Project Report on Water and

Sanitation programme in Panta

Sadar Block of Patna District

Project Report
Prepared for Department of Rural Studies, Patna
University
As a Course requirements

Supervised by: Prepared by:

Dr. Sunita Roy Ranvijay Kumar
Lcturer Roll: 1169
Department of Rural Studies Registration No: 1302/2007
Patna University, Session: 2007-09
Patna Department of Rural Studies,
Patna University, Patna

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 Acknowledgement

The credit of success of this report goes to Dr. Sunita Roy, Lecturer,
Department of Rural Studies, Patna University, who guided me not only in writing
this report but also in collecting primary and secondary data. I wish to thank Dr.
Geeta Sinha, Professor in-charge, Department of Rural Studies, Patna University,
Patna for her guidance and allocation of such interesting and important issue for
project work. I wish to thank all the teacher of Rural studies department, Patna
University for their guidance and support. I wish to thank M. Rahman, Junior
Engineer, Public Health Division, Patna West Patna for his support at field level.
I wish to thank Nidan’s people for extending their support in collecting field level
information. I also wish to thank beneficiaries who shared contributed time and
shared their experience with me.
I wish to thank again to Dr. Sunita Roy and Dr. Geeta Sinha for their support
and guidance at every step of preparing this report.

Ranvijay Kumar

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 Table of Contents
Project Title
Certificate
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
Acronyms

Title Page
Chapter: 1 1
Sanitation
Water
Chapter: 2 9
Programmes to address Water and Sanitation in India
Water and Sanitation in Bihar
Chapter: 3 21
Profile of Project District and Block
Situation of Water and Sanitation in target area
Panorama
Chapter: 4 34
Ray of Hope
Good Initiative by NGO
Findings
Suggestions
Chapter: 5 40
Annexure 1: Case studies
Annexure 2: Reference
Annexure 3: Glossary

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Chapter: 1

Sanitation (often referred to as ‘environmental sanitation’) includes interventions for the

safe management and disposal/re-use of waste. The delivery of safe sanitation services
includes infrastructure (e.g. latrines, sewers), associated behaviors (e.g. toilet usage,
hand-washing) and a requisite enabling environment (e.g. public health regulations, fiscal
incentive schemes for achieving sanitation outcomes). Safe sanitation prevents waste
from coming into contact with humans. This is linked to reduced burden of disease and
illness-related expenditure, improved water quality and a cleaner environment, ultimately
resulting in a better quality of life.

Sanitation is the hygienic means of preventing human contact from the hazards of wastes
to promote health. Hazards can be physical, microbiological, biological or chemical
agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces,
solid wastes, domestic wastewater (sewage, sullage, and grey water), industrial wastes,
and agricultural wastes. Hygienic means of prevention can be by using engineering
solutions (e.g. sewerage and wastewater treatment), simple technologies (e.g. latrines,
septic tanks), or even by personal hygiene practices (e.g. simple handwashing with soap).

The term "sanitation" can be applied to a specific aspect, concept, location, or strategy,
such as:

 Basic sanitation - refers to the management of human feces at the household

level. This terminology is the indicator used to describe the target of the
Millennium Development Goal on sanitation.
 On-site sanitation - the collection and treatment of waste is done where it is
deposited. Examples are the use of pit latrines, septic tanks, and imhoff tanks.
 Food sanitation - refers to the hygienic measures for ensuring food safety.
 Environmental sanitation - the control of environmental factors that form links
in disease transmission. Subsets of this category are solid waste management,
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 water and wastewater treatment, industrial waste treatment and noise and
pollution control.
 Ecological sanitation - a concept and an approach of recycling to nature the
nutrients from human and animal wastes.

Why is sanitation Important? Sanitation and hygiene are essential to public health and
development in India. Every year millions of people in this country die from diseases
associated with poor sanitation and hygiene. People miss work and this impacts their
income and livelihood, children miss school and loose education opportunities.
Children’s health and ability to learn are particularly affected. There is a need for
dedicated promotion of sanitation and hygiene practices especially among children.

Today, more than a half century after independence, India is still struggling with the
question of how to provide sanitation and clean drinking water to its people. According to
a Planning Commission (2003) report, between 400,000 and 500,000 children under the
age of five die due to water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea, hepatitis and typhoid in
India, and there are fears that these numbers are grossly underrepresented. According to
the World Health Organisation (WHO), 80 per cent of diseases in this country are caused
by water-borne diseases, a result of poor sanitation and far from adequate sewage
disposal methods. Less than 40 per cent of India's population has access to a proper toilet,
and those who don't have no choice but to relieve themselves in the open, be it on railway
tracks, river banks, agricultural land or public parks, posing grave health risks by
contamination. On top of that, many Hindus believe that constructing a toilet in or near a
dwelling is a matter of grave impurity, and so even the residents in those villages that do
have toilets built by the government rarely use them, preferring to go nature's way
instead. These toilets are instead utilised for storing tools and utensils. Clearly, if timely
and adequate action is not taken, then chances are that India might sink under its own
waste.

SANITATION CRISIS BIGGER KILLER THAN ANY WAR.

Bindeshwar Pathak,
Founder, Sulabh Sanitation Movement
5
What are the implications?

Open defecation and our improper hygiene practices impact health, economic and social
conditions, particularly those of our children.

Economic

Diarrhea and other diseases reduce the productivity of the work force and the growth of
our country. Sanitation related health implications result in annual loss of 180 crore man-
days and economic loss of Rs. 1200 crore. Tourism and other economic activities are
negatively affected by the poor sanitary conditions. According to a recent WHO study,
every rupee spent on improving sanitation generates an average economic benefit of Rs. 9

Health

It is estimated that 80% of all our diseases are related to lack of safe water and sanitation
(WHO). More that 1000 children die every day in India from diarrhoea: imagine this is
equal to one serious rail accident every day! 5 of the 10 top killer diseases of children
aged under five years are related to water and sanitation: diseases like diarrhoea, typhoid,
jaundice, malaria, schistosomiasis, hookworm, and ascariasis affect the lives of millions
people every day. Children weakened by frequent diarrhea episodes are also more

6
vulnerable to malnutrition and opportunistic infections such as pneumonia. About 46% of
children in India are suffering from malnutrition. Diarrhea and worm infection are two
major health conditions that affect school age children impacting their learning abilities

Social

Almost one out of 2 persons around the globe without a toilet lives in India! Overall, only
45% people have access to sanitation facilities in India. 35% of our schools do not have
toilets. The absence of sanitary facilities in schools is also linked to female drop-out,
especially at puberty. Finally, recruitment and retention of female teachers is also
affected by lack of proper sanitary facilities in schools.

