Sharing and dissemination workshop on ‘Khulna Water’

The 2^nd sharing and dissemination workshop of the peri-urban water security project was held on December 4, 2012 at CSS Ava Center, Khulna. Prof. Dilip Kumar Datta of Khulna University delivered a speech based on the research findings conducted by the peri-urban research team of IWFM, Khulna University and ILS. Dr. Hamidul Huq of Institute of Livelihood Studies (ILS) was the session chair in the workshop.  This workshop had participants from Community people, service providers, civil society groups, NGO professionals, university faculty, students and volunteer group of Khulna  

Picture 1:  Prof. Dilip Kumar Datta and Dr. Hamidul Huq interacting with the group at the sharing and dissemination workshop in Khulna.

Prof. Datta mentioned that freshwater in Khulna is really scarce due to its geographic setting (situated in the exposed coastal areas of Bangladesh). In his speech, he conveyed that “However, human oriented development pressure on the nature and natural resources (air, water and soil) are also responsible for water insecurity in urban and peri-urban Khulna. Day by day water related problems in Khulna are increasing. Social conflicts among users are also found in the area. Future climatic projections indicate that water related disasters would further increase water related vulnerability of Khulna’s people. To adapt this situation, Khulna City Corporation (KCC) and Khulna Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (KWASA) have taken several adaptation strategies. However, adaptation strategy for the peri-urban people is still neglected”.

This dissemination workshop was conducted to bring the larger stakeholders in a common platform for long term action and advocacy for Mayur River in Khulna. Major recommendations and stakeholders’ comments have been noted for future research and action for urban and peri-urban water security in Khulna. Following are the research findings that were shared with the participants.

S.No	Study title	Major findings
1	Water quality of Mayur	Mayur’s water is heavily polluted by solid waste and wastewaters discharges from the city area. During dry period, water quality exceeds the recommended limit for any use
2	Wastewater characterization of the KCC at Mayur outfall	About 17-20 drainage outfall discharge waste from KCC area.   Wastewater quality exceeds the recommended limit for agricultural irrigation
3	Geo-morphological characteristics of Mayur	Geo-morphological characteristics show that it is almost a dead river and have potential for freshwater reservoir in future
4	Community based solid waste management (CBSWM)	Household solid waste is a major source of pollutant in the Mayur river. A CBSWM system will improve water quality and quantity in the river
5	Existing project analysis	A number of development projects have been implemented without considering the environment Development projects have negative impacts on the Mayur directly or indirectly Proper institutional coordination is absent for sustainable water development project
6	Analysis of the water use conflicts at Mayur	Water use and user conflict are to be found along the Mayur. This needs an  argent action for saving the river and water security in Khulna
7	Cost-benefit analysis	Data collection completed
8	Landscape design of the Mayur river system	On going
9	Regulatory framework for Mayur river protection	On going

Picture 2: Participants of the sharing and dissemination workshop in Khulna.

Recommendations:

 

In the discussion session, the major recommendations were as follows:

• Mayur River could be a freshwater source in Khulna, if it is saved from the present degradation activities (pollution and encroachment). 
• Re-excavation and removal of the existing infrastructure is important to save the river.
• During dredging/excavation there should be a proper plan for sludge disposal.
• Before sludge disposal, sludge chemistry has to be evaluated for safe disposal and reuse.  
• Site suitability analysis for sludge disposal is very important before starting dredging/excavation.
•  An institutional arrangement is needed for protecting the river.  
•  Existing drainage system analysis and its management plan should be developed.
• A river commission may be formed for protecting the river and thus ensuring long term water security in Khulna.
• Design and implementation of the effluent treatment plan at the selected drainage outfalls.            

Preparing a Platform for Sharing Problems to Concerned organization

     With the facilitation of peri-urban water security project, an informal discussion programme was organized at Lubhu VDC on 23^rd December, 2012. The main aim of the programme was to share the problem related to protection of Upper Dovan water source at Dovan River of Lubhu which is a source of domestic water for more than 400 households of the VDC, to the official from Department of Water Induced Disaster Prevention (DWIDP). Prem Lasiwa, an engineer of planning division of DWIDP was participated for discussion with representative from Upper Dovan Drinking Water Supply Committee. After the discussion with the representatives from the committee, Mr. Lasiwa asked the committee members to submit an application to DWIDP for protecting their water source intake and committed for the selection of the committee’s application for this year budget. The representatives from the water supply committee were happy with the programme and requested for organizing similar kind of interaction programme in future.

