Suvarna Jala

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Suvarna Jala

• Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting Programme in schools
  across Karnataka

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About Suvarna Jala

• A Govt. of Karnataka Programme
• By the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj dept.

• RWH for each rural, Govt. school
• 23,683 schools across the state
• Many areas have either scarce water or fluoride
  in water
• Rainwater is a safe, sustainable alternative
• Aims to provide 1.5 litres of water per student
  per day
• Construction of system by ZP Engineering Dept.
  District Nirmiti Kendra

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Arghyams Role

• Involvement in 8 districts, 5000 schools
• Chitradurga, Davangere, Mysore, Chamrajnagar,
  Tumkur, Gadag, Dharwad, Raichur
• Support for implementation, monitoring and
  capacity-building
• Network of experts, NGOs assigned to each school
• Survey and Training
• Follow up through Govt. Education network

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Network Structure
RDPR Blore
District Admin
District Coordinator (NGO)
Arghyam
Education Dept.
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Network Activities
Data Collection and Presentation Baseline Survey
of every school Photographs of every school H2S
strip tests for testing water quality Data
collected, stored and analysed and shared with
public, through the Portal
Training Training, awareness-building during
visits 2 Model Schools in each District Targetted
training of SDMC members through SSA
machinery Targetted IEC Material Posters,
Maintenance manual, book for children
Monitoring Status updates during monthly CRC
meetings Atleast 4 visits by network members to
every participating school
Arghyam Partners
Advocacy Recommending changes in programme to
RDPR based on field-experience
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From the field
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Poster on RWH for the Schools
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Sample Survey Findings- Tumkur Dist
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Sample Survey Findings- Tumkur Dist
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Scoping document

• Introduction Who, context, methodology followed
  in preparing this
• Executive Summary School based rooftop
  Rainwater Harvesting systems
• School Rainwater Harvesting
• Introduction Why RWH?
• Quality (Fluoride, hardness, nitrates, health
  effects.)
• Quantity (depleting GW, unreliable sources.)
• Eco-friendly, no power requirements, sustainable
  solution.

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Key questions

• What is the right question/s to ask for getting
  safe , sufficient drinking water to schools ?
• Where does rooftop rainwater harvesting make
  sense as a solution?
• Where does it not?
• Guidelines to ensure correct needs assessment
  survey to select the right schools for the
  programme.

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Key questions

• Should harvested rooftop rainwater be used for
  drinking at all?
• Who should be responsible for its quality on a
  day to day basis?
• The way forward to ensure genuine peoples
  participation in the design, scoping ,
  implementation and maintenance of the project for
  each school. Including capacity building
  strategies for the School Development Management
  committees, the Gram Panchayats, the teachers and
  the students.

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Scaling up and replication

• A platform for sharing the experience in
  Karnataka and making a meaningful interpretation
  of it for other states
• Ideas on how to take this forward by linkages
  with different programmes of the government like
  the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, NREGA etc

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Project watch

• The development of a system of project watch at
  district and state level to be led by Civil
  Society so as to ensure effective and meaningful
  delivery of outcomes for such projects.

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Other points

• How do we ensure potable quality of rainwater?
  Poor maintenance is unavoidable since it requires
  daily/regular work.
• What do you think of our idea to train one (or
  more) teacher to be the focal point for the
  programme? How do we identify such a champion?
  What incentives should be set in place? How do we
  make this work effectively? We are currently
  thinking of a one-time training followed up
  monthly status meetings for the teacher. The
  teacher would train other teachers in the school,
  mobilize the children to form school cabinets,
  incorporate RWH into the curriculum, coordinate
  the maintenance work of the system etc. This is
  important in the districts where we do not have
  NGO partners and are experimenting with the Govt
  to make the programme work through teachers.

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• What technical solutions exist for more robust
  systems and easier maintenance? Better gutters,
  pipes, clamps, taps, leaf-traps, modular systems
  etc?

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• What are good methods for increasing awareness on
  RWH amongst schools? We are trying the following
  one-day training programme for SDMC members and
  teachers, training for BEO/CRP/BRP, posters,
  maintenance manuals for each school, mobile vans
  with audio-visual presentations, radio
  programmes, story book for children, pocket
  calendars with RWH info for all teachers, etc.
• Proper usage of toilets. How do we make this
  work properly? The need is certainly felt, esp.
  by girls. How do we raise expectations of the
  level of cleanliness and understanding of its
  necessity how do we generate demand amongst the
  children?

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• How can this programme be extended? Recharge of
  groundwater, sanitation, wastewater management
  are some suggestions that we have got
• Lot of vandalism and theft, especially during
  holidays. What has been tried successfully to
  deal with this elsewhere?