Lack of awareness and socio-cultural attitudes have meant that sanitation has not received
the recognition it deserves. This forces a large number of households to the continued
indignity of open defecation. This has adverse impacts on health, well-being and dignity,
and is an acute problem especially for women and young girls. This is because women
and young girls often have to wait until after dark to defecate which increases the risk of
urinary tract infections, chronic constipation and psychological stress (WASH 2006).
Women are also vulnerable to physical and sexual violence if they are forced to wait until
early morning or late evenings to look for a secluded space in which to defecate. Lack of
toilets also makes it difficult to manage discreetly symptoms related to pregnancy,
menstruation and child birth.

Women and girls are the prisoners of day light in the absence of toilets.

Rural Sanitation: The responsibility for provision of sanitation facilities in the country
primarily rests with local government bodies - Gram Panchayats in rural areas. The State
and Central Governments act as facilitators, through enabling policies, budgetary support
and capacity development. In the Central government, the Planning Commission, through
the Five Year Plans, guides investment in the sector by allocating funds for strategic
priorities. While the first five plan periods were characterized by relatively negligible
investments in sanitation, it received a major fillip from the Sixth Plan (1980-85)
onwards and the launch of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation
7
Decade in 1980. Responsibility for rural sanitation was also shifted from the Central
Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organization to the Rural Development
Department.
In 1986, the Rural Development Department initiated India’s first nation-wide program,
the Central Rural Sanitation Program (CRSP). The CRSP focused on provision of
household pour-flush toilets and relied on hardware subsidies to generate demand. This
approach failed to motivate and sustain high levels of sanitation coverage as it was based
on the erroneous assumption that provision of sanitary facilities would lead to increased
coverage and usage. It also did not include adequate attention to ‘total’ sanitation which
includes improved hygiene behavior, school and institutional sanitation, solid/liquid
waste management and environmental sanitation. Despite an investment of more Rs. 6
billion and construction of over 9 million latrines in rural areas, rural sanitation grew at
just 1 per cent annually throughout the 1990s and the Census of 2001 found that only 22
per cent of rural households had access to a toilet.

In the light of the relatively poor performance of the CRSP, Government of India
restructured the program with the launch of the Total Sanitation Campaign in 1999. TSC
advocates a participatory and demand driven approach, taking a district as a unit with
significant involvement of Gram Panchayats and local communities. It moves away from
the infrastructure focussed approach of the earlier programs and concentrates on
promoting behaviour change. Rural sanitation coverage has received a fillip under the
TSC, increasing from just 22 per cent in 2001 to nearly 57 per cent in 2008.

Improved sanitation facilities

Connection to a public sewer
Connection to a septic system
Pour-flush latrine
Simple pit latrine*
Ventilated improved pit latrine
Unimproved sanitation facilities
Public or shared latrine
Open pit latrine
Bucket latrine

*Only a portion of poorly defined categories of latrines are included in

sanitation coverage estimates. 8
Water is a basic requirement of human being. Due to increasing demand of water by
industry, agriculture, urbanization and population growth, the water resource is depleting
continuously. It resulted in decline in per capita availability of water. At independence,
India’s population was less than 400 million and per capita availability over 5000 cubic
meters per year. Fifty years later, population has grown to over a billion and per capita
availability has fallen to hardly more than 2000 cubic meters per year (Planning
Commission 2002).The Millennium Development Goal has set the target to reduce the
proportion of people with sustainable access to safe drinking water by fifty percent by
2015(UNDP2008). Therefore government of India made an agenda to provide the
drinking water all habitations on a sustainable basis by 2010. The provision of drinking
water to habitations is not new in India. It has started from the first five year plan and
continued till the present plan. Under each budget, the funds are allotted to provide safe
drinking water to habitations in the country. Government of India made a national
drinking water mission which is named as Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water
Mission in 1986. A huge investment in drinking water is made under this program to
provide the sustainable drinking water to habitation in urban and rural area. In addition to
this, Bharat Nirman has been launched by the government of India in 2005. During four
year (2005-06 to 2008-09) period, 55067 uncovered and about 3.31 lakh slipped back
habitations are to be covered with provision of drinking water facilities and 2.17 lakh
quality affected habitations are to be addressed for water quality problem (Planning
Commission 2008).

Safe drinking water has prominent benefits because it directly improves the health and
economic productivity of the population. The mortality, morbidity, malnutrition, other
water borne and water washed can be reduced through the safe sources of drinking water.
It reduces fifty percent diarrhea among children (UNICEF 1999).The time saved from
carrying water can be utilized for leisure, schooling, income earning etc. It further leads
9
to the human and economic development. But lack of improved sources of safe drinking
water forces women and children to carry the drinking water from the longer distance and
from non improved sources. The direct and indirect cost due to unsafe drinking water is
very high for the poor households. The direct cost such as expenditure on travel,
medicines and loss of income is very low. The indirect cost such as time spent in hospital,
travel time, queue at each specialist doctor and loss of school days among school children
are difficult to count. Most of the diseases are repeated and patients get treatment in the
private hospitals or depend on the self, traditional medication etc.

Safe drinking water: An overview

Safe drinking water is important from the social, economic and cultural point of view.
The safe drinking water is defined as safe for health at different locations, seasons, time
etc.

The Department of Drinking water and Sanitation (DDWS 2005) has defined that
“Drinking water is water intended for human consumption for drinking and cooking
purposes from any source. It includes water supplied by pipes or any other means for
human consumption by any supplier”. Drinking water is also defined as water free from
different insects. In short, the potable water should not have bacteria or insects and it
should not create any harmful effect on human body. In general, those households have
access to drinking water from tap, tub well or hand pump situated within or outside the
premises, it is considered as having access to safe drinking water.

