HARPIC AND THE WASH INTERVENTION

India, one of the fastest growing economy seems to have missed out on having adequate sanitation facilities. According to the census of 2011, 53% of the households in India do not have a toilet. Similarly, 28% rural habitations do not have access to sufficient quantity of safe drinking water. It is estimated that in India, diarrhoea accounts for about 12 percent deaths in children under age five often caused by poor sanitation and lack of access to safe water. To compound the issue, girls in school often do not have separate toilets and the absence of adequate hygiene, privacy and safety discourages them from attending class, affecting their possibility of a bright future.

Hope with Harpic 
In line with Harpic’s vision of “a world where everyone has access to a clean and hygienic toilet and bathroom”, our endeavour will be to continually improve the way of life of people. Harpic in partnership with Save the Children, (world’s leading independent organization for improving the quality of lives of children) launched a new water and sanitation programme across four states of India in December 2012 with the objective of addressing WASH (Water Sanitation and Hygiene) issues and raising awareness of good hygiene practices, in slum clusters in Delhi, rural villages in Bihar and Jharkhand, and brick kilns in West Bengal.

The Intervention in Year one could enable us to indirectly reach:

• 50,000 people from 10,000 families in 10 urban slums in Delhi. This includes 20,000 adults and 30,000 children.
• 7,500 people from 1,500 families in 10 rural villages in Jharkhand. This includes 3,000 adults and 4,500 children.
• 12,000 people from 2,000 families in 10 rural villages in Bihar. Thisincludes 4,000 adults and 8,000 children.
• 4,000 people from 800 families in 10 brick kilns in West Bengal. This includes 1,600 adults and 2,400 children.

Our goal is to improve WASH access both in rural and urban areas of intervention with focus on vulnerable families over four years, by increasing the access of safe and sustainable drinking water, hygienic sanitation facilities and knowledge on personal hygiene to keep families, particularly children, healthy. 

The Intervention strategy is based on four key principles viz. infrastructure creation, awareness raising, sustainability and advocacy. The water and sanitation infrastructure with appropriate designs and quality will be promoted based on specific Goehydrological conditions of different states.

The structured capacity building initiatives and IEC (Information Education Communication) campaign at community and school level will lead to children’s & community participation at different stages of programme and lasting change on personal hygiene specially the hand Washing, improved water handling practices, use of sanitation facilities and protection of drinking water sources.

The larger aim of our advocacy initiatives will be to influence and engages with government for relevant policy and programme changes, such as:

• Promotion of Community Managed Toilets in urban slums
• Implementing flood resistant water and sanitation structures as part of the government programmes
• Ensuring convergence of water and sanitation in health programmes in rural areas to reduce diarrhoeal morbidity and mortality.
• Designing specific programmes for marginalised groups of children.

This intervention will contribute to an improved quality of life for families and their children, and provide them with the dignity and privacy they deserve.

BIHAR


Flood resilient approaches for safe WASH access in Alluvial Plain of North BIhar

Gangetic alluvial plain especially the north Bihar is prone to recurring flood conditions. And during these situations drinking water and sanitation often become most critical needs of affected population especially women and children and absence of these services often results in the outbreak of cholera, diarrheal diseases, dengue, malaria, typhoid etc. In this back drop the Bihar intervention will target flood prone district Sitamarhi where focus is to create a flood resilient inclusive models of improved sanitation access and safe drinking water facilities across 10 villages both at community and school level. Being a high water table zone the area is also prone to bacteriological contamination hence effort will also be made to ensure water safety of community and house hold level drink water sources.

JHARKHAND


2) Tribal communities in Jharkhand an effort to improve their WASH access

The state of Jharkhand is characterized by semi-arid conditions, water scarcity and predominance of tribal population. Here our efforts will be to improve sanitation and drinking water access mainly amongst the tribal both at community and school level. At school level we will promote a combination of good facilities, correct behavioral practices and education for long lasting solutions on WASH access.In the long run we intend to achieve total sanitation coverage to sustain the initiative of clean environment and drinking water security with focus on source sustainability in the invention villages.

WEST BENGAL 


Brick Kilns labourers in West Bengal - Improved WASH access and Arsenic mitigation

Our intervention in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal will address WASH issues of migrant laborers working in the brick kilns. Here our efforts are to achieve WASH security in 10 brick kilns by promoting community managed toilet complexes and creating safe drinking water sources with adequate water safety measures. The ground water across all brick kiln will also be analyzed for access level of arsenic and appropriate measures will be taken to ensure Water Safety. We will also promote School sanitary complexes with child friendly features and engage with local Panchayat to achieve total sanitation coverage in the villages. This intervention will help to advocate for WASH issues of migrant labourers.

DELHI


4) Improving WASH services for urban poor in Delhi Slums

Rapid growth and high density of population are causing tremendous stress on water, sanitation, sewerage and solid waste management etc. In the informal households depends on community level toilet facilities for their sanitation needs but inadequate provisions/poor maintenance rendering the facilities useless. In this back drop we are adopting a complementary strategy to improve the WASH services in the 10 Delhi slums where we will focus to convert Government constructed CTCs into community managed toilets complex. We will work to improve the infrastructure and todevelop mechanism for community based operation and maintenance of community toilets. In schools focus will be on functional child friendly WASH facilities. We will also work to develop mechanism for community based management of drainage systems. This intervention intend to advocate for adequate and quality water and sanitation services and promotion of community management of CTCs in Delhi.