#25. Role of GPWSC village Aloona Pallah In management of Rural Water Supply
This story narrates the successful initiatives taken by Sh. Karam Singh Chairperson GPWSC, Sh. Sukhwinder Singh, accountant and Sh. Amandeep Singh, Secretary through the Gram Panchyat Water and Sanitation Committee village Allona Pallah, district Ludhiana of in the context of revival of non financial sustainable water supply scheme
Aloona Pallah village is located in Payal Tehsil of district in Punjab. It is situated 30 km away from Ludhiana, which is also the district headquarter of village. Village Aloona pallah was like any other village in Punjab craving for basic amenities few years back. Water was an expensive commodity for the villagers. Life was stressed for women and folks.
Initiatives taken by Department of Water Supply and Sanitation (DWSS), Punjab with support of community has led to remarkable changes in the life of the villagers by providing piped drinking water supply to households. Water supply service levels have improved tremendously, with community taking full ownership of the scheme. Today, there are 308 households with 294 connections (95%) and 10-hour dawn to dusk water supply in this village with surplus amount in the GPWSC O&M Account.
How it was achieved?
Gram Panchayat Water & Sanitation Committee (GPWSC) was formed through Gram Sabha in the year 2011. Beneficiary share of Rs 131200/- was collected by the villagers for ensuring the involvement of community and to have ownership of the asset to be created right from the beginning of the scheme. IEC campaigns, GPWSC strengthening workshops and capacity building campaigns were held to motivate the community to create demand for piped water supply. The technical part i.e. construction of over head service reservoir, installation of tube-well, laying of drinking water mains & distribution pipeline, individual household tap connections were installed by operations team while the behavioral change communication was carried out by social teams of the department. Timely strengthening of GPWSC was done through various IEC activities by the department as well to keep their motivation level up.
Financial Sustainability:
The scheme has been running smoothly and today there are no defaulters in the village and every month, water bills amounting more than 14000/- are collected from the consumers. The village is getting 10 hour piped drinking water supply. The water supply has flat tariff of Rs. 50 per month. The GPWSC has surplus savings in their bank account after meeting out monthly expenditures like, operator’s salary, revenue collector salary & other petty expenses. GPWSC is very cohesive and is also very active for making the water supply scheme financial sustainable.
Sh. Karam Singh Chairperson GPWSC explained until September 2021, the electricity bill was being paid by the committee. At that time Rs. 100 per month was charged as water bill from the consumers, but even then, it was becoming difficult to make the scheme financially sustainable. In October 2021, the Punjab Government decided to pay the electricity bills of water supply schemes on their own. The committee held a meeting with DWSS staff and after estimating its expenses, the water bill charged from the consumers was reduced from 100 rupees per month to 50 rupees per month. Consumers were also happy with the reduction in bills per month. With this decision, the committee got an opportunity to become economically strong. In the coming months, the committee also started saving around 3500 to 4000 rupees every month. After this decision, funds amounting to approximately 48000 rupees have been saved by committee and deposited in the O&M account. The pattern by which committee has obtained financial sustainability is depicted in the table below:-
| Sr. No. | Month/ Year | Revenue Collected | Exp on Salaries | Exp on Chemicals | Misc Exp | Electricity bills | Total Exp | Profit/ Loss |
| 1 | Jun-21 | 24500 | 8500 | 1000 | 1400 | 13800 | 24700 | -200 |
| 2 | Jul-21 | 25200 | 8500 | 1000 | 1500 | 13900 | 24900 | 300 |
| 3 | Aug-21 | 24000 | 8500 | 1000 | 1400 | 13700 | 24600 | -600 |
| 4 | Sep-21 | 25500 | 8500 | 1000 | 1700 | 13600 | 24800 | 700 |
| 5 | Oct-21 | 14200 | 8500 | 1000 | 1500 | 0 | 11000 | 3200 |
| 6 | Nov-21 | 13900 | 8500 | 1000 | 1300 | 0 | 10800 | 3100 |
| 7 | Dec-21 | 14100 | 8500 | 1000 | 1500 | 0 | 11000 | 3100 |
| 8 | Jan-22 | 14400 | 8500 | 1000 | 1600 | 0 | 11100 | 3300 |
From this table it is evident that until September 2021, this scheme was no able to meet their expenses. In some months expenditure was little more than income and in other months, expenditure was little less than income. Overall the scheme was running in no profit no loss situation.
From October 2021 onwards, this scheme has been running in profit consistently and committee has saved approx 48000/- rupees.
Solar System on Water Works:
There is a large football stadium in the village just next to water supply scheme and it needs water to maintain greenery. Previously, water was taken from the water supply scheme to irrigate the field, which increased the consumption of electricity and put additional financial burden on the committee. To tackle this issue, Gram panchayat installed a seven Kilowatt capacity solar power plant on the water works itself along with a separate tube well. This also made it easier for the committee to become financially stronger. GPWSC is planning to connect the solar power plant to the tube well of the water supply scheme to save energy.
Gram Panchayat Water Supply and Sanitation Committee are managing the scheme successfully covering every house in the village and ensuring everyone pays their monthly dues in time. In this, social staff is helping them with conducting need based IEC activities like wall paintings, door to door awareness drives, distribution of IEC material to the villagers and focus group discussions for strengthening of community and GPWSC. Proper chlorination is ensured by the committee and monthly meetings are conducted to ensure transparency, clear and direct accountability. Book keeping is done by Sh. Sukhwinder Singh, accountant who is very self-motivated and punctual. Sh. Amandeep Singh, Secretary of the GPWSC makes remarkable contribution in ensuring financial sustainability of the scheme. Presently, GPWSC has surplus savings in their Operation and Maintenance account of Rs 48000 after meeting the monthly expenditure such as pump operator salary and other miscellaneous expenses. The surplus amount from the collection is also being utilized by the GPWSC for beautifying the waterworks including fencing, pump chamber painting jobs and for routine maintenance of water works.
Shinder Kaur, a resident of the village is happy that they are getting the potable water at very cheap rates. She said that fresh water is being used for consumption as the water reaches the kitchen tap and with this, risk of water borne diseases has also been eliminated.
Social team comprising of IEC/CDS/BRCs are making strenuous efforts on awareness generation so that the people of the village are fully aware of water conservation and water saving techniques. In this regard, various campaigns like “taps on connection, Swachh Jal se Suraksha and gender based sensitization etc are being run in the village.
Inputs by Mr. Abhishek Hamilton, IEC Specialist
Paani di Kahaani (ਪਾਣੀ ਦੀ ਕਹਾਣੀ) 