The Right to Water and Sanitation: A separate dimension of advocacy

centres on the concept of water as a human right, this being omitted
from the original Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 2002, the
UN Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights approved a
“General Comment” which recognises water and sanitation as a
human right, but this articulates a goal for signatory countries rather
than a universal legal obligation.

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Government of India has accepted the idea of welfare state and took the responsibility to
provide the safe drinking water to all households. Water is considered as pure public
good. It can not be sold and purchased on a commercial basis. Therefore government is
playing dominant role in order to supply and management of drinking water supply to
habitations. It has adopted norms of 40lpcd for human needs. The norms for drinking (3
lpcd), cooking (5 lpcd), bathing (15 lpcd), washing utensils and house (7 lpcd) and for
ablution (10 lpcd) are different. In addition to this, the provision of 30 lpcd for animals is
also allotted in extreme weather ecosystem or desert areas. Government has assured that
it will supply the minimum requirement of drinking water supply to all habitations.

At present, 95 percent of the households in the urban area and 85 percent of the
households in rural area have access to safe drinking water supply. Most of the water
supply systems in rural area slip back and households remained without safe sources of
drinking water. Drought is a major contributor to the slip back villages and habitations.

Improved drinking water sources

Household connection
Public standpipe
Borehole
Protected dug well
Protected spring
Rainwater collection
Unimproved drinking water sources
Unprotected well
Unprotected spring
Rivers or ponds
Vendor-provided water
Bottled water*
Tanker truck water

*Bottled water is not considered improved due to limitations in the potential quantity,
not quality, of the water.

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Chapter: 2

PROGRAMMES TO ADDRESS WATER AND SANITATION IN INDIA

TOTAL SANITATION CAMPAIGN (TSC)

Total Sanitation Campaign is a comprehensive programme to ensure sanitation facilities

in rural areas with broader goal to eradicate the practice of open defecation. TSC as a part
of reform principles was initiated in 1999 when Central Rural Sanitation Programme was
restructured making it demand driven and people centered. It follows a principle of “low
to no subsidy” where a nominal subsidy in the form of incentive is given to rural poor
households for construction of toilets. TSC gives strong emphasis on Information,
Education and Communication (IEC), Capacity Building and Hygiene Education for
effective behaviour change with involvement of PRIs, CBOs, and NGOs etc. The key
intervention areas are Individual household latrines (IHHL), School Sanitation and
Hygiene Education (SSHE), Community Sanitary Complex, Anganwadi toilets supported
by Rural Sanitary Marts (RSMs) and Production Centers (PCs). The main goal of the
GOI is to eradicate the practice of open defecation by 2010. To give fillip to this
endeavor, GOI has launched Nirmal Gram Puraskar to recognize the efforts in terms of
cash awards for fully covered PRIs and those individuals and institutions who have
contributed significantly in ensuring full sanitation coverage in their area of operation.
The project is being implemented in rural areas taking district as a unit of
implementation.

School Sanitation & Hygiene Education

School Sanitation and Hygiene Education, widely known as SSHE, is a comprehensive
programme to ensure child friendly water supply, toilet and hand washing facilities in the
schools and promote behavioral change by hygiene education. SSHE not only ensures
child’s right to have healthy and clean environment but also leads to an effective learning
and enrolment of girls in particular, and reduce diseases and worm infestation. SSHE was
introduced in the RCRSP programme in 1999 both in TSC as well as in allocation based

12
component. At present, SSHE is implemented under Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)
and given special thrust by following the proven route of teacher-children-family-
community where child is a change-agent playing an effective role on sustained basis to
spread the message of improved sanitary and healthy practices. TSC has made provision
for toilet facility and hygiene education in all types of Government Rural Schools i.e.
Primary, Upper Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary schools with emphasis on
toilets for girls. Central Government, State Government and Parent Teachers/GP share
the cost in the ratio of 60:30:10. Govt. is committed to cover all uncovered rural schools
with water and sanitation facility and also imparting hygiene education by 2005-2006.
Anganwadi Sanitation
In order to change the behaviour of the children from very early stage in life, it is
essential that Anganwadis are used as a platform of behaviour change of the children as
well as the mothers attending the Anganwadis. For this purpose each anganwadi should
be provided with a baby friendly toilet. One toilet of unit cost upto Rs 5,000 can be
constructed for each Anganwadi or Balwadi in the rural areas where incentive to be given
by Government of India will be restricted to Rs 3,000. Additional expenses can be met by
the State Government or the Panchayats.
TSC - Community Sanitation
Community Sanitary Complex is an important component of the TSC. Primarily these
complexes is constructed only when there is lack of space in the village for construction
of household toilets and the community owns up the responsibility of their operation and
maintenance. The ultimate aim is to ensure construction of maximum Individual
Household latrines and construction of community complexes will be restricted to only
when Individual household latrines cannot be constructed. These complexes can be set up
in a place in the village acceptable to women / men / landless families and accessible to
them. There is a maximum unit cost of Rs. 2.5 lakh prescribed for a community complex.
Its’ design has to be approved by the National Scheme Sanctioning Committee. Sharing
pattern amongst GOI, State Government and the beneficiaries is in the ratio of 60:20:20.
Total expenditure proposed on Community Sanitary Complex and IHHL should be
within the ceiling of 60 percent of the total project cost. The Panchayat can give the

13
beneficiary contribution and also has to take a leading role in its in terms of land, money
and maintenance.
Rural Water Supply
The Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) was introduced in 1972-73
by the Government of India to assist the States and Union Territories (UTs) to accelerate
the pace of coverage of drinking water supply. The entire programme was given a
Mission approach with the launch of the Technology Mission on Drinking Water and
Related Water Management in 1986. Later in 1999 Department of Drinking Water
Supply was formed to give more emphasis on Rural Water Supply programme.
The Bharat Nirman Programme is a step taken towards building up a strong Rural India
by strengthening the infrastructure in six areas viz. Housing, Roads, Electrification,
Communication(Telephone), Drinking Water and Irrigation, with the help of a plan to be
implemented in four years, from 2005-06 to 2008-09. The primary responsibility of
providing drinking water facilities in the country rests with State Governments. The
efforts of State Governments are supplemented by Government of India by providing
financial assistance under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Accelerated Rural Water
Supply Programme (ARWSP). ARWSP has been under implementation since 1972-73.
In 1986, the National Drinking Water Mission, renamed as Rajiv Gandhi National
Drinking Water Mission in 1991, was launched and further in 1999, the Department of
Drinking Water Supply was created, to provide a renewed focus with mission approach to
implement programmes for rural drinking water supply.

