Field Note 22727 March 2000 Water and Sanitation Program THE WEST BENGAL PILOT An international partnership to help PROJECT the poor gain sustained access to improved Responding to community demands for safe water supply and . . . a sanitation services drinking water In an arsenic affected area South Asia Region :4*, VIN.-RANAB9ELIAGt4ATA.24 PWGfANA () Many villages in West 4' Bengal, India do not enjoy sustainable, supplies. The situation e is compounded by the presence of small but harmful concentrations ._ S4! of arsenic in the groundwater, the o sourceof mostvillages' meager water supply. The Water and Sanitation Program- South Asia assisted local non-government organization, the THE PROJECT AT A GLANCE I C OPY Ramakrishna Mission Lokashiksha Parishad Coverage: 115 hamlets in 13 blocks in the five West Bengal districts of (the development unit of North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Bardhaman, Medinipur (the damakoiena Mnision and Bankura. 26 of these hamlets have arsenic-contaminated the Ramakrishna Mission drinking water sources at Narendrapur, West Duration: 15 months: September 1998 to December 1999 Bengal) in procuring Cost: Rs. 70,32,000 (Rs. 45 = 1 USD August 2000) funds from the Implemented by: Village Water and Sanitation Committees, assisted by local Youth Government of India for Clubs and Cluster Organisations, coordinated and facilitated by a community-based Ramakrishna Mission Lokashiksha Parishad rural water supply pilot Technology: Handpumps and arsenic removal plants (for individual house- project to address the holds and communities) developed by the All India Institute of problem. Hygiene and Public Health, Calcutta This note documents Cost-sharing: Villagers contributed Rs. 15,50,000 (30%) of the total construc- tion cost of Rs. 52,00,000 - the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking the lessons learnt from Water Mission, Government of India put in the remaining 70% - the pilot project. and continue to pay 100% of operation and maintenance costs Background backed by a willingness to contribute advised and monitored the activities of towards construction and operation the Youth Clubs in its area and and maintenance (O&M) costs; coordinated project implementation * N MID-1 998, a number of village along with the Ramakrishna Mission; youth clubs in West Bengal C To provide communities with requested the assistance ofa local affordable safe drinking watersupplies * Ramakrishna Mission non-government organization, the and options for treating drinking water Lokashiksha Parishad an NGO Ramakrishna Mission Lokashiksha contaminated with arsenic; and that provided coordination and Parishad (the development unit of support to Youth Clubs and Cluster the Ramakrishna Mission at * To develop methodologies for a Organizations; Narendrapur) to assist them in solving community-led participatory pilot * Rajiv Gandhi National Drink- the problem of shortage of potable project, which could be replicated. ing Water Mission, Government drinking water in their villages. The of India provided most of the finan- Lokashiksha Parishad in collaboration Project Actors cial support for the pilot project; with the Water and Sanitation Program- SouthAsia preparedaprojectproposal a Local communities pay all * All India Institute of Hygiene that resulted in funding from the Rajiv operation and maintenance costs and and Public Health (AIIH&PH) Gandhi National Drinking Water contributed 30% of the construction which provided the technical support Mission,GovernmentofIndia. cost of water supply systems and fortestingarsenicingroundwaterand While primarily a project to community arsenic-removal plants. designing and installing arsenic supplysafe drinring wat jer to 11 5 Most of these villagers are poor daily removal plants; pplsaedare I wage agricultural laborers, marginal hamlets in five districts,otheer farmers or fishermen belonging to * Public Health Engineering ofaarsenicain the groundwater of 26 scheduledcastesandscheduledtribes; Department (PHED) and the homlets caused the project to look Panchayati Raj Department closely at the problem of providing a Village Water and Sanitation (PRD) of the state of West Bengal arsenic-free water. During the project Committees (VWSC) are facilitated the implementation of preparation, communities indicated representative village organisations the project; that they were willing to contribute to thot work in each project site; the cost of the project and were * Water and Sanitation prepared tooperate ond maintain the C Local Youth Clubs which Program-South Asia (WSP-SA) future infrastructure themselves. informed and motivated the local provided technical assistance and community in participating hamlets, coordination. Objectives collected contributions, managed local tendering and construction and now Scheme cycle oversee operation and maintenance e To respond to community demands for safe drinking water which are * Cluster Organizations which ACH VILLAGE that applied for -, S _ assistance started on a cycle of a ctivities termed the scheme cycle. The scheme cycle typically J | F- s . ; <, ; rf +'t * s ' ,+ _followed the following four phases: Pre-planning phase Representatives from the Lokashiksha Parishad, the Cluster I; . . 