Measures to preserve water quality in rural households

Minimal Self help measures have been adopted.

Water bodies in the villages are assets of rural communities. Rural communities in Maharashtra have been facing water scarcity due to drought conditions and water quality issue due to biological and chemical contamination of water. Consumption of contaminated water makes them vulnerable to water borne diseases like diarrhoea, filariasis, cholera.

To address the water quality issue in rural Maharashtra, a study was undertaken in rural Pune and Satara districts over a period of three years. In the study, water samples were collected from natural water bodies, major drinking water sources and10–13 households depending on them in 20 villages scattered across Pune and Satara districts in pre-monsoon, monsoon and post monsoon.Bacteriological water quality was checked by detecting presence of faecal bacteria in the water samples.

To improve water quality from source to sink, water quality findings were shared with local authority, primary school and aanganwadi in December 2015. Along with the findings, suggestions were given to villagers to improve water quality at source as well as at household level.Construction of parapet wall surrounding the open well, covering of open well, removing silt, regular chlorination was suggested to improve water quality at source level. Filtration, boiling, chlorination of water was suggested at household level.

A follow-up was undertaken in December 2017 to check whether given suggestions are being followed by villagers to improve drinking water quality at village and household levels.

It was observed that four out of twenty villages abandoned traditional water sources and established Reverse Osmosis plants. Two villages constructed parapet wall surrounding open well and covered openwell. Nine villages regularly carried out chlorination in open wells/storage tanks. Three villages minimized water consumption from seasonal streams and started collecting water from man-made drinking water sources.

Very few households followed suggestions. Only filtration through cloth was carried out in greater numbers at household level. In a nutshell, households expected village authorities to supply good quality water.

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