Water Quality Overview

Water Quality in the Rural Drinking Water Supply has emerged as a major issue. There
was no proper emphasis on water quality till the end of the 6th Five Year Plan and even
in the Seventh Plan before launching the National Drinking Water Mission in 1986.

The primary objectives of the National Drinking Water Mission set up in 1986 was to
improve the performance and cost effectiveness of the on-going programmes in the field
of rural drinking water supply and to ensure the availability of an adequate quantity of
drinking water of acceptable quality on a long term basis.

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The primary objectives of the Mission included monitoring the quality of water after
identification of problems, tackling the same by the application of science and technology
to ensure that the water available is of acceptable quality and ensure that the quantity and
quality of water is sustainable on a long term basis by proper water management
technique and implementations of management information system.

WATER AND SANITATION IN ELEVENTH YEAR PLAN

Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)

6.31 Provision of sanitation facilities in rural areas has been highly inadequate. Many
programmes were initiated in the past to expand coverage but with little success. In 1999
the DoDWS was lunched “Total Sanitation Campaign” (TSC) which is a demand-
responsive, community oriented low subsidy programme in a project mode. The
performance of project mode TSC was very satisfactory and therefore from 2002-03, the
entire CRSP has been converted into TSC. The objective of TSC was attaining 100%
sanitation coverage in terms of household toilets, schools and Anganwadi toilets and also
providing hygiene education to the people.
6.32 The target of Millennium Development Goal is to cover 100% Rural Sanitation by
2015. Under TSC the target is to achieve 100% coverage by the end of Eleventh Plan
(2012). This programme also includes funds for Nirmal Gram Puraskar which has helped
in accelerating the pace of implementation of TSC since its inception in 2005. The
approach of Nirmal Gram Puraskar also helps in sustainability and maintenance of the
sanitation programme. The outlay proposed for Eleventh Plan is Rs.7816 crore (Rs.6910
crore at 2006-07 prices). The allocation for AP 2007-08 is Rs.1060 crore. The physical
target for Eleventh Plan is to cover 69 million households, 25769 sanitary complexes,
133,114 aganwadis, all the remaining schools (new schools will be covered under Sarva
Shiksha Abhiiyan) and RSM/PCs (figures will be finalized after the receipt of revised
proposals from the districts).

Drinking Water

15
6.14 Bharat Nirman envisages covering the 55,067 Not Covered habitations, covering the
slipped back habitations from Not Covered to Partially Covered Status and providing safe
drinking water to water quality affected habitations. During the first two and half years
there is an impressive achievement (63%) in covering the slipped back habitations as they
are relatively easier (involves restoring the defunct bore pumps, carrying out repairs to
water supply pipelines and augmentation wherever required etc) to execute. The coverage
of Not Covered habitations has also progressed well with 48% of the targeted habitations
being covered. However, there is a huge shortfall in covering the quality affected
habitations in which only 5% coverage is achieved.

6.15 Sustainability of water supply has become the focal point to avoid slipped back
habitations. Convergence of various rural development programmes of Government( like
NREGP, BRGF, Watershed development, restoration of water bodies etc.) need to be
vigorously pursued supported by village level planning. The issue of water quality has
assumed serious proportions. While providing water supply from surface water sources
and the conjunctive use of groundwater, surface water and rooftop rainwater
harvesting would be ideal, in-situ methods like dilution of chemical contaminants
through augmented ground water recharge (aided through convergence of programmes),
adopting cost effective scientific water quality treatments on an individual village basis
would go a long way to improve coverage of water of water quality affected areas.

At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patient
suffering from water related disease.
Bindeshwar Pathak,
Founder, Sulabh Sanitation Movement

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17
 Water and Sanitation in Bihar

BIHAR is a culturally rich old civilization with its capital known as Patliputra in ancient
times. It’s the land of great religious leaders like Buddha, Mahavir and Guru Govind
Singh. `Ahimsa’ was propagated from here and Gandhiji launched his civil-disobedience
movement against the mighty British from the state of Bihar. During ancient times the
women enjoyed equal status with that of men but the patriarchal joint-family system has
resulted in the downfall in the status of women that is persisting even today. Bihar is
home to multi caste and multi dialect group of people where females are under purdah
(head and face covered with tip of the saree and look down) and do not avail similar level
of freedom as enjoyed by men in the society. Bihar, one of India’s most populous States
with a population of 83 million, is now confronted with challenges in providing proper
rural water supply, hygiene and sanitation facilities. The condition in terms of sanitation
is dismal. Poor sanitation has become a serious threat to public health.
The women and children in particular have been the worst affected victims. This may be
substantiated by a few facts- 3.7% of infants below one year of age die of diarrhoea, in
sharp contrast to all-India average of 2.4%. Also, about 4 in every 10 married women
report at least one reproductive health problem arising from poor hygiene behaviour.

Problems faced by Women due to improper Hygiene and Sanitation facilities in

Bihar
The baseline surveys shows more than 90% of women in Bihar have no options but to go
out in open for defecation. Lack of basic sanitation facilities and safe water is an acute
problem for the girls and women in rural area. Hence sanitation and hygiene are critical
to the interests of women. The various difficulties faced by women due to improper
sanitation and lack of hygiene practices are mainly due to the compulsion of going out in
the fields before sunrise or after sunset. For this they have to curb their urges and suffer
from many health problems. This problem is not only related to hygiene but also to the
dignity of women. Privacy is a right, which is being snatched away. This practice has
also become a threat to their security and safety as it provides immense opportunity to
many evildoers to molest the honour of the women. Many a times, grown up girls refuse
18
to go to schools or parents do not allow them to go to school due to lack of sanitation
facilities, particularly the girls.

