An engineer is harbinger of change in Tamil Nadu village

From rxpgnews.com

India Sci-Tech
An engineer is harbinger of change in Tamil Nadu village
By Yogesh Vajpeyi, Jan 28, 2007 - 8:21:34 AM

Madurai, Jan 28 - Guess who is the most popular man in Thambaipatti village in Madurai district? An assistant engineer from the Tami Nadu Water and Drainage department -.

Mariappan is only second to P. Kakkan, the local independence hero, in popularity, asserted Shanti Palliappan, the panchayat president of the village.

This sounded something of an overstatement, especially as Shanti was talking to delegates of a UNICEF-sponsored International Learning Exchange in the village. But a casual tour of the village's clean lanes and by-lanes shows there is a grain of truth in the woman's claim, says Grassroots Features.

From cautious village elders to chattering school children, every one acknowledges that the man from TWAD has brought about a dramatic change since the village was brought under the UNICEF-supported Total Community Water Management Scheme -.

Straddling National Highway 45 and 35 km from Madurai, Thambaipatti has 563 households. TWAD supplies water through 346 house connections and over two dozen public fountains.

Community members take all decisions related to water and sanitation, help the engineer maintain water supply, its quality, and collect water charges from users. This has produced immediate results.

'Community participation has brought down monthly operation and maintenance expenditure from Rs.30,000 to Rs.20,000,' said Hemlata, president of the village's Water and Sanitation Committee. 'Since we started collecting water charges, we have reduced arrears from Rs.400,000 to Rs.100,000.'

Schoolchildren play a crucial role in community management of the village's water and sanitation needs.

'We collect water from different parts of the village and test its quality with the help of field kits provided by TWAD,' said Ansuya Begum, a Class 11 student.

High school children also conduct tap stand studies to ensure there is no pilferage through leakage or illegal connections. More important, they are spreading awareness about water conservation and sanitation.

'Whenever I see a young child defecate in the open, I scold him and tell his family elders to make him use the toilet. If a village elder leaves a tap running in the public fountain, I close it and tell him not to do so in future,' Class 10 student Jameena told a delegate.

Significantly, engineer Mariappan started his awareness and community involvement campaign in Thambaipatti by celebrating his first child's birthday in the village school.

'I planted a sapling named after my son and invited all the children to plant saplings named after them,' he told the delegates. He motivated the community to contribute their 10 percent of the project's capital cost in cash or by labour.

Since then, the man from TWAD has become a part of the community. He helped the villagers solve problems unrelated to water and sanitation. He became so involved that he continues to visit the villagers even after his transfer nine months ago.

The Thambaipatti model is now being replicated in 145 village panchayats of 29 districts of Tamil Nadu, covering 472 hamlets and 3.5 million people. In all these villages locals prepared the village master plans with the assistance of the engineers.

The master plans had sub-plans on groundwater recharge, water quality, environmental protection and subsequent management as well as financial issues. The community was totally involved in their implementation.