01 j Organization of the area and the local Youth Club held meetings with villagers to) discuss the problem of potable drinking water faced by the village, possible technical solutions and the responsibilities of the local community under the pilot project. Field testing for arsenic in drinking water These responsibilities included: * forming a Village Water and Implementa- Table 1 Sanitation Committee CVWSC); tion phase Details of Project Costs AMOUNT FINANCED BY * making contributions towards the VWSCs were (Rs 1,00,000) cost of installing the proposed responsible for all Installationof infrastructure (handpumps and construction: installation hand pumps 43.7 GO1"(70%) installation of arsenic and beneficiary arsenic removal plants); and of handpumps and sreatment units 8.0 contributions(30%) commu nity arsenic Capacity building * operating and maintaining the removal plants where and HRD 3.0 system. used. Of the 1 1 5 Information h a m l ets i n the p ro j ect generation and Vilags wreselected to be part harlea, 95 thandpumpsc community participation 2.5 GOI Vil/arses weree di p area, 95 handpumps Developmentofwater of the pilot project based on their were installed (85 TARA qualitysurveillance declared willingness to share in the TARA' mechanism 3.0 willingnessts. five suction pumps and Administraive ond project costs. five India Mark 111). supervision cost 3.6 Community arsenic Studiesand Planning phase removal plants were documentation 6.5 WSP-SA Community mobilization fitted to some of the TOTAL 70.3 campaigns and general training existing handpumps and '1 Government of India through the Rajiv Gandhi Narional Drinking campaigns adgnrltam Water Mission programs were held to enable villagers, other arsenic-affected VWSC's and Youth Clubs to actively villages received household treatment participate in the project. Arsenic plants. Th A awareness campswere held in theworst All project funds were given to The Arsenic affected regions jointly by the (AlIH&PH) the VWSCs to purchase the material Issue and the Lokashiksha Parishad (292 transport it to the installation site, drill Issue camps were held during the duration the tubewells, install the handpumps of the project). These campsfocus on: and community arsenic removal Arsenic in drinking plants, with the advice and water * Generating awareness of the supervision of members of the Cluster problem of arsenic especially, the link Organizations, Youth Clubs and The presence of naturally between drinking contaminated water representatives of the Lokashiksha occurring arsenic in drinking water and the symptoms of arsenic poisoning, Parishad. has surfaced as a major problem during the last two decades. Minute * Testing water quality using field test Post implementation concentrations of arsenic ingested kitstotestthequalityofwaterfromvan- phase through drinking waterovera period oustubewells used by the community. of time result in arsenic poisoning: The VWSC and the local Youth this may be manifested by arsenical * Demonstrating technicol solutions Club organized the collection of skin lesions and dermatosis in the to arsenic contamination. monthly contributions for operation and initial stages and by internalI caincers maintenance, opened a local bank or and d h patents expos * Informing villagers about the postofficeaccountanddepositedthe to high inpents osed proposed pilot project including how amount collected in this account. A to high concentrations over communiiies can participate in the member of the local Youth Club and a prolonged periods. The World Health project and what their obligations member of the VWSC jointly operate Organization recommended limit for would be. the account. The money is used for drinkingwatersupplyis.01 mg/litre repairsand replacementof parts. (WHO, 1993); the permissible Once the VWSCs were formed Local Youth Club members limit in India and Bangladesh is (93 committees were