Status Report : Building Check-dam for Drinking Water 15 March, 2006

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1 Status Report : Building Check-dam for Drinking Water 15 March, 2006 Context / Back ground : The first status report of the project was published on 31st Dec, The actual construction work on the field took off in the first week of January, After completion of Cut of Trench and the other base work, the project has now crossed the first crucial stage of decision-making. Hence, we feel this to be an appropriate time for the Second status report. Gudwanwadi has now become a place with variety of activities. Besides the actual construction activities, weekly meetings and participation of villagers, frequent visits by IIT students and interaction with the villagers have gained momentum. Crucial decisions about addressing the Cut of Trench are now settled after deeper consultation among all the partners and stake-holders in this project. People involved : People of Gudwanwadi are thought to be at the heart of this project. They are represented by Gudwanvadi village water Committee which consists of 4 women: Nagi Rama Punjara, Changuna, Vanita Paradhi, Suman Namdev Khandavi and 4 men : Laxman Khandavi, Mangal Maruti Nirguda, Madhav Khandavi, Govind Nama Khandavi. The committee along with the representatives of ADS, Gangotree and IIT are supposed to meet weekly to review the progress and decide the further course of action. Gangotree is represented by a Site Engineer Sanjay Rachelli and Prafulla Hande (In charge of the Project on behalf of Gangotree). ADS is represented by Mr. Ganapat Kalekar, while IIT is represented by Onkar Marathe (RA for Technical Co-ordination) and Satyajit Somwanshi (TA for Social Survey). The project is led by Santosh Gondhalekar (MD, Gangotree), Mrs. Manjusha Khedkar (Secretary, ADS) and Prof. Milind Sohoni (Principal Investigator on behalf of CTARA, IIT). There are many other people who have been actively involved in various stages of the project. They will be mentioned at relevant point/s in this report. Technical Execution : After Bhoomi pujan ceremony on 28th Dec. 2005, the actual work on site started on 8th January, During first 8 days, marking was done, the site was cleared of all minor

2 vegetation present, an approach road was prepared by JCB and the dam seat (of 0.3 m depth) was excavated by the JCB. Again markings were done on 15th Jan. for alignment of centreline, CoT (Cut of Trench), Hearting etc. and CoT Excavation was started. Drains on the downstream side were also parallelly excavated and filled till the first week of February. During the excavation of CoT various geological features such as cracks (which are called chilan in local jargon) in the bottom hard rock of CoT, horizontal sheeting and layer of weathered soil below the jointed rocks were encountered. A crucial Geological Investigation was carried out by Mr. Ashok Gadre (Consultant, Gangotree) and Prof. T. N. Singh (Dept. of Earth Science, IIT) on 13th Feb. They briefed villagers about their observations and possible solutions that are to be explored. The final decision about the further action on CoT was taken on 25th Feb. in a meeting at Gudwanwadi after due process of consultation between Villagers, ADS, Gangotree and IIT. It took some time to arrive at a mutually agreeable solution, amidst the disagreements expressed by various stake-holders over the various solutions proposed. The work was halted during this period (13 th to 25 th Feb.) to arrive at a mutually agreeable and viable solution. The CoT has now been excavated to a level of 90.3 m or more between chainage 15m- 70m so as to reach the hard rock. CoT between 0-15 m and m of the chainage will be straight slope or slope with small steps. Cracks (chilans) have been encountered at 21m, 41m and 54m of chainage. Economics of options like gravity grouting and pressure grouting are explored to make cracks waterproof. Though pressure grouting is thought more reliable, a competitive quotation given by grouting contractor Mr. Patel (who visited site on 25 th Feb.) quotes minimum drilling charges at Rs. 3 lakh, which adds total grouting charges to somewhere around Rs. 4 lakh. Considering total budget of the project and cost-benefit analysis experience of the experts, it has been decided to pack the chilans by gravity grouting. Gravity grouting will cost around Rs. 25,000/-. Extensive blasting has been carried out for 3 times along CoT. Now the CoT is in the process of final cleaning so that the Gravity Grouting can be carried out for the cracks exposed. It is expected that CoT will be cleaned by 16th March. At this moment, assurance of the presence of water till 31 st May (i. e. end of summer) of 2007 can t be given due to various geological features that we have encountered and possibility of seepage. Hence, the project runs with some risk of not satisfying the complete success criteria which expects dam to store the surface water till May end of the next year.

3 Now Rocktoe is also under process of construction since 5th March and 50% of it has been completed. Social Mobilisation : Weekly meetings of Village Water Committee in the presence of representatives of ADS, Gangotree and IIT are being regularly conducted. Till now 10 meetings have taken place on 3rd, 10th, 18th, 25th Jan., 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd Feb, 1st and 8th Marth. Involvement of members in the decision making has improved over the time. There was also a special committee meeting on 18th Feb. and an open for all meeting with villagers on 25th February to arrive at a final decision on CoT. Committee has also conducted village meetings time-to-time whenever required and has come together while distribution of wages. Special meetings for women have also been conducted to highlight importance of their participation. A similar meeting was also conducted on 8th March on the occasion of International Women's day. Various issues of participation like number of labourers, time-discipline of labourers, labour charges, decision on CoT etc. have been effectively handled during these meetings. A novel experiment of weekly supervisor on behalf of the village has been started since 26th Feb. after resumption of the work. A member of committee, now, takes the note of details of work to be done in a week, takes responsibiity of the mobilisation of the labour and gives feedback to the site engineer on behalf of the village, when his/her turn comes for a week. Now the complete documentation of Approval letters and NOC by the land owners (whose land comes under submergence) has been completed. An house-hold social survey of the village has also been completed by Satyajit Somwanshi (TA, CTARA) as a part of this project, which has played a significant role in the awareness generation among villagers at large about the issue of water-scarcity and need of villager's active participation in the project. Prof. Parthasarathy and a team of HSS students visited the site on 12 th March to complete details of the Social Survey.

