Water Management Approaches DHAN Foundation’s Grass Root Experiences A. GURUNATHAN

1. Water Management Approaches DHAN Foundation’s Grass Root Experiences A. GURUNATHAN PROGRAMME LEADER

2. DHAN Foundaion - An Overview • A Registered Pro - Poor Development Organisation • Founded on October 2, 1997 • Operational in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry • Reach (As on March 2010) • About 8Lakh Poor Families in 30000Villages / 51 Districts/ 13 States.

3. PURPOSE • Mothering of Development Innovations • Promote and Nurture new ideas on different development themes. • Building around concerned individuals as anchors • Promoting institutions to reach scale • Exclusive thematic organisations as subsidiaries • Human Resource Development • Building socially concerned professionals for the development sector.

4. DHAN’S APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT • Placing high quality people to work with the community • Direct action besides research, advocacy, reorienting others, etc. • “Enabling” rather than “delivery” • Development through empowered people based economic institutions

5. DHAN’S APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT • Drawing on mainstream public resources besides “donations” • Collaborating with other institutions than operating alone • Learning and adapting rather than following set models • Focusing on livelihood development and poverty alleviation

6. TANKFED AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME Goal Poverty reduction of Village Community through Revival of Small Scale Water Harvesting Systems Approach Community Organisation Scale down technology Facilitating environment

7. OBJECTIVES • To bring back people managed tank governance • To build People Institutions for tank / pond management • To sustain tankfed agriculture and enhance productivity through Vayalagam Plant Clinics • To promote Microfinance activities • To create endowment / corpus at multiple level to safeguard tank systems in future

8. REACH AND ACHIEVEMENTS • Initiated during 1992 – 93 as pilot project in Madurai District • Operational in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Pondicherry, Bihar, Maharastra and Orissa • Facilitates Community Owner Irrigation, Drinking and Waste Water Reuse Infrastructures through mainstream partnership • More than 2 lakh farmers organised in 2500 users associations in 6 states

9. Tank Associations Tank Cascade Association DHAN Foundation District Tank Federation Panchayats Tank Conservation Movement DRDA / Other Govt. Agencies / Banks Structure

10. Tanks as Ecosystems • The second largest manmade wetland ecosystems in the world • Centuries of Service and a History : Going beyond conventional understanding of sustainability • Still functioning and thriving • Used by Humans, Plants, animals and other species for economic value

11. Irrigation Tanks in a Part of Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, India

12. Tharavai Tank Cascade

13. P C C u u / RU P C u IRRIGATION TANKS CONCERVATION: CONCEPTUAL FRAME WORK 1. Preservation, Conservation and Development Perspective:PastPresentFuture P – Preservation; C – Conservation; U – Use; RU – Re use

14. Enactment of Water Resources Preservation Act as that of Forest Protection Bill should be done immediately. Immediate ordinance to ban on diversion of water resources for other development purposes (Buildings,roads, bus stand etc) including Government use should be brought in. • Encroachment of waterways and water resources has to be declared as a Criminal Act and Sin and it should be dealt with accordingly. • Promotion of water harvesting structures should be done massively to store substantial amount of rainfall not only to address water scarcity and water conflicts but also to recharge ground water and foster local management. Conservation and Reuse of water require immediate attention of all people.

15. TA Gramasabha CA Gram Panchayat TF Panchayat Union TA – Tank Association CA – Cascade Association TF – Tank Federation at block level Local Management

16. Promotion of nested institutions, non hiearchial, should be encouraged for local management. NGOs should be required to promote these institutions and build their capacity. Further institutions building process would be continued for long time to provide sustainability. Promotion and capacity building cost should be provided as a part of renovation programme. • Panchayat system should provide legitimacy and adequate institutional space for Tank Association, Cascade Association and Tank Federation. Tank Associations would be encouraged to manage the water resources with adequate rights. Usufruct rights should be shared between Tank Associations and Gram Panchayat.

17. People’s organisations should also be promoted at supra level (sub basin and river basin) for water sharing and resolving water conflicts. • Customary rights should be documented and revisited by the local communities to revise them if needed. • Tank Associations should be empowered to collect water and land tax share and them with revenue and panchayat system and use their share only for the upkeep and management of tank systems.

