Perambra Laksham Colony Water Supply Scheme
My Name is Prakashan, living here since my childhood. I am a naturopathy doctor. Normally people used to call our hamlet as the Lakham colony and 56 families are living here with approximately 400 people. (It is in Perambra block of Kozhikode district, Kerala). Here all are residing in very congested huts. Except for one or two households, all the families are very poor.
RCFI started drinking water projects here almost three years back. Local people contributed labor and RCFI also gave some financial benefits to those who contributed for the same. Anyway, the work went for four months and it was fine work Earlier I used to see several people suffering from drinking water-related health issues.
Mainly during monsoon season. I did not find any cases for the last two years. All people are getting pipelines and hygiene water. Another major concern was women’s issues related to fetching water. They used to travel almost 1.5KM for the water where the government used to serve. Most of the households here don’t have proper land documents due to slum issues. So, the government water supply won’t come here. Now women have time to do other things.
We have formed a local body to look after the well and water supply in the name of our colony. They are taking care of the cleanliness and equitable water supply.
One of the beautiful things which I observed is, our Anganwadi was unable to operate during December to May due to the inadequacy of water. And that also got enough supply now and it is operational since the commissioning of the village water supply system.
n short, here all are happy, I will say especially women. And the result which we expected also came true.