This is a story of collective will and finding solutions for immediate problems. In this Pindarbari village, Bankura District, West Bengal, all the hand pumps were defunct and the main Submersible Pump was also not working, for three years. The villagers had a hard time collecting water from nearby villages, often with long queues and covering long distances carrying water.
There are advantages and disadvantages of these Government Submersible pumps. The main advantage of this type of pump is that it prevents pump cavitation, a problem associated with a high elevation difference between pump and fluid surface. But they are often not easily accessible for routine maintenance and inspection, making it difficult to perform preventive maintenance, and often we see that these pumps are left to run until they break down and need to be replaced.
A combination of these issues happened in this Rautkhan Panchayat’s Pindarboni village. The Block officials mentioned once in the video that despite repairing the pumps, the villagers mishandled the machinery. The villagers on the other hand accuse the block officials of political propaganda.
Community Correspondent Avijit Adhikary, sensing the situation, held a meeting with the villagers and wrote an application uniting and mobilising all the villagers. Avijit went to the Panchayat office and he found that Panchayat officials are prompt in understanding the gravity of the situation and asked the Public Health Engineer to survey the pumps and repair.
There was a conflict, of blaming others for their work but it got over with negotiations and the right approach. Please share this video to show how a community can unite and stand for their rights, and work in tandem with the Government.
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