The West Bengal pilot project : responding to community demands for safe drinking water in an arsenic affected area

Many villages in West Bengal, India, lack sustainable safe drinking water supplies. This situation is compounded by the presence of small but harmful concentrations of arsenic in the groundwater, the source of most villages meager water supply. Mid 1998, a number of village youth clubs in West Bengal requested the assistance of a local non-government organization, the Ramakrishna Mission Lakashiksha Parishad, to assist them in solving the problem of shortage of potable drinking water in their villages. The development unit of Lakashiksha Parishad, in collaboration with the Water and Sanitation Program – South Asia, prepared a project proposal that resulted in funding from the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission, Government of India.
While primarily a project to supply safe drinking water to 115 hamlets in five districts, the presence of arsenic in the groundwater of 26 hamlets caused the project to look closely at the problem of providing arsenic-free water. During the project preparation, communities indicated that they were willing to contribute to the cost of the project and were prepared to operate and maintain the future infrastructures themselves.
This note documents the lessons learnt from the pilot project. The project has contributed to the field testing of two types of treatment methods : 1) community arsenic removal plants and 2) household arsenic removal plants. Involvement of the private sector in this project helped bringing down the cost of the household units. The document also demonstrates the effectiveness of existing grass roots community organizations when coordinated by a reputable NGO.