West Bengal, India

Home to over 1.1 billion people, India is the world’s largest democracy and is composed of 28 states and seven union territories. West Bengal is located in the easternmost part of India and is the country’s 13th largest state, with over 80 million people. Primarily agrarian, the majority of people in West Bengal live in rural areas and farm rice, the principal food crop, and jute, the main cash crop. While West Bengal has benefited from impressive economic growth in the last decades, social indicators have remained stagnant and approximately 27% of the population lives below the poverty line.

India News

Water For People Named in 2012 Top 100 Best NGOs by The Global Journal [read more]

Cigna Announces US$25,000 Donation to Water For People India [read more]

Guidestar's Philanthropedia Names Water For People Top Non-Profit of 2011 [read more]

BACKGROUND:

Population:: 1,151,751,000
Languages:: Hindi, Bengali
Per capita income:: $2,460
Life expectancy:: 63/64
Under-five mortality rate:: 76 per 1,000 live births
Source:: UNICEF

According to the government of India, 87% of the population has access to drinking water and 63% has access to improved sanitation. These numbers, however, do not provide an accurate and complete picture of water and sanitation access in India. Across the state of West Bengal, there is wide disparity in access to safe water and sanitation among districts. Water in 9 of the 19 districts is arsenic-ridden, making it unsafe for more than 30 million people. Contaminated tube wells and nearby ponds (shared with livestock) are the only sources of drinking water. As a result, West Bengal has one of the world’s highest levels of water-related illness.

Water For People in India

Water For People began working in West Bengal in 1996 on a small pilot project to help eliminate the naturally occurring arsenic in water supplies. In collaboration with Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESUS), it introduced low-cost technology for arsenic mitigation in the districts of Nadia and North 24 Parganas. The program continued to grow, and expanded further into communities and schools in districts not affected by arsenic. In 2005, Water For People established a full-fledged country program with an office in Kolkata.

Regions

Programming includes water, sanitation, and health and hygiene education in schools and communities in six districts in West Bengal: South 24 Parganas, East Medinipur, North 24 Parganas, Nadia, Purulia, and Murshidabad. In 2011, Water For People–India is expanding its work to include pilot sanitation programs in peri-urban Kolkata and Delhi and work in one district in the state of Bihar.

Partners

Water For People believes long-lasting water and sanitation solutions can be achieved when key local role- players—the private sector, civil society, and local government—are supported in a way that enables them to understand and act upon their areas of responsibility and support community water supply and sanitation development. As such, Water For People convenes, partners, and builds the skills of the district governments where programming is targeted, Bengal Engineering and Science University, local self-help groups (SHGs) and community based organizations (CBOs) and 12 local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

Water For People Initiatives

Work in 2011

In 2011, Water For People–India will implement programming in 148 communities and 138 schools in six districts in West Bengal. Water For People–India will also expand its work beyond West Bengal and into the new state of Bihar, where, in collaboration with the local government, it will select a district in which to target its efforts and create a strategy for reaching full water and sanitation coverage. Sanitation programming will also be piloted in the peri-urban areas surrounding Kolkata and Delhi.