Vankvad water and ecosan project, Rajkot district, Gujarat, India
Background:
Vankvad is a remote village in the Indian State of Gujarat, about 35 km from the city of Rajkot. The villagers were relocated here, after their original homes were submerged by flooding created by the nearby Machchur dam. Each villager was allotted a site for housing, and the community has about five acres of land to grow crops. Some of the villagers commute to Rajkot daily for work, and to buy and sell their produce. Communications to the village have been very difficult, with the roads being almost impassable in the rainy season.
The current population of the village is 907, representing 124 families, and virtually the whole community is dependent on agriculture. However, all the land they have been allocated is within the flood zone of the dam, so for most of the year they are unable to cultivate any crops. As the flood waters recede in the dry season, they are able to grow one crop between December and March, a mix of cotton, wheat, ground nuts, maize and vegetables. So for the rest of the year, they are completely dependent on an income as farm labourers in the nearby communities – a very precarious situation.
Following their relocation, most of the houses were self-built by the families themselves, and are quite poorly constructed. The area is an earthquake zone and these houses would not withstand even a mild tremor. There are no toilet facilities, so open defecation is normal, meaning there are areas of waste around the village, with the obvious implications for health and disease.
This sanitation situation is compounded by the lack of a stable water supply. There are two standpipes in the centre of the village, which only partially function when the main supply is switched on every two or three days for maybe two hours. Until two years ago there was a borehole that supplied adequate water, but now its supply is intermittent, at best providing a maximum of ten litres of water per person per day. As a result, the villagers, generally women and young girls, have to walk 3 kilometres to fetch water from open wells, which are also used by livestock. This obviously further increases the risk of disease, but the chronic water shortage also means that the villagers struggle to grow sufficient feed for their cattle, and cannot afford the high cost of buying in fodder. The result is that they often have to sell them early at a poor price.
Education is very basic – there is a primary school in the village, but for a child to progress to secondary level they need to travel to the school at Kuwadva, which is about 16 kilometres from Vankvad. Of the few children who do go on to secondary school, none of them are girls. The literacy level in the village is generally poor, at about 20%, so there is a low level of understanding for the need of hygiene and effective sanitation, to help prevent the incidence and spread of disease among the population in the village.
This project will provide sustainable water facilities, individual family eco-sanitation toilets and the creation of self-empowering Self Help Groups.