Story
Durga (Middle) is studying in Grade 5 (about 11 years old) and her parents depend on farming and daily wage work to make ends meet. She has to take on the responsibility of fetching water for her parents and her younger brother.
She and her friends walk more than 30 minutes to the water source every day, and sometimes she helps disabled elderly to get water in exchange for snacks or pocket money.
Kopla, an elementary school teacher and a mother, has to leave her young children alone at home before she could go out to fetch water. The water source is far away from her home, and sometimes heavy rains or storms make the rugged roads even more rough, making it easy to slip while carrying heavy bamboo baskets filled with water bottles.
Bhupu Clean Drinking Water Committee was formed in 2018 and Tika is the chairperson of the committee. The committee has seven members, they set up the committee with an aim to solve the issue of lacking safe drinking water supply in Bhupu. The water crisis is severe there, some villagers fetch water from the river, while others dig deep wells for water, but the water is untreated and not suitable for drinking.
The committee will provides support to ensure the sustainability of the system. Each water tap will have a meter and villagers will pay for an affordable water bill. A worker will be hired to maintain the system.
Nau teaches at the Shree Narayan Primary School in the village, where clean water is also lacking. There is no water sources near the school, so they need to hire laborers to fetch water. But the laborers can only carry 4 to 5 buckets of water a day, which is not enough to meet the needs of all the children. As the water they get is contaminated, students have suffered from diarrhoea and typhoid.
Parbati is a housewife who doesn’t have enough time to spend. If she could save the time she used to fetch water, she could spend it on helping with her children's schoolwork and hygiene. If she has a water tap right in front of her house, she can bathe her children and wash their clothes at home. The water supply system can also help them with farming, as all crops, vegetables and fruits need water for irrigation. If they can get water at home, they can make their agricultural-based living more efficient.
Laxmi is also a housewife, she said time after time, a large group of villagers would have diarrhoea at the same time, and many children also suffer from water-borne diseases. They think is because of the contaminated water they drank.
She is also a member of the Clean Drinking Water Committee, who helps with raising awareness around the importance of safe drinking water in the village. They have been wishing to construct a water supply system, but the don't have sufficient funds.
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