formed) the trained bytheAllH&PH inwaterquality 0.05 mg/I. local Youth Clubs collected testingcarryoutregulararsenictesting community contributions. Households of water samples brought by villagers Arsenic in West Bengal participating in the project contribute using the AIIH&PH test kit. They also 30% of construction cost, which was regularly supply villagers owning In the late 1 980s, high levels of a one-time commitment of between household arsenic removal plants with arsenic were detected in the Rs 120-300 per family and 100% of packaged doses of alum and bottles of groundwater of West Bengal in India O&M costs which comes to between pre-mixed bleaching powder solutions and in adjoining Bangladesh. Arsenic Rs 1 and Rs 3 per family per month. needed to run these plants. in drinking water currently affects about 60 million persons in India and Providing arsenic-free suppliers for sustainable arsenic Bangladesh togetherthough the extent drinking water removal technologies and field test kits. of the problem is more widespread in Bangladesh (BGS, 1999). Presently If groundwater is contaminated Arsenic treatment in Bangladesh, a major arsenic by arsenic the following are two methods mitigation project covering 600 approaches to arsenic mitigation: villages is being implemented with The project made use of two World Bank assistance (contact WSP- * seek arsenic-free waterfrom another types of treatment methods: SA for more details). source, for example groundwaterfrom Arsenic knows no boundaries another aquifer (usually a deep Community Arsenic Removal aquifer), treated surface water, PlantsdesignedbytheAIIH&PHare India t ?1t?,?\7 rainwater harvesting; or fitted directly on the tubewell and water is drawn through a handpump. The * provide some kind of arsenic- plant uses conventional treatment removal technology. processes adapted to community ''Many removal technologi'es conditions. The primary arsenic have been tried over the past few years removal process is co-precipitation West Bengal - the pilot project focused on low- through coagulotion, flocculation, cost options that can be used at either sand filtration and disinfection. Based the community-level or the household- on satisfactory results from the first level. plant fitted in 1 996 by the AIIH&PH Despite the substantial research in Ashoknagar (South 24 Parganas Arsen c a.&ed areo a that has been done on arsenic in district) three plants made byAIIH&PH Bes o e a,d Bo,gIooesh drinking waterand the many agencies were installed by the pilot project. In West Bengal, arsenic has been grappling with this complex issue, detected in groundwater in eight of the there is no consensus on which arsenic Household Arsenic Removal 1 8 districts; the five worst affected mitigation approaches to follow. The Plants: At the feasibility stage two districts are Malda, Murshidabad, following arsenic mitigation issues are household plants were considered: a Nadia, North 24 Parganas and South still unresolved: sand filter plant based on the "two 24 Parganas. The depths of arsenic- bucket" treatment unit used in Bang- contaminated aquifers vary in these 1 Arsenic removal technologies, ladesh and a similar plant that uses districts butgenerally range from I0to in particular the many household- 80 meters below ground level level and community-level techniques available today and ways in which THE STORY OF ARSENIC IN consumers can make informed LAKSHMIPUR GROUNDWATER IN 0 choices between the options; IN NOVEMBER 1 999, nine household arsenic removal plants WEST BEOUNGA5.3MILLION peopl 2. Arsenic detection, in particular were distributed at Rs. 125 per unit .AUND 3peoe arsenic field test kits that can be used to villagers in Lakshmipur, (nearly 8% of the total population of West .Bengal) are reliant of n by householders or community groups Ashoknagar block, and North 24 arsenic-contaminated groundwater and the question about whether the Parganas district.