18. Tank based watershed development should be encouraged . Guidelines could be revised to include all water bodies’ renovation and creation within the watershed • Pollution of water bodies should be treated as an offence and a criminal act. • Ground water recharge is possible only through preservation and conservation of small scale water resources. Otherwise a ‘silent disaster’ would happen in many places because of race for ground water mining. Sand mining of waterways and riverbeds should be banned

19. THE PROJECT AREA RAMANATHAPURAM DISTRICT

20. THE COMMON SCENE FOR WATER

21. WATER SUPPLY : TRADITIONAL AND CONTEMPORARY

22. WATER SUPPLY : CONTEMPORARY AND MODERN

24. Excavation: Use of Men Excavation: Use of Machine

25. COMPONENT OF THE PROJECT • Community organising • Deep excavation 2.5 m to 6 m to create a capacity of 8-10,000 Cu.m for 600-1000 population • Transportation of earth and used for construction of village roads, school and temple grounds • Construction of ring wells and inlet with regulators • Construction of steps and fencing (optional) • Creation of endowment funds

26. IMPROVED OORANIS

27. IWMI, COLOMBO RESEARCH STUDY RESULTS • Innovative design of social organizing, simple and transparent project transactions • Ooranis are the cheapest and replicable quickly through simple methods • Ooranis are the most preferred because they are reliable, assured and convenient • Ooranis reduce conflicts, drudgery and waste of time in waiting and fighting • Ooranis provide productive time / leisure time for villagers

28. SOURCE OF SUPPLY FOR OORANIS

29. QUALITY OF OORANI WATER AT SOURCE

30. BENEFITS OF OORANI (in %)

31. HOUSEHOLDS FETCHING WATER AT CONVENIENT TIME

32. HOUSEHOLDS WALKING > 1 km

33. HOUSEHOLDS SPENDING > 1/2 HOUR PER TRIP OF FETCHING

34. IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED IN THE PROJECT • Effective methods to reduce turbidity at point of source and point of consumption need to be developed • Bio sand filter at households • Modified vertical slow sand filter • Chemical treatment (Chlorination), SODIS method

35. SAFE DRINKING WATER AT HOUSEHOLD BY INTRODUCING BIO-SAND FILTER

36. GERM-FREE: A biosand filter placed in a house of one of the beneficiaries in S.Gopalapuram near Tirumangalam in Madurai District , Tamil Nadu

37. BSF- integrated Oorani project • No of blocks-1 • No of villages-3 • No of projects-1 • No of Ooranies-3 • No of beneficiaries-nearly 4500 peoples

38. Principles of Wastewater Management PREFERENCE • Reduce • Volume and/or pollution load • Source separation • Storm water, grey water and black water in a house • Cleaning wastewater and process wastewater in an industry • Recycle • Collect & use directly or after treatment • Different uses • Flushing • Gardening • Washing • Groundwater recharge • Optimizes the use of water usually at low cost • Treat • Often expensive and complex • No incentive to implement • Safe Disposal

39. Scum Storage Zone Sedimintation Zone Sludge Digestion Zone Digested Sludge Storage Zone Septic Tanks • Simple and commonly used technology • Process - sedimentation & sludge stabilization • Liquid Retention time – 1 to 3 days • Sludge removal: Every 1-5 years • BOD Removal efficiency: 40-60% • For better effluent quality, increase number of compartment or pass effluent through up flow filter

40. Anaerobic Baffle Reactor (ABR) • Wastewater flows upward through a series of sludge blanket reactors • BOD & TSS removal up to 80%

41. Biogas Attached toilets • Nepal has over 150,000 biogas plants out of which about 100,000 are toilet attached • Some institutional biogas plants treat wastewater and solid waste • Biogas attached public toilets

42. Existing Community Toilet

43. Proposed DEWATS DEWATS plant –Settler –ABR-AF-PGF-Pond DEWATS plant –Settler –ABR-AF-PGF-Pond

44. Cbs –DEWATS-Panaiyur Panaiyur-4 km Away from Madurai corporation limit Panaiyur Panchayat M.ANANDA -president of Panaiyur 23 kalanjiam SHGs -410 members Occupation: Weaving, agriculture, rice mill, merchants Open defecation is currently in practice existing community toilet for women

45. Design Data

46. Project cost CBS DEWATS-2 Units-Community Toilet, DEWATS Total project cost-14.95 lakh CBS unit-5.10 lakh DEWATS-9.85 lakh DRDA-GOVT contribution-49% People /Donor Contribution-51%

47. TREATED WASTEWATER USAGE-LIMITS • Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) typically ranges from 10 to 20 mg/L for most municipal Wastewaters. Values below 100 mg/L pose no restriction to irrigation use. • Total Suspended Solids (TSS) typically ranges from 10 to 20 mg/L for most municipal wastewaters. Values below 100 mg/L pose no restriction to irrigation use. • Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) typically ranges from 25 to 50 mg/L for most municipal wastewaters. Values below 150 mg/L pose no restriction to irrigation use

48. What Can We Do? • The existing water bodies should be desilted and deepened • Planting trees along the tank bund and fore shore to prevent encroachments. • Desilting all the tanks, supply and surplus channels Approx.cost :28Cr(Capacity App 220 MCM) • Sand mining should be banned on the Vaigai riverbed. • Wherever possible check dams should be constructed to store water. This will help inaugmenting the ground water potential. Contd…

49. What Can We Do? • Ground water can be saved from contamination by preventing mixing ofsewage in river water and in other water bodies. • Encroachments on drains and supply channels should be removed. Garbageand waste should not be dumped in water bodies.