#2. Breaking the shackles of dependence
Sukhgarh as the name suggests ‘fort of happiness’, is on its pursuit of bringing happiness in the realm of water to the village. It is now a model village with a well-functioning GPWSC(s) which aims to install Solar powered Water Supply Scheme in the near future to safeguard the environment. The village has 166households with 860 people living off the 186 water supply connections present.
In 2012, Sukhgarh was facing challenges in the water quantity as the supply was running from another village nearby called Raipur Kalan. Distressed with the insufficiency of water, the village Panchayat approached the Department of Water Supply and Sanitation for a solution. They provided the Panchayat with the details of the World Bank funded Punjab Rural Water and Sanitation Sector Improvement Project (PRWSSIP) . This project helped the village Panchayat to manage their own Water Supply Scheme with the guidance and trainings received from the Social and IEC wing on the topics of community management, water management, utilizing the powers vested in the GPWSC, coordination with the technical wing etc.
This led to the attainment of a fully-functional piped water supply in lieu of the beneficiary share collected from each household. The framework utilized for beneficiary share collection highlighted delay loopholes presenting trust issues with the authorities and the Panchayat. These issues led to the downfall of the
accounting system presently followed. The new Panchayat representing the village found it difficult to maintain the same accounting mechanism and as a result did not take up the water supply scheme being followed.
The ineffectiveness of the revenue collection in the Water Supply Scheme of the Sukhgarh village brought the DWSS to intercede again through innovative
IEC and Capacity Building trainings provided to the community. Door to door activities were also conducted and at the end, Revenue Collector was deployed to collect the revenue. The DWSS team convinced people and brought back trust in the system by sending printed bills to all consumers. The small accounting malfunction which led to the nonfunctional GPWSC is now modified and collecting Rs.25000-27000/- per month and there does not remain any defaulter in the village. The accounting mechanism has been regularized
with a fixed schedule and savings of more than Rs.50,000 in the O&M account. By receiving printed bills residents were realizing the sense of responsibility and thus reduced the number of defaulters to zero. The model village has resolved the issues twice and risen to become and maintain the status of fully functional village managed by the GPWSC.
The story truly reminds us of the quote below, by Michelle Obama:
” It was one thing to get yourself out of a stuck place, I realized. It was another thing entirely to try and get the place itself unstuck.”
Paani di Kahaani (ਪਾਣੀ ਦੀ ਕਹਾਣੀ) 