The "Water, Environment & Sanitation" domain works towards creating sanitized living conditions by promoting public hygiene and providing access to safe drinking water as a preventive health measure.
According to a survey, the quality of supplied water is one of the biggest problems that the residents of Rasoolpura have to face. The slum has different provisions of water supply: piped supply, bore wells, water-tankers and private sources. Municipal water supply through conduits has been provided to some of the areas in the locality, but the water quantity is not sufficient even for most of those connected to the public system. The bore wells are thus the source of the water for non-drinking purposes. While some households of this slum are connected to the underground sewer system the sewage of other parts of the area ends up in open drains, running through the slum. These drains are connected to a bigger waste water channel, also used as garbage disposal, crossing the slum. The result of this lack of hygiene and stagnating water ponds due to insufficient drainage infrastructure have the potential to lead to problems and mosquito spread diseases like the “Chikungunya” disease, which has a high occurrence in this area.
The first step towards ensuring that the people of the slum had access to clean drinking water was to sample and test the water in the area. Municipal water quality testing and ground water testing was done in partnership with German research project SHAKTI and EWB India (Engineers Without Borders). We were also supported by the HMWSSB (Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board), Institute of Preventive Medicine and the Secunderabaad Cantonment Board.
Samples were taken at all the hand pumps and the sewage canal that flows through the slum. A comprehensive ground water survey at Rasoolpura has been completed and the report has been submitted to the Secunderabad Cantonment Board.
The project was awarded second prize at Mondialgo Contest.
Apart from the tests, awareness programmes are also conducted simultaneously for better sanitation.
All costs were borne by SHAKTI and was done as part of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Research Programme - "Research for the Sustainable Development of the Megacities of Tomorrow" Students from the MJ College of Engineering were instrumental in initiating and participating in the successful completion of the research required.
