Bhubaneswar: The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has unveiled a progressive initiative called “Women for Water, Water for Women Campaign”.
This is done under its flagship Program – Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) in partnership with the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM), another flagship programme of Government of India.
Odisha Urban Academy (OUA),under Housing & Urban Development Department is the knowledge partner to MoHUA for this Nationwide campaign of “Jal Diwali” starting from today.
The campaign aims to provide a platform for inclusion of women in water governance. They will be exposed to gaining first-hand knowledge about water treatment processes through visit to Water Treatment Plants (WTPs) in their respective cities. These visits will be helpful in understanding the vital procedures involved in delivering clean and safe drinking water to households.
Additionally, women will gain insights into water quality testing protocols which ensure that citizens get water of the required quality. The overarching goal of the Jal Diwali campaign is to instil a sense of ownership and belongingness among women towards water infrastructure.
Odisha Urban Academy has been selected as the knowledge partner by the Ministry as the State’s approach of convergence & community partnership has emerged as a Model of Urban Governance which has earned several National & International recognition.
Odisha is the first State to encourage participation of transgender community for operation and management of water treatment plant in Cuttack. Besides the state has taken several initiatives to encourage community participation in waste water treatment and universal access to piped water supply under Basudha scheme.
Odisha launched a community driven initiative called Jal Sathi in December, 2019 and till date 790 Jal sathis have been effectively engaged across 114 ULBs to facilitate collection of Water Tax & conduct of Water Quality test at the Household level.
Graduating from the household Water Management , members of women Self Help Group(SHG) have proved their mettle & leadership in the effective management of water treatment plant that is responsible for supplying water to the entire population of a City.