14 Jan 2016
Jal Choupal: Workshop on Drinking Water quality in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
The second ‘Jal Choupal’ was held on 12th– 13th January 2016 at Lucknow. The objective of this workshop was to introduce the activities of Jal Choupal to a greater stakeholder group on water quality issues in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and to broaden the base of knowledge exchange and discussions on water quality in state of UP.
It was also organised to enhance sector learning and networking to mitigate the complex and multi sectorial issues related to drinking water quality, health impacts.
WaterAid, Arsenic Knowledge and Action Network and Fluoride Knowledge and Action Network played major role in conducting this meeting of Jal Choupal. Jal Choupal is determined to work on the matter of water quality in the state of UP. For this documenting all the data available is very important. There is a need to bring all organisations working on water quality on the same platform. Seeing the support and encouragement that this initiative is receiving, Jal Choupal can play a pivotal role in the sector of water security and water quality in the coming days.
Some of the plans for future of Jal Chaupal include the following:
Short Term Plans:
- To start a Google group among the members of Jal Choupal through which the group members can keep in contact and can share various information related to water quality.
- To start a Facebook group which would act like a discussion forum and it would also give some kind of online visibility to the group.
- Develop communication strategies that would help to communicate better with the affected or vulnerable community.
- Sharing new and best practices in water quality management across the country
- Promote traditional water sources such as pond and dug well and focus on rain water harvesting.
Long term plans:
- Identifying and mapping key contaminants, decide on priority areas to work in, and marking safe and unsafe water sources.
- Long term planning for ensuring water security and quality and eventually work towards formulating a State Water Policy for UP.
- Convergence at local level: There is a need to form local Jal Chaupal at both village and district levels.
- Conduct Health surveys and studies on the linkage between nutrition and health.
- Building capacity of Govt. and Non-Govt. agencies: Trainings for Gram Panchayat, ANM, AWW, Teachers, ASHA, etc. on water quality problems and multi sector approaches.