-A local potter (CGWB, 1 999) permissible limit should be dropped offered to produce the pots and the . , from 0.05 mg/I to 0.01 mg/I; candles reduced the production cost m Approximately-1;00,000 tubewells from Rs. 250 to Rs. 200. With a 50% contain arsenic overthe permissi- 3. Institutions best suited to subsidy. from the pilot project, ble limit ofO.05.mg/Il(SOES,1'999) addressing arsenic mitigation and villagers have now to pay only ways of working in partnership with Rs 100 per unit and, by February 2000 a'nother,1 48,families had 0 it is estimated that around community groups; 300,000 people .have arsenical come forward to paytheir share and coll-ect their household unit. Today, skin lesions in West Bengal 4. Enabling and supporting the thepotteisbusypodcingtomeet (Chowdhury et al, 2000) development of supply chains thesterisisgdemind m bhe stedilr dsiisr debmtnd.a . ~~~~~~between custorners, distributors and. . construction costs from treatment technologies and arsenic participating villagers field test kits to consumers at prices * contrary to popular beliefs theyarepreparedtopayisakeyfactor - *So _ - that poor people are not in developing long term solutions to V .r _ |f i willing to pay for water- a the arsenic problem. This is explored good example of this is the further inafuture WSP-SAfield note. -> | . World Bank-assisted Uttar Pradesh Rural Water Supply * Projects need a good com- and Environmental Sanitation munication strategy t Project (or Swajal project). Villagers need to be informed about This pilot project the problems of drinking arsenic- - demonstrated that in some contaminated water and about the situations even poorvillagers features of the project if they are to are willing and able to pay participate effectively in the project. as much as 30% of the total This was done effectively through - construction cost. various arsenic awareness camps in Willingness to pay for the pilot project. It could be further Jo f arsenic mitigation is still an improved by distributing local- Skin lesions as a result of ingesting arsenic in important and relatively language leaflets, playing a video drinking water untested question. The project especially produced for the project, a ceramic candle filter instead of the shows that villagers that are acutely and by ensuring a high degree of aware of the arsenic problem are participation by local villagers, for sand filter. The latter was developed prepared to payfor mitigation measures example posters, leaflets, banners and intothe RKM filter. as shown in the success of the loudspeaker announcements can The RKM filter unit uses co- household filters; howeverthis has not precede the actual camp. precipitation to remove arsenic through be rvda cl rwt te an adaptation of the two bucket system. be rvda cl rwt te an adaptation of thseniwoiucket stem. ar technologies. Willingness to pay will * Inter-village exposure visits 10 liters of arsenic-infectedwaterare be the crucial determining factor are effective mixd wxidnth theoagulinth (ferriam) o when considering development of Villagers who visited other hamlets bleandoidnt (horine) in aplasthe form effective supply chains to include the where community arsenic removal bleaching powder) in a plastic bucket, stirred and left to settle for two hours, private sector, plants had been in operation (e.g. * ,~~~~~~~~~ARshoknagar) and were able to speak After settling, 7 liters are poured into the uppermost of two clay pitchers * Effective supply chains need to villagers who were using household (kalshis) placed vertically above each to be developed for sustain- arsenic removal plants returned other (the remaining 3 liters are able solutions convinced of potential benefits of disposed of). The top pitcher contains Pilot projects are often criticized for participating in the pilot project. While a'tripurafilter'(alocallymadecheaper an over-reliance on outside awareness camps can be a useful version of more conventional ceramic intervention and thus not necessarily introduction to these issues, exposure candle filter) which filters the water by piloting sustainable approaches. The visits enable villagers to speak to peers removing any suspended solids. The need to develop the local private aboutpotential projectbenefits and are filtered water is collected for use in the sector to be able to supply arsenic more effective in securing participation. bottom pitcher. Since October 1 999, RKM have sold 1 35 filter units and Table 2 packets of reagents (bleaching powder Comparative Performance of Arsenic Treatment Plants and ferric alum powder) sufficient for Treatment Capacity Households Construction Operational Cost one month's supplyare sold for Rsl 0. method (l/d) served' cost (Rupees) (Rupees) Total Per family** Peryear Per family per month Lessons Learnt Community-level 7,500 150 16,000 32 4,400 2.50 Household-level: Sond Filter 600 12 450 11.25 182 1.27 .. . . RKM FiXer 50 1 200 100 ~~~ ~~~~~~~120 10 * Communities are willing to RKM Filter 50 1 200 100 pay for safe drinking water Calculated on the basis of 10 liters per person perday, or50 liters per day fora family of five Two candles pay for tafe drinking watera. have to be fitted to the RKM filter plant to provide this amount of potoble