Local Produce; A peri urban perspective.

Local Produce; A peri urban perspective.

Peri-urban areas are an interesting  setting for research studies. the mix match of occupation, lifestyle, work habits reflect an area which is neither purely rural, or purely urban. in Gurgaon, farming for commercial purposes is declining. Land acquisition, changing climate, lack of water avalibility due to the falling grounwater tables is a major reason for people shifting to jobs in secondary and tertiary sectors. Here what is interesting is that, although urbane in their job profile, these people also wish to be rooted in a traditional rural setting and ethos. Modernity and tradition have a perfect blend in these peri-urban areas.

Traditionally these  people were all employeed by farming or allied activities like animal husbandry etc. changing needs and times have forced many to take up jobs in and around urban areas as guards, auto drivers etc. The fall in commercial agriculture has been due to various reasons that have been already discussed, but the emotional connect with local produce has not let subsitence farming die. Subsistence farming according to my understanding of the field , is one the most important  aspects of peri-urban life. 

A lady proudly told me that my Six year old daughter refuses to drink packaged milk. we only drink from our own buffalo. other than that various encounters have led to the understanding that vegetables are either grown or bought from nearby villages, where the farmers have some solidarity. Peri-urban agriculture is seen to have many positive effects, it can primarily be used as a sink for organic wastes of urban areas.it is interesting  to see how emotion is the tie between modernity and tradition. although surviving at the present, peri-urban agriculture needs to be given incentives, if it has to have long term sustainability, because regardless of emotional connect, the land price escalation caused by growing commerce, will make peri-urban agriculture a losing sum game. hence eventually farmers will end up selling thier land. Despite such possible outcomes, in todays peri-urban gurgaon, local produce is most relished and serves as a connect for the people with thier ancestrol roots.

