Gadag District

We all know that regular use of toilets is very important for having good health.  However, we are constantly confronted by statistics that tell us that toilet use in rural areas is not good. How do we solve this problem? Is it possible to tackle it by outsiders – who go in wanting to “fix” the situation or by working with communities to understand their needs?

Hirehandigola village in Gadag district of North Karnataka is an unsurprising picture of rural India.

The discussion paper by Carewater INREM Foundation on possibility of revival of dug wells in hard rock India through recharge is based on a field study across ten districts of the country. The study seeks to understand how localized governance of groundwater in hard rock areas is to be pursued through pricing (water, energy), legal regulation and community institutions. Water supply augmentation and demand management are both to be taken care of, directly through regulation or through indirect instruments such as pricing.

The Sachetana Drinking Water Plus project implemented by the BAIF Institute of Rural Development (BIRD-K), in three districts of Karnataka, aims to solve the problem of endemic fluorosis in the region, by providing an alternate source of water and by improving the quality of groundwater.

This report is a mid-term assessment of the project in Mundargi taluk of Gadag district of Karnataka, undertaken to understand and document the decentralized fluoride mitigation strategy adopted in the project villages and to analyze the impact on the groundwater levels and water quality as a result of the project's efforts.

We thank Sevabharati Karnataka, www.sevabharatikarnata.org from where we have picked up these files.

Sevabharati Karnataka is one of the organisations working on relief work. They are planning to build 2349 homes at a cost of Rs. 1 Lakh each in 19 villages across 7 affected districts. More information is available at their site:

http://www.sevabharatikarnataka.org 

The Sachetana Drinking Water project of the Government of Karnataka covers 15 villages in each of the taluks of Bagepalli (Chikkaballapur), Mundargi (Gadag), Sira (Tumkur) and Pavagada (Tumkur).

The baseline survey covers a representative portion of the villages and families of the above and contains the following information:

"Going home with more than theerth", is a case study written by Shree Padre in April 2007, on the how the problem of drinking water availability in summer, was solved by the Veera Narayana Temple at Gadag town, through rain water harvesting.