Water and Sanitation Delivery in Bihar:

Bihar State Water & Sanitation Mission (BSWSM) is nodal agency for implementation of
total Sanitation Campaign & Swajaldhara in the state of Bihar. It’s Mission is to Ensure
safe, sustainable, accessible and adequate Drinking water Supply to all habitations &
proper sanitation facilities and clean environment for healthy and better quality of life.
BSWSM guided by its vision with a view to achieving better quality of life through
improved public health outcomes, the Department is committed to ensuring adequate,
safe and sustainable availability of water and adequate sanitation facilities to all
habitations including safe means of excreta disposal to all households and public
premises and improved sanitation practices at the household and community level, with
community participation by empowering all sections of the society including women and
disadvantaged groups.

Sanitation and MDG 7

Sanitation is one of the most pressing global development issues and is
appropriately included in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Out of
eight MDGs, three are directly linked to sanitation: reduce child mortality,
combat disease and ensure environmental sustainability. Even the first goal,
eradicate extreme poverty, is linked to sanitation as high health and coping
costs associated with illnesses caused by inadequate sanitation drain
productivity and incomes, contributing to poverty. One of the targets under
the MDG Goal 7: ensure environmental sustainability, is to halve, by 2015,
the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and
safe sanitation

IF Bihar Miss MDGs, India Will Miss MDGs

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Delivery mechanism:

Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)

It is a government initiated programme which is aimed at creating demand and providing
Sanitation facilities to all household, schools and Anganwadis (Child care centres). It
aims at making a village clean and 100% sanitized and adopt better hygiene practices
among all family members. For benefiting the women from marginalized and poor
communities, there is a provision of giving Rs.1700/- as incentive to a BPL (Below
20
Poverty Line) family who constructs a toilet (Under Lohia Swakshta Yojna Bihar govt.
has been providing additional subsidy in the nature of promotional amount to both APL
and BPL.). The programme aims to bring a behavioural change in the sanitation habit of
community. Also there is a provision for school toilet separate for girls and boys in each
school. Swajaldhara is also government initiated programme to provide safe drinking
water to all families in rural areas on demand basis and managed by communities
themselves. This also focuses on women from marginalized communities thus reducing
their burdens.

Rural Drinking Water:

The govt. of Bihar has been implementing programme sponsored by Central government.
Programmes being implemented by Bihar Government are:

Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP): This programme is focused

on providing adequate water for all. rural habitation not having any safe water source
with a permanently settled population of 20 households or 100 persons, whichever is
more, may be taken as the unit for coverage with funds under the ARWSP. However, the
State Government could cover any habitation regardless of its size/population/number of
households with funds under the MNP. DDP areas and SC/ST habitations with less than
100 persons can, however, be covered under the ARWSP.

Swajaldhara: The programme is a paradigm shift from supply driven to demand driven,
centralized to decentralized implementation and Government's role from service provider
to facilitator. The fundamental reform principles in Swajaldhara are adhered to by the
State Governments and the Implementing Agencies in terms of adoption of a demand-
responsive approach with community participation. It is based on empowerment of
villagers to ensure their full participation in the project through a decision making role in
the choice of the drinking water scheme, planning, design, implementation, control of
finances, management arrangements including full ownership of drinking water assets.
The community has to share partial capital cost either in cash or kind or both, 100%

21
responsibility of operation and maintenance (O&M). An integrated service delivery
mechanism is also promoted which includes taking up conservation measures through
rainwater harvesting and ground water recharge systems for sustained drinking water
supply.

Water Quality Programme: Bihar govt. has been making efforts towards making the
general mass aware on quality of water. Testing of Water quality of existing water
sources is done through the field kit. This has been decentralized up to Panchayat level
and Mukhia of Panchayat is responsible for regular water quality monitoring. At ditstict
level it is being coordinated by PHED of respective district.

UNICEF is committed to facilitate the implementation of TSC and Swajaldhara

programmes in Bihar ensuring gender equity, social inclusion, sustainable use and
community participation and decision making process particularly the women folks.
Key steps were taken for empowering women by moving gender strategy into
practice.
Apart from UNICEF issue focused International Agency like WaterAid has been
making efforts to ensure water and sanitation to most excluded section of society in
5 districts. WaterAid has been also working in flood prone districts of Bihar.

Achievements (Water and Sanitation in Bihar):

 7500 tola/hamlets are covered by installing hand pump
 484638 house hold toilets constructed in BPL families
 150734 house hold toilets constructed in APL families
 151 Panchayats nominated for Nirmal Gram Purashkar
 Water quality tasted of 226000 hand pump
 1431.50 crore allocated for rapid construction of sustainable toilets in rural areas
under Lohia Swakshata Abhiyan.
 741 Roof Top Rain Water harvesting scheme in 23 districts approved.

22
  Establishment of solar based pump for treatment of drinking water based on
membrane method in 100 fluoride/Arsenic affected area.
Source: BIHAR REPORT CARD 2008

23
Chapter : 3
Introduction of Target Area
District: PATNA
Patna is the state capital. TSC coverage percentage of Patna district is 47.68 lower than
Vaishali 56.95 %.1 In Patna district there are 430,384 house hold in which 112,470 have
toilets and 317,914 toilets are to be constructed2. To achieve the target by 2012 Patna will
have to construct more than one lakh toilets per year and near about three hundred toilets
per day.
Sanitation coverage was 26.13 % in year 2001-02 and 26.23 % in year 2005-06. The pace
of coverage was very slow till 2005-06. The pace of coverage has been accelerated
during the year 2007-08 and 2008-09. The increase percentage coverage was 4 % in
2007-08 higher than of previous year 2% and rapidly increased in 2008-09 by 14.66%.
School sanitation coverage is also not good. 2642 toilet at school and 74 Balwadi toilets
were constructed during March 1999 to March 2009. This shows that institutional
coverage of sanitation is very poor.

