People’s Learning Centre for Water & Sanitation

People’s Learning Centre for Water & Sanitation
Rural Water & Sanitation Programmes
An article on the rural water and sanitation programme in Gujarat
Posted on 16 Sep, 2009 05:00 PM

Not only money, villagers need knowledge too!
Surekha Sule

The debate on Centralised Vs Decentralised solutions to the rural water problem is endless. There are of course advantages and disadvantages of both the systems. Nevertheless, both the options need people's participation at the local level in pre as well post project stages and importantly for sustainable running of the scheme. So whether the source of water is a dam water pipeline or local water resource, people have to be prepared for making informed choices by unveiling entire gamut of knowledge and information. Recognizing this need, Gujarat-based NGO Utthan set up a People's Learning Centre for Water & Sanitation (PLC-Watsan) which has been raising grass root level awareness and also facilitating lateral spread of information since 2006.

"We have been drinking brackish water not knowing that it is not water but poison that we have been consuming all these years till Utthan's PLC visited us and made us aware of our drinking water problem. Till then we took it in our stride all the water related problems – our children fell sick, most of us suffered from joint pain (due to high fluoride content in water)"
- Bhagwanbhai from village Boda (Bhavnagar district)

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