Raindrops for Life Campaign
For every bottle of imago water and fuel water sold a donation is made towards this campaign fuel water is available in 500ml and 750ml sports bottles at all imago retail outlets. 1.5 litre bottles of refresh sparkling and still water are available from refresh. And for meeting rooms we use 1 litre bottles of imago water.
imago Services, National Forest Spring Water and WEDC have been undertaking a joint project for the last four years known as the "Raindrops for Life Campaign" and have been providing low cost water harvesting tanks in the Dhar district in India.
The objective of the project is therefore to provide safe and easily accessible drinking water especially in the summer months. Some of the goals include:
- Install low cost rainwater harvesting tanks
- Training some of the villagers to maintain the tanks
- Promote hygiene within the village
Seven harvesting tanks have already been provided in Logapura village situated 15km from Dharampuri town and near the town of Dhamnod at the foothills of Vindhyachai Valley in India.
We are now working on providing water harvesting tanks in Solyapura, Umarban block, Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh, India.
Due to unsustainable use of natural resources, especially in ground water for irrigation, there is immense pressure on depleting resources. Over-abstraction has led to the contamination of ground water bodies, which are the main source of drinking water. Though there are many more development issues such as education, unemployment and health, the most critical issue is that of the availability of fresh and clean drinking water.
WEDC
WEDC, a department of Loughborough University, is one of the world's leading education, training, research and consultancy institutes concerned with improving access to infrastructure services for the poor in low and middle income countries, it's aim is to work towards sustainable development and 'making poverty history'.
The WEDC team is multi-disciplinary, comprising academic, professional and support staff who have considerable experience of low and middle income countries, facing challenges with solutions that have been proven to work.
WEDC looks at solving long-running problems where people live in extreme poverty without accessible safe drinking water, without adequate sanitation and where one in five children die before their fifth birthday. WEDC tries interdisciplinary approaches which improve benefits into the future.
WEDC emphasis on people-centred solutions focuses on both end users and the providers of services. The needs and demands of men, women and children for services and infrastructure are the starting point.
Learn more about WEDC at their website: http://lboro.ac.uk/wedc
The Project in Detail
Through WEDC imago Services will be working with Vasudha Vikas Sansthan (VVS) a Voluntary Organization established in November 2000. VVS is committed to the cause of sustainable Rural Development by Implementing Several Rural Development Programs in over 100 Villages in Dhar and, Jhabua Districts of Madhya Pradesh. The project will be based in Logarpura village at the foothills of Vindhyachal Valley, where access to the village is very difficult especially in the monsoon when the village is entirely cut off.
The major sources of drinking water in the village include 2 hand pumps and 3 individual wells which have very little or no drinking water during summer months. As a result women walk long distances to the nearest village, where they have to wait for water. The general practice of open defecation increases the contamination of open water sources including the stream where drinking water is collected.
Water is not treated before drinking and water storage containers are generally not covered. During water crises in the summer, the stream does not yield enough water and villagers have to queue up and wait to collect water using small pots.
The village does not have any toilet facilities and personal hygiene practices are poor.
The objectives of the project are:
- Provide safe and easily accessible drinking water especially in the summer months for the 30 households of Logarpura village of Dhar District within 12 months. If extra funding is granted, the project will be extended to other villages with similar water scarcity problems.
- Instigate behaviour change regarding open defecation using 'Community Led Total Sanitation' (CLTS) approach.
The goals of the project are:
- The construction of 2 rainwater harvesting tanks close to a school or community building
- The construction 2 further tanks alongside steel roofed or concrete surfaced houses
- Train at least 10men and women on the construction of ferro-cement tanks and there maintenance.
- Train women on routine hand pump maintenance and hygiene promotion
- Put the households into groups of four and allocate them a tank each.
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