Water for People India (WFPI) has been working on promotion of WASH under a unique programme called ‘Everyone Forever’ in two Blocks of South 24 Parganas namely Pathar Pratima and Sagar (except Ghoramara GP) and Sheohar District in Bihar. ‘Charity Water’ USA joined hands with WFPI for specific interventions in WASH sector since 2010. WFPI focused on creation of sustainable facilities with equity and establishment of support mechanisms. WFPI started working in Pathar Pratima and Sagar Blocks of West Bengal in 2006 and has initiated its work in Sheohar District in Bihar in 2012 with the support of ‘Charity Water’ USA.

The interventions of the Charity Water through WFPI was likely to result in improvement in access to WASH infrastructures and related practices at the HH level, WASH practices in schools, various aspects of functioning of the water points including the quality of water and on the community engagement in improving various aspects of WASH including management of the water point within the project area.

A detail study was to be conducted for evaluating the post implementation monitoring status on water and sanitation sectors at households, schools and water points (including water quality checking), service providers in Pathar Pratima and Sagar Blocks of South 24 Parganas in West Bengal and Sheohar District in Bihar. A Baseline study was also to be conducted in Namkhana Block for exploring new interventions. An End line survey was also to be conducted in areas of Sheohar District. The study was assigned to SIGMA Foundation, New Town Kolkata.

SIGMA Foundation was identified as the partner for all these surveys, which also included testing of water quality in a few cases. The survey was done through questionnaire-based collection of data and test of water quality on the spot (Iron, Turbidity and Bacteria test) as well as in the Water Testing Laboratories (Arsenic, pH etc.). For the former, five different sets of questionnaires were developed by Charity Water USA and WFP to cover the four major thematic areas namely, Household, School, Water Point and Service Provider. The survey was done using Android run application for easier data management, where WFPI’s service delivery is an important component of overall efforts to improve access to drinking water and sanitation facilities round the year. The survey included 110 HHs in Namkhana; 900 HHs, 270 schools, 338 water points, 15 service providers in Patharpratima; 720 HHs, 160 schools, 305 water points, 8 service providers in Sagar; 2500 HHs, 450 schools, 500 water points and 53 service providers in Sheohar.

The survey was taken up from 24th August to end of October 2019 and cleaned data was shared with the WFPI.