Monsoon preparedness and water management, in Ahmedabad
July 13, 2021adminBlogNo Comments
The women leaders identifies issues faced by the community and addresses it to local administration to resolve it, all by themselves

Mahila Housing Trust forms Community Based Organizations (CBO) of 150-250 households in each slum community and 11 women leaders from this group form the Community Action Group (CAG) who collectively work for slum upgradation work. These women leaders are trained to voice their community-issues.
MHT mobilizes communities and empower them with knowledge, skills to ‘claim’ opportunities to engage with decision-making. MHT amplifies the voice and agency of poor women from slums who have exhibited exemplar abilities to address habitat issues in their own communities to engage with and influence key city- level decision-making processes including city & local area planning, budgeting for development works, and governance and service delivery processes.

How these women leaders start to identify their local-problems and work towards getting apt solutions for the same by approaching local administration when need be, is commendable.

The CAG members at Vastral ward – Vrundavan park slum, in Ahmedabad are working towards Monsoon-preparedness and water-management. “Because ours is low-lying area, water-logging in each Monsoon is usual. In past years, alongwith neighbours, I have witnessed water gushing into our homes; loss of documents, groceries because water clogged upto 3-4 days after heavy downpour have also been recorded” shared Radhikaben Pandey, a CAG member. For better Monsoon preparedness Radhikaben alongwith the other women leaders urged to the Drainage Project Department at Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to clean the individual home-drainage pipes of 300 homes in her society and the storm water drainage pipe of that area, so that when there is heavy rainfall this year, the water can pass through the pipes which are not clogged anymore.

In Bhagwatinagar I and II slums, Deepikaben Malek, a CAG member works towards water-management round-the-year. The internal lanes in her slum area are kuchha-made from mud. “In each of 13 lanes, 2 of these 8 gutters needs to be cleaned every six months because those are in low-lying areas, which makes these gutters clogged with silt. The filthy water overflows often gushes into nearby homes. But situations get even worst when rain water gets mixed with drain-water during Monsoon. Hence, we wrote to the Drainage Project Department at AMC to clean the gutters, because those needs to be desilted before its starts to pour heavily” shared Deepikaben. The women-leaders also urged that the cleaning be done through the sewer jetting machine which removes obstruction, mud and other materials from the drains. With their past experiences, they learned that cleaning these drains merely with an iron-rod just removes the clog temporarily and doesn’t suffice.

How these slum women-leaders are taking responsibility and participating in the upgradation work of their community ensures of marching towards sustainable slum transformation

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