WaterStep visits HPSS

Hi all,

I wanted to send a follow-up letter to thank all of you who donated to the WaterStep India Disaster project. We have spent the last few months planning this project and have made it a reality over the last few weeks. With the support of HPSS, a Gandhian organization working on sustainable livelihoods in Matli village (near Uttarkashi), we installed four drinking water chlorinators in two villages. The fifth chlorinator will be installed over the next week in a village which has been damaged by the frequent disasters in the area (2010, 2012, and 2013).

WaterStep sent five individuals to perform the water chlorinator installations from 9 October to 16 October. The team consisted of the engineer who designed the chlorinator Lynn Smith, the man in charge of chlorinator production Joe Jacobi, a city councilwoman from Louisville Tina Ward-Pugh, and two individuals who have extensive experience installing and using the water chlorinators and giving health and hygiene trainings in northeast India Suetta Albin and Robin Brothers. As this was our first installation in this area, we learned a lot from this group who shared their experience installing other chlorinators in the Haiti earthquake in 2010 and in other Indian villages. The group was very enthusiastic about the project and forming an ongoing relationship with HPSS in order to install more water chlorinators throughout Garhwal.

The water chlorinator itself is called the M-100. It is a small, durable machine that can chlorinate up to 10,000 gallons of water in one day with a handful of salt and a 12-volt car battery. What we have been doing in each village is setting up drinking water stations. With the help of the villagers, we build a stand a for the two 500-L tanks. Then, we set up the chlorinator and do a demonstration of how it works. Along with this, we have a short a training on health and hygiene practices – mostly hand washing, germs, and how to make oral rehydration salts at home.

We installed a first chlorinator in Dilsoar village. We had a dangerous walk across a bridge to reach. The bridge which was formerly used by cars was washed out by the flood. We installed in the chlorinator at one of the houses in the village. It is centrally located. We identified about six people, both men and women, who will be in charge of operating the chlorinator. The people living there who have water tapped to their houses are coming to the tanks to take their drinking water. The same is the case in upper and lower Matli where we installed two other chlorinators. However, these two locations are closer to the road. In lower Matli, we had to be especially careful about where to install the chlorinator because there is division between upper and lower castes. We ended up installing tanks in two villages, and the chlorinator will travel between the two sites. The tanks will be posted in both an upper and lower caste house so that everyone can access the clean drinking water. However, we selected to install the upper caste house which we agreed to actually has a lower caste family living with them. The lower caste family’s house was destroyed by the flood this year, so they came to live here.

One chlorinator was installed at HPSS itself to serve the campus, the surrounding residents, and the emergency shelter which has been built on their campus. The final chlorinator will be installed in a village called Atali. This village has been cut off from the road for three years. We will be delivering the materials by a zip line and holding our installation within the next week.

The great thing about the M-100 chlorinator installation is that the machine is easy to operate. After just one installation and demonstration, the HPSS and villagers were trained on how to run the machine. After this, they became the trainers while the Americans provided support. This gave me a lot of confidence in the sustainability of this project.

We see a lot of potential to expand the usage of the chlorinators which have been installed as well as install more chlorinators in surrounding areas. This project will serve as a good model of how to continue this work. Our hope in the future is to clean the water coming out of the tap itself and extend the chlorinator to a number of other residents. In order to spread the word on this project, we released an article which was run in both Hindi and English newspapers. Here is the link to the English version http://epaper.tribuneindia.com/172673/Dehradun-Edition/DE_16_October_2013#page/4/2). WaterStep has also posted information from the trip to their website: http://waterstep.org/stories-from-the-field-uttarkashi-india/. 

Again I thank all of you to your contribution to this project! It would not have been possible without you. If you still would like to contribute, you can at the following WaterStep website: http://waterstep.org/get-involved/donate-money/. Please designate “India Disaster” as what you would like to support. This will help cover any additional costs of the trip as well as create a fund for future projects in this area.

Lots of love and thanks!

Margaret 

This is our team. We had quite a fun time taking two 500-L tanks to different villages along with a 100 lb battery!

Here we are installing the first chlorinator in Dilsoar village.

Here are two young girls giving a skit on the importance of using both soap and water to wash your hands in Matli village.

Another picture from Dilsoar.

Here we are discussing tank placement in Matli village.

Himla bahen is helping the girls prepare for their skit on hand washing.

These are some of the wonderful women who will be operating the chlorinators. They came to celebrate and participate in the demonstration at HPSS' campus.

Here is Pawna Nautiyal giving her interview about WaterStep's visit and the chlorinators.

Here I am talking with the Pradhan (mayor-type) of Matli village.