1
Percentage (%) is showing on the basis of Census 2001 figures (Household not having toilets)
2
Source: Ministry of Rural Development, Dept. of Drinking Water Supply up to date 29/04/09

24
 60

50

40

Coverage
30
Percentage

20

10

0
20 02

20 03

20 04

20 05

20 06

20 07

20 08

9
-0
-

-
-

-
01

02

03

04

05

06

08
07
20

Target Block: Patna Sadar (Rural)

Demographic profile: Patna Sadar Block
Master Data of Panchayats
STATE: BIHAR DISTRICT: PATNA BLOCK: PATNA SADAR
Hosuehold as per
Baseline Survey BPL Family APL Family School Toilet
with without with without with without
Sl. Panchayats Total SC ST Tlt. Tlt. Tlt. Tlt. Tlt. Tlt.
DIGHA
1 EAST 1369 229 0 23 588 153 605 0 1
DIGHA
2 WEST 1492 296 0 27 698 151 616 0 4
EAST
3 MAINPURA 1546 294 0 31 613 162 730 0 4
4 FATEHPUR 1526 294 0 29 705 154 638 0 6
5 MAHULI 1308 143 0 24 611 142 531 0 4
6 MARCHI 1283 331 0 21 604 147 511 0 3
7 NAKTA 933 32 0 17 401 136 379 0 2

25
 DIYARA
NORTH
8 MAINPURA 1385 65 0 24 671 143 547 0 3
9 PUNADIH 1186 126 0 19 546 144 477 0 8
10 SABALPUR 2252 284 0 43 1044 287 878 0 7
SONAWA
11 PUR 1652 194 0 33 765 161 693 0 8
WEST
12 MANPURA 1372 212 0 25 594 247 506 0 2
Grand Total 17304 2500 0 316 7840 2027 7111 0 52
Source: Ministry of Rural Development, NIC-Dept. of Drinking Water Supply

Patna Sadar block is constituted by 12 block and some of them are near by the district
headquarter and PHED district office as well as state office. Despite its strategic location
not a single panchayat has received Nirmal Gram Purashkar. Data also shows that
institutional coverage is also low.

26
Demographic Profile Mainpura East Panchayat

Panchayat Status of Baseline survey

Sl No Components Status
1 Total Household 1546
2 Total SC HH 294
3 Total ST HH 0
4 Total General HH 1252
5 Total BPL HH (with & without toilet) 644
6 Total APL HH (with & without toilet) 892
7 Total Schools (with & without toilet) 4
8 Total Balwadi (with & without toilet) 0
Total Sanitary Complex (with & without
9 toilet) 0

Panchayat status (not having toilets) progress received upto 11/2008

Target (As
Sl No Components per BLS) Achievement

1 IHHL BPL (without toilet) 613 101

2 IHHL APL (without toilet) 730 1
3 IHHL TOTAL (without toilet) 1343 102
4 School Toilets 4 0
5 Balwadi Toilets 0 1
6 Sanitary Complex 0 0

In Mainpura panchayat 1343 household out of 1546 is without toilet. Schools have not been
covered. It is one of the neglected panchayat. Now initiative have been taken by an NGO
namely Nidan. They have started construction of toilets in Mainpura village (Nehru Nagar) and
aimed at making this Panchayat OD free. They have constructed total 160 toilets in this
Panchayat. They have also constructed two toilets in Aganwadi. Nidan’s initiative is appreciable
but there is a long run to go. Water tank has also been installed and people will get pipe water
supply very soon. So there is also an opportunity for community member to get pure potable
water. Since the people are still getting drinking water from hand pump so there is need of water
quality awareness and monitoring.

27
Targeted Panchayat:

28
 "Sanitation is more important than independence," Mahatma Gandhi”

Targeted Village: Mainpura (Nehru Nagar)

Demographic Profile:
Name of Total Sex Caste
Village Household

Male Female Total SC/ST OBC Upper Muslim

Cast

Mainpura 137 452 437 889 85 31 7 14

Source: BLS

Background of the village:

In 1970, a village of 150 Musahar families used to be located about half a kilometer
away from the present habitation. According to people, vast stretches of area in Digha,
Raja Pul, Boring road, Rajeev Nagar and Kurji used to be agricultural land owned by
farmers belonging to Kurmi and Aheer castes and the labourers used to receive 1 sack of
rice on reaping 8 sacks. The flood of 1975 washed away the entire village and the
affected families moved to the Mainpura slum after water receded. At present, around
889 people belonging to 137 families live in this slum, of which 53 families are of
Musahars. The commonest livelihoods pursued by people of Mainpura include
ragpicking (base of as many as 51 families), rickshaw pulling, household work, pulling
handcarts etc. Limited number of public water points, absence of proper drainage, bad
roads and absence of employment opportunities were mentioned as some of the main
issues of Mainpura.

29
Sanitation coverage in targeted village:

Village: Mainpura Mushari

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09
% Coverage 80 75 50 50 40 30 25 95
% Usage 10 10 10 10 10 10 25 97

In this village toilet were constructed during construction of Houses by the government
they were not in use. People used to keep cow dung cake in their toilets. The coverage
was 80 % but usage was 10% later no. of family increased and % of coverage went down.
An NGO took initiative under TSC programme and coverage as well as usage both went
up and now especially mushar’s habitations are fully covered and toilets are in use.

30
Situation of Water Source in Mainpura Mushari

Si Identification of Type of Situati Water Garbage Drain Situation

No. Water Source water on of Logging dumping near of
source water source Platform
source

1 Near kali mandir Mark III Good Yes Yes Yes Good

2. Near Subhash Ray Mark III Bad Yes Yes Yes Bad
House

3. Near Munakiya Desi HP Bad Yes Yes Yes Bad

Devi House

4. Near Hemanti Desi HP Good Yes Yes Yes Good

Devi house

5. Near Bachcha Well Bad Yes Yes Yes Bad

Babu house

6. Chamartoli Mark III Good Yes Yes Yes Bad

Source: On the spot visit

People are totally dependent on three water sources for drinking purposes. Three hand
pumps serve to 137 families. The pressure on each water source increase the time taken
in collection of drinking water. Though these are physical observation but as far as water
quality is concern it is not being done regularly and there is a chance of bacteriological
contamination in the absence of good platform. Water logging and dumping of garbage
nearby the water source also increases the chances of bacteriological contamination.

