Lal-wa-Sarjangal, Wed 15 Jul, 2009

In June CDP Lal and the community of Nao Ghula started installing one of the first piped-water schemes in Lal wa Sarjangal district.

The installation of a water pipe between the upper spring and the village was an attractive idea for all parties involved. Women were thrilled to think of being able to collect clean drinking water in the center of their village. The resident community health worker saw it as an excellent solution to several of the water and sanitation risks the community faced, including the drinking of water contaminated by animals, dish/clothes washing, and bathing upstream.

The level of community interest in the water pipe was high, but their demand for salary for their labor on the project was a challenge to negotiate. In Lal district CDP Lal has seen that the emergence of dependency is the harmful effect of food aid labor projects. Some communities have been so crippled by dependency on relief wheat that farmers stopped planting their own fields for a time. CDP Lal believes that participatory projects and empowering facilitation can break down the attitude of dependency and set communities on a better track toward more sustainable development.

After agreeing to labor for their own community's benefit, the men of Nao Ghula went into action. A group of 30 workers from the community were led by 3 local foremen and assisted by CDP Lal facilitators and engineers, and in just three days a trench 550 meters long and at least 1 meter deep was dug by hand. The pipe has been laid, and currently the spring source is being protected and water training for the women and children of the village is being conducted. The community of Nao Ghula will soon have clean water piped to their village, but they are already experiencing a challenge to take up their own development projects, and they are learning about how to complement this new water source with behaviors and practices that will improve their wellness on the whole.