Frustrating borrowed Bureaucracy

Frustrating borrowed Bureaucracy

“Main nahi deti data,mere pass tame nah hai is kaam ke liye” (I will not provide this information, I do not have time for such work)
A freezing Monday morning of January 7, 2013 will be imprinted in my internship experience. The day started with locating Partwari (village accountant) for Budheda and Sadhrana villages and ended with a reprimand from the sarkari Babu (government clerk) at the mini secretariat in Gurgaon. I decided to collect
Panchayat land use pattern data from Patwari to understand the decline in the common property and what are the various institutions in the village periphery who have been allocated Panchayat land for development purposes. The data set can also help me to actually interpret what is the amount of land left with the
Panchayat and how much have been acquired by state or markets.Few of my village informants told me that the Patwari for both the villages have their office in Old Gurgaon at Krishna Palace. However, some of the other informants told me all the Patwaris of Gurgaon block are placed in Patwar Bhawan. I tried to trace-out the phone number of the offive, but could not, therefore decided to visit Patwar Bhawan. After reaching, Patwar Bhawan, I could see a group of people sitting around the bonfire in the porch of the office building.
The office does not even has a name board of Patwar Bhawan. I went into two rooms of the office, and these rooms had no staff. I could now make out that all the staff was hanging outside, trying to warm up themselves from the nippy cold day.I approached the group after visiting the empty rooms of the Patwar
Bhawan. I further disclosed my reason to visit the office. One of the group member sarcastically asked me the use of the data. He told me to go back to the village to collect this data. He said “are gaon walon ko sab pata, yahan kyon aaye ho, kya karoge data ka” (villagers know everything, why have you come here,
what will you do with this data). He further suggested me to go to the PHED for data I was looking for. On my further request about whereabouts of Patwari's for both the villages, one of the other group member asked me to visit Krishna Palace near Sohna Chowk. Me and Aman took their leave and left for Sohna Road.Our imagination of a typical bureaucratic“sarkari daftar” (government office) was visible in Patwar Bhawan. A very lame question came to my mind after this experience, that why people behave the same way in all the government offices. I could also relate myself to my experience of working with Dairy board. At the Dairy Board we always use to question the bureaucratic procedures at various meetings and among colleagues, however I found these discussion were not about finding answers for the concern but to accept and imbibe bureaucracy within us. This system of bureaucracy is been given to us by English, but the
bigger mistake was that we accepted it as a good system to rule the country. Mahatma Gandhi once said “Our tyranny, if we impose on others, will be infinitely worse than that of the Englishmen who form the bureaucracy. Theirs is a terrorism imposed by the minority struggling to exist in the myths of opposition. Ours will be the terrorism imposed by a majority and therefore worse and really more godless than the first”.Every individual in our country now breaths bureaucracy and feels proud about the system which is slowly eating our roots of envisaged democracy based on equality and decentralized decision making. The days journey moved ahead with the search of Krishna Palace, a commercial building in which few of the shops are rented as Patwari's office. Most of the village Patwari's of Gurgaon Block are located in the building in different
shops. After few queries we could reach shop no. 112, where Patwari of Budheda and Sadhrana is situated. It was the most crowded spot at this time of the day in the whole complex. There was no furniture in the office, except a carpet where everybody was sitting surrounded by piled old records. Although it was 12' o
'clock the Patwari has not arrived yet. We decided to meet the clerk sitting and introduce ourselves. He asked us to wait as he is not authorized to share any information without seeking permission from the Patwari. We took empty chairs outside the office and decided to wait for him. An elderly person next to me,
asked about my whereabouts and in that conversation, disclosed that Patwari would only come by 2'o clock. He further mentioned that he has been trying to meet him since last Thursday, but he could not. There was a continuous movement of the people and most of the work was taken care by the Munshis (junior clerk) under Patwaris. At 2 pm, the Patwari arrives and clerk said something to him regarding us and the information we are seeking for. Patwari came to us, and asked about the information we are looking for.
After listening he mentioned that we can get that information either from the village or else we can visit the record room in the mini secretariat. He said mini secretariat would be a good place to visit as there are some retired Patwaris who can also explain the records and information we are seeking for. He was not keen
on sharing the information with us and therefore suggested us other ways to retrieve information.
After the conversation, we decided to visit the mini secretariat near Rajiv Chowk, Gurgaon. Moving around the huge government building we inquired about the record room. With some help on directions we reached the record room which was all surrounded by file pedestals and discarded furniture in one of the
corners. The center of the room had a table and a chair. A middle-aged woman was having lunch with her subordinates. Diagonally to her table, there was a carpet and few villagers were seated and confabbing. We thought interrupting the government clerks in the middle of their lunch would not be a good idea, and
thus we waited outside the room. After a while, as the lunch was over, the women started snacking the guavas. Now, we decided to talk to her. On our introduction, she just nodded and asked us what we want from her. On explaining our data requirement, she brusquely replied “main nahi deti, mere pass tame nah hai is kaam ke liye” (I will not provide this information, I do not have time for such work).Listening to this I had no clue on how to respond. We decided to just move out and think further on how to get the data. A friend came to rescue. A youth I met during my visit to village Sadhrana was also looking for some records. He
said he is been coming here since last month and she does not give me access to my own land records. She is corrupt and would not provide any data without bribe. He further asked us to visit village next time and he would help us retrievedata from village Sarpanch.
This experience sharing is just to picturize how difficult it can be to retrieve data for a research student in this bureaucratic democracy. Moreover, this situation also depicts how difficult it could be for a rural inhabitant seeking someinformation for his own land. I can easily make out that he/she has to at least dedicate a day or may be more to just meet these Sarkari Babu's. Furthermore, if they wish to get some assistance from these government paper-pushers, may be the time frame gets converted into weeks or months.
-Sumit Vij

Peri-urban South Asia Team visits Ravirala - Press Coverage

The above article appears in Sakshi, a regional Telugu Newspaper on December 20,212. The translation of this article is given below.

Plan for reviving “Pedda Cheruvu”

Anjal Prakash, Executive Director of South Asia Consortitium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies (SaciWATERs,) promised Kongara Raviryala that they would look into the matters for providing clean drinking water to the village and also would help in facilitating the dialogue between the village representatives and the government officials for reviving their “Pedda Cheruvu”. On Wednesday, the team of SaciWATERs along with scientists from Bangladesh and Nepal visited the village. Talking to the villagers, Mr. Prakash informed that their organization has adopted the village and that they would take up programmes related to water resources and environmental protection. He conveyed that tree plantation and sanitation activities in the village would be taken up. The international delegates have sought out information on the lake and also questioned the farmers about their agricultural practices. SaciWATERs team – Sreoshi and Shaili, S. A.  Khan, Shahjahan, Rahman, other researchers from Bangladesh and Nepal, VWSC Committee President – S. Srinivas, Shivalingam, T. Srinivas, Lakshmaiah took part in the meeting.