31
 Panorama

Street Theatre: Awareness Programme in Community

Awareness Programme in School

32
HP platform: Before

HP platform: After

33
 Washing Platform

IEC material for awareness

34
 Honorable Chief Minister Flag off ceremony at Nalanda

Human Chain in front of Raj Bhawan during Gram Gaurav Yatra

35
Honorable Minister to Media before launch of second Phase of Yatra

His Excellency, Honorable Minister, Honorable MLAs during yatra

36
 Chapter : 4

Ray of Hope: Good initiative taken so far by Bihar Govt.

TSC’s inclusion in five-point agenda of chief Minister. The fact that sanitation is
high on the state agenda is also borne by the fact that the state launched LSY.

Gram Gaurav Yatra for demand generation: Bihar Government along with
WaterAid and UNICEF organized a month long Gram Gaurav Yatra to make the
state fully covered with sanitation. The Yatra was unique as it is first o such
initiative in any state. The honorable minister of PHED Sri Ashwini Kumar
Chaubey and other member of legislative assembly lived in villages during yatra
and inspired people to take up toilet construction. The yatra was flagged off by
state chief minister Sri Nitish Kumar on January 28, 2009 from Rajgir in Nalanda
district. Second phase of yatra was inaugurated by his Excellency, Governor of
Bihar on 1st February. Committed NGOs like Nidan organized a human chain of
school going girls at Raj Bhawan to show the solidarity and commitment towards
achieving the MDGs of sanitation and his Excellency, Governer of Bihar Sri R. L.
Bhatia and honorable minister Sri Ashwini Chaube with other members of Bihar
legislative assembly Sri Nitin Naveen, Sri Anil joined their hands in human chain
to show their support. Later second phase of yatra was stated after flagging off by
his Excellency from Raj Bhwan chowk. Honorable Minister, Rural Development,
Govt. of India, Sri Raghuvansh Prasad Singh participated in the third phase of
yatra. During the Yatra toilets were also constructed by local NGOs for
demonstration of low cost toilet technology and govt. support. The programme
was grand success. It was a good initiative taken by the govt.

The Bihar govt. has been providing subsidy to both families APL and BPL. The
govt. has also shown its commitment through increasing subsidy.

37
 Good Initiative by NGO

Nidan is a non-governmental organization and has been working in Mainpura east panchayat
with the support of PHED. Nidan has also been working with WaterAid on water and sanitation
issue in Mainpura Mushari. Nidan has formed a village level committee in Mainpura to plan and
implement the water and sanitation programme in viallge. There are 20 member in the
executive committee who are elected by the general body in which all everyone of this village is
member. There is a bank A/C in the name of the committee. Committee name is “Jal and
Swakshata Committee, Mainpura”. The A/C is operated by elected President, Secretary and
Cashier.

In the A/C of committee near there is Rs. 29000.00 which was provided by Nidan as revolving
fund for the village. Committee gives loan to its member for construction of toilet and use in
repairing of Hand Pump. Later member return it to the committee and thus money revolve.
Earlier when hand pump broke then people collect money and then get it repaired. This process
was time taking because villagers are very poor and it is difficult for them to collect money at
the same time. Now this process has minimized the break down time of HP. 3000 have been
given to members for toilet construction which they will return in easy installment.

People use to wash and bath on the platform of Handpump which not only damage the HP
platform but also increase unnecessary crowd at water source. Later the people of committee
decided to construct a washing place to reduce the crowd at water source. Nidan too initiative
and constructed a washing platform in Mainpura. People use this washing platform for washing
and bathing. Now HP platform is durable.

Before taking any initiative Nidan organized continuous awareness events like street play,
community meeting, celebration of sanitation week, home visit, interaction with PRI
representatives and other stake holders like AWW. They also organized awareness programme
in schools to make the children aware on the issue and children are the agent of change for their
family.

38
Findings:

Slow Progress of TSC programme targeted block not a single Gram Panchayat
has achieved the target of open defecation free pancyayat. In Patna district Only
4 gram panchayat has received Nirmal Gram Purashkar.

The progress of TSC is very slow in some Panchayats like Digha East, Digha
West, Fathpur, Nakta Diyara, North Mainpura, West Mainpura, Sonwapur.

Situation of Hand pumps are not good and break down time is very high.

In many cases hand pump never worked after its installation. There is low level of
community level monitoring.

People are unaware of water quality.

Water quality monitoring is not done properly.

Sanitation is still a taboo for media and general mass.

Subsidy is perceived to be the foremost driver for toilets construction.

Non-availability of committed NGOs has been a major gap in implementation of

programme and achieving the target every month.

The coverage rate for school sanitation has also suffered fro non-availability of
land for construction of toilets. (In Mainpura Mushari School an NGO namely
Nidan working on water and sanitation issue with PHED and an international
NGO WATERAID planned to construct a school sanitation block but due to non-
availability of land the plan was not executed. Even Mukhiya is unable to provide
land to execute the plan.)

Lack of independent monitoring system (PHED has internal monitoring system)

for water and Sanitation programme. At block level JE and BDO are responsible
while at district level EE, DDC and TSC District Coordinator are responsible for

39
monitoring. This seems to be additional work without additional benefits and
staffs with regular department works.

Programme is focused on construction of toilets and usage is ignored. There is no

good system of regular follow up for usage.

Current rate of programme is not able to achieve MDGs.

Panchayat Raj elected representatives are not enough capacitate to play active role
in programme.

Lack of skills in line staffs to carry out and supervision, cost sharing and MIS etc.

Not good convergence of ASHA, AWC, Ward member etc. made with PHED
initiative.

Impact of IEC is not very effective. Programme is unable to take care of usage
and behavior change aspects of sanitation.

