Rural Initiatives - West Bengal

• Communication Plan for Jal Jeevan Hain Campaign

The Jal Jeevan Hai Campaign was launched by NABARD on March 22, 2017, to reach 200 districts in 21 states across India. The campaign has been designed and implemented by NABARD in collaboration with the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) aims to cover 1,00,000 villages in vulnerable/ water stressed areas where the ground water is over exploited. CEE East in collaboration with NABARD Regional Office, Kolkata implemented the different stages of campaign across 9 districts of West Bengal.

A two day’s training programme was conducted by CEE East at NABARD Regional Office, Kolkata to orient 30 Master Trainers (selective districts of West Bengal, Assam and Jharkhand) on the communication plan of the campaign devised by CEE. It helped to understand the objective of the save water campaign, communication strategy and how to conduct the campaign effectively to enable mass sensitization at village level. The highlight of the training was the introduction of an interactive Mobile App, designed by CEE, for monitoring the activities at the grassroots level. CEE monitored A Day in Village Campaign (DVC) at two districts namely, Birbhum and Burdwan to assess the efficacy of the campaign.

CEE East team conducted debriefing sessions across 9 districts of West Bengal, and interacted with the Master Trainers (MTs), Krishi Jal Doots (KJDs) encouraging to share key takeaways and document the feedback generated while conducting the campaign at village level. The sessions also served as an interface where representatives from various line departments (district level) were present and KJDs, Jal Sahayaks could meet and communicate effectively for further interventions

• Source Book on Solid & Liquid Waste Management in Rural Areas in India

CEE East coordinated the development of the source book on Solid & Liquid Waste Management in Rural Areas in India for The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS), Government of India. The sourcebook aim to serve as a handbook cum manual for the communities in rural areas to create mass awareness about the health and environmental impacts caused by improper handling and management of waste and educate all the stakeholders about the need and importance of proper waste management system emphasizing its relationship with health and environment. It also aim to bring about a change in the thinking and perceptions of people in rural regions regarding value of hygiene and sanitation through solid and liquid waste management by discouraging open defecation and encourage construction and usage of individual/ group toilets in all villages and to facilitate adequate systems for treatment of human and animal excreta using anaerobic and aerobic systems. The sourcebook has chapters talking about integrated solid waste management, waste recycling, and simple technologies like composting & biogas generation as well as use of treated black and grey water at rural level. The sourcebook also emphasizes the need to have a participatory approach for an effective waste management at community level. The source book is available on the site of MDWS, Govt of India