News

Post Implementation Monitoring (PIM) & BASELINE Survey in Sheohar District of Bihar

Water For People, an international NGO working in the WASH sector entered into an agreement with SIGMA foundation to conduct a PIM and Base Line Survey in (i) Patharpratima and Sagar Blocks of West Bengal and (ii) in Sheohar district of Bihar, where they have already made some interventions over many years and is planning to consolidate the gains. The survey in Seohar of Bihar commenced from 27.04.2018 and was over on 06.05 2018 . The survey has been very challenging since it also monitored quite a few technical parameters including water quality of the water points created under assistance of Water for People. The field survey was supervised by Mr Ganesh Chaudhury, Manager SIGMA Foundation for Bihar and Jharkhand.

The salient aspects of survey conducted in Seohar are the following :

Survey Output :

Assessment of Management Practices and Functioning of the Rural Piped Water Supply Schemes Handed Over to the VWSCs: Survey in Nadia and Hooghly districts of West Bengal

Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) is responsible for installation and maintenance of rural piped water supply schemes (RPWSS). After the 73rd Amendment of the Constitution and gradual empowerment of the Panchayats, the State Government had been considering to hand over the responsibility of O&M of the PWSSs to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) or Gram Panchayats (GPs) which was so far responsible for installation and management of Tube Wells (TWs) only.

Researchers of SIGMA Foundation was accompanied by the official of PHED, West Bengal

For this purpose, GoI has directed all the States to constitute one Village Water and Sanitation Committee (VWSCs) in each GP to function for promotion of water and sanitation, which has to function under general guidance and control of the GP concerned. Hence, Government of West Bengal has decided to hand over the responsibility of management, operation and maintenance of all the Piped Water Supply Schemes (PWSS) from PHED to Gram Panchayats/Village Water and Sanitation Committee (GPWSC/VWSC).

The survey in (i) Nadia and (ii) Hooghly districts of West Bengal, where a team of SIGMA Foundation has visited to capture the ground reality. The field survey in Nadia district commenced from 28.05.2018 and was over on 01.06.2018. The same has been conducted in Hooghly district from 04.06.2018 to 08.06.2018. The survey was very challenging since it includes monitoring of some technical parameters such as chlorination, water flow measurement of stand posts. Throughout the period of survey, researchers of SIGMA Foundation have been supported by PHED, West Bengal, UNICEF and Gram Panchayat members.

The various aspects of the survey conducted in the aforesaid regions are the following:

♦ Household Survey

Household survey — Household Survey

Household survey — Household Survey

♦ Water Flow Measurement of stand posts (At the source, Tail end and intermediate between the two)

Water Flow Measurement

Water Flow Measurement

♦ Residual Chlorine Test

Residual Chlorine test

Residual Chlorine test

♦ Visit to Pump House and discussion with Pump Operators, Valve Operators and Water Facilitators

Discussion with PO of Palashipara PWSS

SIGMA Foundation officials with the POs and Junior Engineer, PHED at Pump House, Gazna

♦ Discussion with GP officials

SIGMA Foundation officials with the GP members of Madhabpur, Hooghly

Presentation in International Water Congress

SIGMA Foundation is going to present three technical papers on the august occasion of “XII International Water Congress” on 22-23rd November at, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi. Significantly, 26 scientific papers have been chosen to be presented out of more than 200 abstracts received from various parts of the World. SIGMA Foundation is the one and only organization whose three papers have been accepted for presentation after scrutiny by the experts. The details of the papers are as below:

1. Dr. M.N.Roy – “Efficient Management of Rural Water Supply Lessons From West Bengal on Devolution of O&M of PWSS to Panchayats”.

2. Dr. Debasri Mukherjee- “Preparatory Approach of Water Safety Plan to Enhance the Water Use Efficiency in Rural Sector”.

3. Er. Sohini Tarafdar- “Development of Catalyst for Nitrate Reduction in Drinking Water for Enhancement of Water Use Efficiency in Water Industry”.

Workshop on Menstrual Hygiene Management

SIGMA Foundation was invited in a workshop on “Menstrual Hygiene Management: Access Livelihood and Disposal Issues” jointly organised by Fulcrum Hygiene Solutions and UTSA on 28th November, 2018 in Rotary Sadan, Kolkata. On behalf of SIGMA Foundation Dr. Baishali Bal, Mayuri Sen and Sohini Tarafdar attended the program. Interactions were held with Government Functionaries of Department of Panchayat & Rural Development, Public Health & Engineering Department, officials from Howrah Zilla Parishad, scientists from ICAR and several national and international NGOs.

