Water, Sanitation and Hygiene collectively known as WASH. These three core issues are grouped together to represent a growing sector. While each a separate field of work, each is dependent on the presence of the other. For example, without toilets, water sources become contaminated; without clean water, basic hygiene practices are not possible. According to UNICEF and WHO, there are still 780 million people without access to improved drinking water sources worldwide and 2.5 billion people still lack safe sanitation. Lack of access to these services has grave repercussions for children.
The fact that WASH is subject of dedicated targets within the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 is testament to its fundamental role in public health. Access to safe water and sanitation are human rights, and for these rights to become reality, Khetri Trust as an institution is delivering services and changing behaviour in resilient and appropriate ways.
Water costs nothing for those with everything, and everything for those with nothing. The key to solve this problem lies in efficient management of natural resources especially water.
The poor pay huge sums for small amounts of water. To procure water, they walk great distances, wait hours, and compete with other equally desperate people for the precious resource. Overcoming inequality is more than making sure that all people receive 20 litres of water everyday - those 20 litres must be clean and affordable - and free for the poor.
The burden women and girls bear is far more than their fair share of the costs of the water and sanitation crisis. Traditionally women and girls take care of the household; so, it is their responsibility to find and fetch water for their families. For girls, the lack of clean water and sanitation facilities close to home turns into lost opportunities to go to school, learn marketable skills, and fully participate in their communities. When women and girls have to collect and carry water or walk long distances to find somewhere to go to the bathroom, they lose time that could be spent going to school. Many parents, concerned about the lack of hygiene, safety and privacy in school latrines, withdraw their daughters once they reach puberty.
Water is not a commodity - it is a necessity for life. Collective Action is the need of the hour.
The economy of the Marwar region has traditionally revolved around animal husbandry and subsistence agriculture. Severe ecological degradation and increasing desertification have led to drinking water scarcity, especially for poor communities.
The region has the lowest water endowment in Rajasthan, while the state itself falls in a zone of extreme water scarcity. Rainfall in the region is sparse, with an annual average of 200 mm. Groundwater is saline and unsuitable for drinking or agriculture. It is estimated that 74% of Indian villages with multiple water-quality problems are in Rajasthan.
Water scarcity not only reduces access to the water resources needed for drinking, sanitation, and food production, but also threatens the viability of the livelihoods available to poor populations.
Khetri Trust conducts trainings across the Marwar region of Rajasthan with an aim to spread awareness on the importance of rain water harvesting, safe drinking water, toilets – their construction and importance, and the problems associated with open defecation.
Villagers are made aware of the fact that half of the diseases in the world were due to unsafe drinking water (such as Typhoid, Cholera, Hepatitis, Dysentery Malaria), and if the villagers took steps to ensure clean drinking water, they can prevent and safeguard themselves from a plethora of diseases.
With the help of presentations and models, village communities are made aware of the functionality of things. Questions like why is dual pit toilet better than single pit, Rainwater harvesting techniques, importance of sanitation and hygiene and more.
The shared modules act as interactive materials through which communities are informed, educated, and communicated. One such training session is soap making through which emphasis is made on the fact that the process is simple. And that every family could manufacture their own soap using a simple technique and basic, easily available ingredients like caustic powder and oil.