water per day. Some demand-responsive projects ** Household contribution calculated as 30% for community plants and 50% for the household plants. have successfully collected 1 0% of These costs, based on construction by A lH&PH, should decrease with commercial production. :t " A Bhaduri Mondal with grandson References "I have been drinking water from this tubewell for 25 yeqrs but did not know that it was contaminated with arsenic and was the cause of 1. BGS (I1999) Arsenic Problems in,c suffering in my family. I want to do something about this so that my Groundwater in the Bengal"Basin; report of a grandson does not suffer as we hive.' fact-finding visit to West Beng6/, Technical Report WD/99/50C, Hydrology Sefies, Br`ish: Geological Survey, Natural Environment' * Future projects need clear technology is best suited to their needs. Reseorch Council, prepared by'PL. Smedley objectives Long term solutions to arsenic and D.G. Kinniburgh for UNICEF, Newf The primary aim of the pilot project mitigation will rely on the development eh, India. '2. CGWB (1999) High rincidence of was to tackle the drinking water of sustainable private sector supply Arsenic in Groundwater in West Benqga, problem by providing handpumps at chains to supply arsenic removal plants for the CenyItrl ChouandhWa tnd BS P Sdinhs Ray. convenient locations to save women at commercial rates that consumers will of Water Resources, Governernnt of: India the labor and time involved in buy.Thepilotprojectshowedthatata Faridabbd,July 1999' collecting waterfrom long distances. village-level, involvementof the private 3 SOES (1999) Field testing kits for arsenic: how effective are the mi/lion dollar The treatment of arsenic was seen as sector could bring down the costs of projects?, Schooll bf Environmental Studies, part of this larger problem. However, household units. Developing the links Jadavpur University, Calcutta given the severity and complexity of between suppliers, distributors and Chowdhur I BK. BiSwa5, T. Roy the arsenic problem, a separate customers atscale isa majorchallenge Mandal, G.K. Basu, CCR Chanda, D. project aimed exclusively at arsenic- to overcoming this problem. Lodh, KKC. Saha, S.C. Mukheriee, S. affected areas might be necessary. The project has demonstrated and D. Choikrqborti (2000tn the effectiveness of existing grass roots Groundwater arsenic contamination in me ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Bang/adesh and West Bengal-Indial, C_onclusion community organizations when Environmental Heblth Perspective, 108'393-S coordinated by a reputable NGO in 397 ^ LTHOUGH the project is involving the local community in 5. WHO (1993) 'Guidelines for Drinking AU Water Quality' (second edition), Geneva,: small, it contributes to a implementing and operating drinking Swiazerlind. e ' Ge: va, growing body of knowledge water supply schemes. Research is still that suggests that poor villagers faced needed to identify ways of scaling up i_ _____'___X with acute drinking watershortage and these community-based approaches August 2000 arsenic-contamination are willing to pay to the whole state and country. for a safe, reliable water supply. Villog- Finally, new initiatives proposed The Water and Sanitation Program is an ers have paid 30% of construction costs to tackle arsenic contamination in international partnership to helpthe poor gaFin sustai ned access to forwatersuppliesandarsenictreatment West Bengal tend to focus on the improvedwatersupplyandtati'n facilities ranging from Rs. 100 to technical issues concerning detection, services. The Program's main Rs. 500 per family and started paying measurement and treatment of arsenic funding partriers are the Goverrfments' all operation and maintenance costs. in drinking water. Little attention is of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark," The pilot project has contributed being paid to community-level social Ge-many, Italy Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands; Norway, Sweden, to field testing low-cost household and and institutional issues in project tzerla and the UnitedKngdom; community arsenic removal plants. Al- implementation. The lessons of this the United Nations Development though community plants are cheaper pilot project will be useful in planning Programme, and The World Bank. than household plants for the quantity and designing future community- of water supplied, communities need based projects to address the problem Createdvy' SevcesPvt. Ltd.by to make their own decisions as to which of arsenic in drinking water. E-mal: roots0deI2.vsnI.net.Ira