4 A Teaching and Research Initiatives : 2 field visits have been organised at Institute-level after commencement of work, 1st on 14th Jan.(no. of participants : 25) and 2nd on 4th Feb.2006 (no. of participants : 26). Students of M. Sc. (Geophysics) and M.Tech. (water Resource) have taken keen interest in the project. Students of Geophysics conducted Electro-Resistivity meter tests during both the visits. They have expressed interest to conduct further studies. 2 students, Prashant Chaudhary (M. Phil. student, HSS) and Uttaran Datta (M. Des. student, IDC) have taken up projects concerning social impact of the project and designing health instructions for a village respectively. Prof. T. I. Eldho (Civil), Prof. G. N. Jadhav (Earth Sc.), Prof. E. Chandrasekhar (Earth Sc.), Prof. Milind Atre (Mech.), Prof. Sudha Vasan (HSS), Prof. Ulf Mohrlok (visiting from U. of Karlsruhe, Germany), Prof. S. D. Agashe (Elect.), Prof. Kannan Moudgalya (Chem.), Prof. Umesh Bellur (KReSIT), Prof. Raja Mohanty (IDC), Prof. G. V. Sreekumar (IDC), Dr. Narendra Shah (CTARA), Students from HSS, other RAs and staff from CTARA, volunteers of Group for Rural Activities from IIT have visited the site during these visits. A team of PRAYAS led by Subodh Wagale visited the project on 4th Feb. to explore the possibilities of Energy planning for the village. Prof. Milind Sohoni (CSE, Chief Investigator of the project) and Prof. A. W. Date (Head, CTARA) have been frequent visitors to the project. Prof. T. N. Singh has been also visiting the site along with his students for Geological investigation and to advice about blasting and packing of CoT. Soil Testing laboratory of Civil Engineering Dept. has been involved in testing of soil samples for their suitability as a material for the dam. Prof. Dewaikar (Civil) has extended support for the same. Mr. Rane from the lab has been cooperative in this regard. Chemistry lab of CESE has done the potability analysis of the water samples under the guidance of Prof. Shyam Asolekar. Difficulties during execution : The project-execution till now has not been able to follow the pre-envisaged timetable because of following reasons : 1. Mr. Ram Rane, a locally influencial contractor in Kashele did insist to take his JCB earth-mover for the work. His machine was hired after arriving at mutually agreeable rates. But, this resulted in delay in initiation of work on 8 th Jan. 2006, instead of on 1 st Jan. as was planned.

5 2. The geological features encountered during digging a Cut of Trench compelled us to devote some time to decide about their treatment which was agreeable to all the stake-holders. Hence work was halted for 13 days in February (13 th -25 th Feb.). 3. There have been periodical problems of repair and maintainance in JCB earthmover. JCB didn t work on site on 2 nd -3 rd Feb. Since the work has again resumed on 26 th Feb., there have been almost everyday problems in the working of JCB. Arrangement of alternative JCB has been made and we hope that work can be completed at least before 15 th May, Some labour problems were also encountered. Women labourers were in majority, which put some limitation on the heavier works to be done. Now, number of male labourers has been increased as per the requirement. 5. Labourers didn t report on the next day, when the first wages were distributed on 1 st Feb. Now they have been convinced about the importance of regularity. 6. There were 4 marriages in the month of February and 4 are scheduled in March. As work was halted during marriage days, work didn t suffer in February, but it may suffer in the month of March. There will be one-day Holi break on 15 th March instead of a longer one going upto 5 days. Marriages in the village are planned on 17, 18, 19 th March, to fall along with Holi. Village water committee has been warned about extreme possibility of non-completion of dam before rainy season, if similar problems persist. On positive side, there are no more marriages planned in this season. Expenditure : Following expenditures have been incurred by Gangotree under the project, Building Check-dam for Drinking Water : Teaching and Research Initiative,: No. Bill No. Date Particulars Qty. Amount (Rs.) Machinery JCB (@Rs. 650/hour) TPR (@Rs. 300/hour) JCB (@Rs. 650/hour) TPR (@Rs. 300/hour) Additional provisional expenses on Machinery Blasting Blasting (@ Rs. 50/2.5 hole)- Rs. 500 less 136 hrs hrs 88.8 hrs hrs. 88, , , , , holes 11,000.00

6 Additional provisional expenses on blasting Materials Sand (@ Rs. 800/ brass) Metal (@ Rs. 1500/ brass) Dabar (@ Rs. 600 / brass) Additional provisional expenses on materials - 49, brass 16 brass 2 brass 11, , , , Labour charges (provisional) /labour/day (till 4 th 60 /woman labour/day 70 / man labour/day (from 5 th March onwards) Instruments / quality (provisional) - 30, Instruments for checking compaction of soil during construction on the field Field technical administration (provisional) - 25, Salaries of Supervisors etc. - 25, Vehicle rent and transport (provisional) Jeep rent and weekly visits - 40, Supervision (includes Gangotree s fees Rs. - 75, ,000/-) Total 5,55, Miscellaneous Activities : Due to an initiative by villagers and regular visitors from IIT, the defunct handpump of the village was repaired by the BDO office on 17th January and 4 new pipes were added into it on 8th February. This small initiative has provided the villagers a local source of water atleast for 6 extra weeks and saved them of drudgery to bring water from 2.5 kms. IITB Newsletter January, 2006 issue also took note of this project and featured a 2 column news titled 'CTARA building Check-dam for Drinking water'.