India-UK Water Centre Workshop

he India UK Water Centre (IUKWC) is a virtual Joint Centre between the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Govt of India and the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), UK; hosted by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in India and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in the UK. IUKWC implemented its first set of Grassroots Field Exposure Initiative (GFES) from 13th December to 15th December 2018 in Kolkata. It was aimed to promote the assimilation of local knowledge and users’ experiences to progress the concept of co-production and co-design and facilitate user feedback into science and policy. On behalf of SIGMA Foundation Dr. Debasri Mukherjee attended the workshop and shared her thoughts on water quality scenario in West Bengal context. Dr. Mukherjee clearly stated the mitigation measures of fluoride affected districts in West Bengal especially Tapan and Gangarampur block of Dakshin Dinajpur where Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) is suppling safe drinking water in 482 villages and 1,547 habitations. In context of arsenic affected blocks of Habra-I, Habra-II and Gaighata in North 24 Parganas, PHED is supplying water in 327 rural mouzas and 799 habitations.

ESDACON 2019, New Delhi

SIGMA Foundation got the opportunity to present the paper on “Environmental Enteropathy” which was jointly written by Dr. M. N. Roy and Dr. Debasri Mukherjee during the ‘INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE on Human Health and Sustainable Development Global Environmental Challenges’ at JNU New Delhi, on the 11th of January 2019. This conference was technically and financially supported by Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change GOI, ESDACON, JNU, CSIR NEERI and Metropolitan University San Juan PR, USA. Dr. Debasri Mukherjee presented a paper on Environmental Enteropathy which was closely associated with the poor sanitary status and high incidence of stunting status in India.

Release of a Video of SIGMA Foundation in the Water Conference in Paris

European Union organised a Water Conference on the 13th to 15th March in Paris, France where SIGMA Foundation got the opportunity to release a video on water through French Embassy. This video covered the following issues as per Embassy’s requirement: Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG – 6) has laid a specific target to be achieved by 2030 in order to ensure safe drinking water for everyone.

Celebration of World Water Day, 2019

SIGMA Foundation took a stride forward to leave no one behind by celebrating “World Water Day 2019 themed leaving no one behind” at the grassroot level with the community cluster of FSP, SOS Children’s Village, Kolkata (slum areas of Rajarhat and Narayanpur). The initiative was led by Dr. Debasri Mukherjee, Dr. Sabari Bandopadhyay and Soumyajit Basu. The Team focused on generating technical as well as behavioural awareness about water safety and security amongst the community. SIGMA Foundation took an initiative to take science to grassroot level by intriguing the concept of reduction in ground water table and recharge of aquifers amongst the community to make water security a mass movement in rural Bengal.

West Bengal to put first foot forward for Implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) holding hands of SIGMA Foundation

The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) aims to provide potable piped water to every rural household in India by 2024. To facilitate the above mission in the country, five 2-day consultative regional workshops have been scheduled to be organised by Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation under Ministry of Jal Shakti with important stake holders and water activists from all the states. West Bengal has been invited to participate in the workshop on 11th and 12th September held in Puri, Orissa with other 6 states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal and A&N Islands).

SIGMA Foundation has been identified amongst the most competent NGOs from West Bengal followed by Ramkrishna Mission Lokshiksha Parishad, PRADAN and Water for People with support of UNICEF. Mr. Ritaban Mitra, Hydrogeologist has been invited to attend the consultation workshop on behalf of SIGMA Foundation to impart his significant contributions on providing a critical picture of existing water supply and demand situation in the state of West Bengal. The discussion will focus on the present innovative practices presently implemented and challenges faced in the State. SIGMA Foundation with its extensive experience of working at community level all over the country is all set to work at the grass root level for water management including creation of local infrastructure for source sustainability under JJM.

SIGMA Foundation to prepare micro-plan for Solid Waste Management of 32 Urban Local Bodies in West Bengal in collaboration with State Urban Development Agency (SUDA)

SIGMA Foundation has been selected through bidding process to take up the work of “Planning of Scientific Solid Waste Management in Municipal towns/cities” in three zones of the state which covers 32 City Corporations/Municipalities. The work is divided broadly in two categories. The first phase includes conducting an area survey and assess the existing system run by ULB for collection, segregation and transportation of solid waste. After gap identification, SIGMA Foundation will propose efficient system of collection and transportation as per SWM Rule 2016. Other responsibilities include to suggest appropriate technology for treatment of the degradable waste, suggest technological solution for recycling, assessment of citizen’s views and to suggest appropriate IEC for generating mass awareness. In the second phase SIGMA Foundation will be responsible for imparting handholding training to various stake holders on SWM. The organisation will provide policy making and reforming suggestions in context of waste management of ULBs, monitoring and evaluation mechanism and addressing citizen centric grievance redressal mechanism.

SIGMA Foundation has already started the work with the first phase of consultation meetings with Durgapur, Asansol and Howrah Municipality.

1
2
3
4
5