Women from two-fifty families of Chirang District in Assam are filled with joy that now they don’t have walk far to fetch water for their houses.

The reason for their happiness is the approval of 250 tube wells sanctioned from Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department.

Every day women of these villages are used majorly engaged in fetching water with big multiple drums from the open wells for their household consumption, washing of Utensils, Clothes as well as for their Cattle.

They have no alternatives in getting drinking water nearby. Lots of time and energy used to lost in fetching water. Farming used to hamper as the women were busy in collecting water which ultimately leads to affect productions.

These villages are located at about 35 Km from the District Head Quarter, Kajalgaon town. Majority population of the villages are very poor. The basic needs of daily life are non-existent in the villages due to less intervention of government and nongovernment agencies. Most of the villages has only one or two open wells which were made by the villagers themselves. These villages are situated in a hilly area bordering to Bhutan, a drought prone area and with deep layer water level.

As most of these villages come under the Caritas India Farm Northeast II Project, implemented by the Bongaigaon Gana Seva Society (BGSS). The project animators felt the need of doing something to solve the issue. In 26th October 2018, the animators had a meeting with the farmer clubs’ leaders and village representatives to discuss and sort out the problem of water scarcity. During discussion, the villagers agreed upon the idea of applying tube wells from the PHE. The animators took the initiative of drafting the application for the same which was submitted to the local MCLA. On receiving the approval, the animator Mr. Nareswar Basumatary and with some farmers went to the PHE office and submitted the application.

With the initiatives of BGSS animators, the Farmers’ Club leaders along with the support of the local Members of Council Legislative Assembly (MCLA) Nirmal Kumar Brahma 250 families in seven villages of Chirang District of Assam have received 250 tube well sets from Public Health Engineering (PHE) Basugaon.

On 17th November 2018, the animators took the responsibilities of collecting the tube from the PHE office at Basugaon and distributing them to the farmers. The PHE office in Basugaon is 45 kms away from the villages.

Receiving of tube wells by the 250 families of target villages will enable them to get sufficient safe drinking water throughout the year. They will have better livelihood options and more income generation activities with the surplus time saved for collecting water from open unsafe ring wells.