Clean Drinking Water

In the hill villages of West Bengal, water supply can be erratic at certain times of the year. It can also be plentiful in some places and scarce in others. The dry season can last for six months in some areas, while monsoon rains can wash out crops and roads. In more remote villages, water must be carried for miles. Also, streams can often be polluted by poor sanitation occurring in villages further up the hillside. This, in turn, affects people's health.

The Glenn Family Foundation Model Village Programme has been working with 15 villages to improve their water supply, to provide clean drinking water and piping systems to enable villagers to access water more easily.  

The local GFF Committee works first with landowners, getting them to agree to donate their land for a water project. They then work with villagers, setting up a local water committee and organising them to provide volunteer labour and sometimes local materials, such as bamboo and rocks, to help build the projects. People do so willingly, knowing that their communities will benefit. The GFF provides the bulk of the materials such as tanks and pipes, as well as the specialist skills needed. It also oversees the management of the project.

These are small-scale, local projects which may take up to six to ten months from early negotiation to completion. Their impact may be on a few families or a larger community, but in all cases there are tangible benefits for people's health and wellbeing. Within the past year five new water projects have been completed in the area around Kalimpong, meaning that for the first time in their lives, more than 50 families now have access to clean, reliable sources of drinking water.  

More water projects will be developed as the Model Village Programme continues to expand, but to date we are proud to announce that we have completed 26 water projects in a total of 18 villages since the project's inception.