Chalice Success Story - Water Project, Orissa, India

Orissa (State), in north-eastern India, where over 461 million people live below the poverty line, is one of the least developed states of India.  The chronic problems of poverty, illiteracy, health, lack of sanitation, and malnutrition among the rural masses are constant challenges.  The majority of Orissa's fifty two thousand villages have no electricity, safe drinking water, or safe roads.

The AFPRO Water Project selected 13 tribal villages where 482 families lived, belonging to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribes.  Their small houses are made of wood and mud with thatched roofs.  The people are dependent on the forest for their firewood and fruit.  Due to a lack of irrigation systems, only one crop is harvested each year.  Inadequate, sporadic rains undermine their food security.  Due to the widespread lack of effective sanitation facilities, water borne diseases like cholera, jaundice, dysentery, typhoid, and gastroenteritis are prevalent, causing many deaths.  The water used by the villagers from old wells and ponds was of questionable quality.  The village women had to traverse hilly terrain to collect fresh, clean water from perennial streams, two or three kilometres away.  As a result, safe water for drinking, domestic use, and irrigation was a scarce resource, a major health issue, and a precious commodity.  Through the completion of the AFPRO Water Project, the dream of safe and available water has become a reality.