these female mechanics as leaders. They have won victories and battles in life. The area where they come from is a typical patriarchal society. Before they had to cover their faces and stay indoors. Being able to come out of their households and work is a battle won. It’s real empowerment in the making.‘Water is the beginning to a better life. We are so impressed that women like this are leading the drive for cleaner water and better sanitation, and as a result, are transforming lives.’