Taking charge for water

A decade ago, the women of Hiwardhara village were always on foot, recalls Mahendra Kinake. With containers in hand, they would either walk to the few handpumps in the village, or if these were too crowded, they would go farther to waterbodies to collect drinking water for their households. Once home, they would rush to the fields to tend to crops along with their other family members.“Such was the scarcity of drinking water in the village, that households would spend most their days only arranging for it,” says Kinake, the sarpanch of the Hiwardhara gram panchayat, which comprises his village and two others in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra.

But since 2020, the situation has changed. Every household in the village has access to potable water and also works to save the resource through tanks and rainwater harvesting facilities. This change is brought by Kinake, who realised the need for the village to take charge of water management after tying up with the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), a non-profit working in the area. “Through the non-profit, I learnt how the various government schemes, like the Jal Jeevan Mission and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), can help us,” he says. For instance, under the Jal Jeevan Mission, water tanks had been set up in the village, but were not connected to the community wells.

So, along with a water committee set up with other residents, he prepared a water plan to improve access for all households. The plan entailed involvement of all residents. “In the initial days, we would spread awareness about what needs to be done. But there was a lot of hesitation among people as to whether the plan would work. They had to be convinced multiple times,” he says.

After this, tenders were sent for connections to all households to drinking water supply through the Har Ghar Jal scheme under the Jal Jeevan Mission. Residents also built pumps and rainwater harvesting structures through works under MGNREGS.

“The access to drinking water has improved everyone's quality of life. We work together to build and improve our community water resources, which gives us a good sense of owner-ship,” says Nilesh Khadase, a resident of the village.

As the drinking water availability and management improved, the residents encouraged Kinake to run for sarpanch. He won the panchayat elections in 2020, and continues to facilitate more development activities for the village. He also works with FES to promote similar practices in nearby areas.

This was first published in the 1-15 April, 2024 print edition of Down To Earth

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