The '100-100' project in Odisha
Story of providing access to drinking water through solar-based solutions
Odisha State
Odisha is an eastern Indian state known for its tribal cultures and is endowed with vast natural resources. Odisha has a predominantly rural population dependent on agriculture and allied activities for livelihood.
There are many rural households in Odisha where people still have to collect drinking water from a distance of half a kilometer often from open water bodies i.e. river, stream, pond, chua etc. Mostly women and children are being engaged to fetch water for domestic consumption. These natural drinking water sources are often polluted due to a number of reasons, including environmental and ecological, which affects the quality of drinking water.
Odisha is a beautiful state rich in tribal arts, culture and natural resources.
In 2020, it was reported by state drinking water department that out of 47,411 villages in Odisha, 23,192 have not been covered with piped drinking water supply.
In the state of Odisha we have been predominantly working with the NGOs Gram Vikas and Harsha Trust. Our work has been ongoing since 2012 in Odisha and is spread over 12 districts. Later, from 2014 onwards, the project continued to reach the people of Odisha through continued support from Grundfos Foundation.
Some pictures showing the difficulties with water situation in Odisha
Implementation Partners
Sunlit Future
Sunlit Future is based in Auroville, an international township built around a society trying to lead a responsible and sustainable lifestyle based on the principles of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother (Mirra Alfassa). Sunlit Future is a technology provider that specializes in solar solutions and it aims at fusing solar energy technologies into the daily lifestyle of urban and rural India to effectuate an environmental and social impact.
As part of social responsibility, we have installed over 800 solar water pumping systems in different villages of Odisha, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand & Himachal Pradesh. These solar pumps are primarily used for supplying drinking water benefitting lives of over 1 lakh people.
Poul Due Jensens Foundation (Grundfos)
The Grundfos Foundation is a Danish commercial foundation. Grundfos’ founder, Poul Due Jensen, created the Foundation on 19 May 1975.
The Foundation works with selected partners with proven experience in water and stay engaged until the project is sustainable. The foundations' philanthropic work directly supports UN Sustainable Goal #6.1 through providing sustainable and affordable access to safe drinking water to the world’s poorest. This is done through establishing solar-powered water distribution in rural communities and forgotten refugee camps.
GRAM VIKAS
Gram Vikas, initiated in 1979 is one of the largest NGOs in Odisha, reaching out to over 600,000 people living in over 1700 rural habitations. Gram Vikas works towards enabling rural communities to lead a dignified life. This is done by building capabilities of village communities, strengthening community institutions and mobilising resources. Gram Vikas works on six focus areas which are water, livelihoods, sanitation & hygiene, habitat & technologies, village institutions and education.
Gram Vikas mobilises and supports village communities to build and manage their own piped water supply systems and ensure continuous availability of clean water for drinking and domestic uses.
HARSHA TRUST
Harsha Trust has operated in Odisha since 2020. It is registered under Indian Trust Act. Harsha Trust works with more than 1,80,000 families selected on consideration of remoteness from urban settlements and markets, degraded status of natural resources, and inaccessibility of basic amenities, with specific focus on forest fringe villages and rain fed areas, and targeted at disadvantaged communities such as indigenous communities, scheduled castes and women.
Timeline and spread of our projects in Odisha
Before 2014
Before 2014, we have installed many pumps through Gram Vikas who purchased the pumps with funds from their donors to provide easy access to drinking water.
2014 - 2018
Since 2014, we started installing pumps funded by Grundfos Foundation in various parts of Odisha through Gram Vikas. In 2015, the venture began with Harsha Trust. In this period, we have reached 75 villages in Odisha with solar pumps.
2018 - 2020
The venture continued with both Gram Vikas and Harsha Trust and we have reached 58 villages in just two years in Odisha.
2020 - 2021
We have reached 63 villages in one year period during 2020 even in the midst of Covid lockdowns
2021 - 2022
In this year, we have reached 67 villages in Odisha with solar water pumps. In this year, we have partnered with SELCO foundation in 2021 for the first time and installed 8 pumps with them.
Below maps will display districtwise distribution of our solar water pump installations. Each district has a different scenario of water availability. In some places, open wells are still primary sources of water whereas in some areas it is borewells. A similarity which ties these places together in Odisha is that all our project intervention areas are of tribal population mainly dependent on agriculture and they have a similar economic status.
Consolidated map of our project locations
SocialImpactProjects_Dashboard
The map towards left shows all the locations of our solar pumps installations in Odisha as well as other states with some details. To view the details, click on each dot on the map.
Inferences from Impact Evaluation
The above graph shows results from baseline (graph on left) and endline (graph of right) surveys conducted in the households of some beneficiary communities. From the baseline survey, it was found that about 77% of the households did not have toilets prior to having the access to piped water supply. And in the endline survey, we can see a big shift that 93% of the households now have toilets. The toilet construction has been done under the government scheme Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBM) through which each household receives Rs.12,000/- as a subsidy for construction of a toilet.
The above graph shows how the handwashing practice has improved from before having a piped water supply and after having regular water supply. Baseline (graph on left), Endline (graph towards right)
The above graphs shows results from Baseline (graph on left) and Endline (graph on right) surveys conducted in the household of some beneficiary communities. In the above graph from baseline qualitative survey, about 43% of the participants have reported that the incidences of waterborne diseases like diarrhea, malaria, cholera, etc were more prevalent due to poor accessibility of water. The graph from endline survey reports that there were no incidence of any water borne diseases in last few months except that a few incidences of Malaria was noted. Even Though these two results cannot be compared directly, it gives us a fair idea that the improvements in their hygiene practices like using toilets for bathing, urination and defecation, washing hands before food and after defecation, etc. has contributed to better health conditions.
With the piped water supply system reaching every household, the lives of these tribal people in Odisha has improved a lot in terms of their hygiene and sanitation, education, engagement in livelihood activities, etc. Through other integrated programmes facilitated by our NGO partners, they have evidently also reduced migration rate in all these villages by crating local opportunities for income generation.
Impact stories from the beneficiaries
The dashboard below showcases the locations and other details of all our project locations throughout India. Click below to go through our dashboard.