Awareness level is still low.

Strong Political Commitment - TSC is now one of the priority programmes of

Govt. of Bihar.

A unique Mass Awareness Campaign was launched by the Minister, Sri Ashwini
Chaube, PHED. Under this campaign vehicle with sanitation messages displayed
all over it’s body. Honorable minister himself visited to villages of several district
and blocks for demand creation. During the campaign many HH toilets were
constructed. International organization like WaterAid and Unicef Supported the
campaign.

40
Suggestions:

Promotional cost for the NGOs should be increased to have good and
committed NGOs in the target area.

Additional staffs should be provided to line departments to share the

additional bureden than regular work. There should be also incentive for
line department’s staffs.

Beneficiaries should be given the power to give certificate of installation

of water sources to contractor (generally mechanics).

Line department staffs should be trained to develop skill to carry out plan
and implementation of the programme.

PRI representatives should be capacitated.

Community should be trained to monitor the installation / creation of new

water sources.

Community should be trained for operation and maintenance of water

sources.

Women’s SHG should be provided revolving fund and training to ensure

their active participation.

There is also need of departmental coordination like PHED, Education,

Health, Land etc.

Quality of construction should also be addressed. Hence, a strong

mechanism for monitoring construction quality needs to be devised and
put in place.

There is also a need to revisit the content and delivery of IEC activities to
ensure the inclusion of health issues in message design and positioning.

41
Active involvement of PRIs and SHGs of Women need to be ensured in
awareness creation and community mobilization efforts so as to create as
sense of ownership of sanitation agenda at the local level.

Ensuring timely release of funds to NGOs implementing programme.

Govt. should promote journalist and media persons for writing on

sanitation issue so that it is no more a taboo in Bihar.

Total Sanitation Approach in programmes

42
Chapter : 5

Annexure: 1

Case Studies

I am Urmila Devi resident of Manipura (Nehru Nagar). I am 48 year old and live
with my husband and one granddaughter. I have constructed toilet in my house. I
received subsidy for construction of toilet. In the absence of toilet women have to
go to relieve themselves after darkness early in the morning and late in the
evening. There many imprecations related with open defecation like gastric,
infection, teasing etc. Toilet is the issue of dignity for women. I practice hand
washing at critical time and keep drinking water and food covered.

43
I am Kameshar Ray resident of Mainpura mushari (Nehru Nagar). I am 52 years old. I
live here with my family. There are four members in my family my wife, two sons and
me. I constructed the toilets and use it. Open defecation is not difficult for women only
but men. People used to go in open for latrine because that time toilet construction was
money intensive. Now it is not easy to construct toilets because there are many low cost
technologies of toilet construction. Government has also been providing subsidy for
construction of toilet. I have not only constructed toilet but also practice hand washing.
Sanitation is very important because it saves our life and money.

44
 Annexure: 2

References:
Base Line Survey Report: NIDAN
Bihar Report Card 2008
Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation Website www.ddws.nic.in
Eleventh Five year Plan

Feeling the Pulse: A study of the total Sanitation Campaign in five states
India Country Paper: SACOSAN III
Millennium Development Goals: India Country Report
Poverty Pockets Assessment Study: Nidan
Sustainable Development of Water Resources, Water Supply and Environmental
Sanitation: Nadarajah S. Moorthy
Times of India
TSC Guidelines, www.ddws.nic.in/publication.htm
Wikipedia

45
 Annexure : 3

GLOSSARY

Above/Below Poverty Line: To measure poverty, it is standard to look at level of

personal expenditure or income required to satisfy a minimum consumption level. The
Planning Commission of the Government of India uses a food adequacy norm of 2400 to
2100 kilo calories per capita per day to define state-specific poverty lines separately for
rural and urban areas. These poverty lines are then applied on India’s National Sample
Survey Organization’s household consumer expenditure distributions to estimate the
proportion and number of poor at State level.

Anganwadi: pre-school, initiative under the Integrated Child Development Scheme of

the Government of India

Civil Society: Civil society comprises the totality of voluntary civic and social
organizations and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, in contrast with
commercial organizations or state-backed structures. It can include organizations such as
registered charities, development non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community
groups, women's organizations, faith-based organizations professional associations, trade
unions, self-help groups, social movement’s coalitions and advocacy groups

Infant Mortality Rate: refers to number of deaths per thousand live births in the first
year of a child’s life.

Information, Education, Communication: software activities that support and promote

the provision of program services and facilities, e.g. media campaigns, capacity building
activities, community hygiene promotion sessions and so on.

Life expectancy: number of years an individual (at any age) is expected to live given the
prevailing age specific mortality rates of the population to which he/she belongs.

Panchayati Raj Institutions: The term ‘Panchayat’ literally means ‘council of five [wise
and respected leaders]’ and ‘Raj’ means governance. Traditionally, these councils settled
disputes between individuals and villages. Modern Indian Government has adopted this
traditional term as a name for its initiative to decentralize certain administrative functions
to elected local bodies at village, block and district level. It is usually called Gram

46
Panchayat at village level, Panchayat Samiti at block level and Zila Parishad at district
level.

Sex Ratio: number of female per thousand males

Millennium Development Goals: The Millennium Development Goals are eight goals to
be achieved by 2015 that respond to the world's main development challenges. These
include:
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

NGP: To add vigor to the TSC, in June 2003, GoI initiated an incentive scheme for fully
sanitized and open defecation free Gram Panchayats, Blocks, and Districts called the '
Nirmal Gram Puraskar'. (A) Gram Panchayats, Blocks and Districts, which achieve
100% sanitation coverage in terms of (a) 100% sanitation coverage of individual house
holds, (b) 100% school sanitation coverage (c) free from open defecation and (d) clean
environment maintenance. (B) Individuals and organizations, who have been the driving
force for effecting full sanitation coverage in the respective geographical area are given
Nirmal Gram Purashkar.

Total sanitation approach: a community-wide approach based on participatory

principles which seeks to achieve not only 100 per cent open defecation free communities
but also broader environmental sanitation objectives such as promotion of improved
hygiene behaviours and solid/liquid waste management.

47