Ladakh women are working tirelessly towards the supply of safe drinking water for people in remote villages who are living in one of the most challenging environments in the nation.
The Jal Shakti Department has trained up to 815 women to test the water and report any inconsistencies in the samples. The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), which guarantees tap water connectivity to all residents has provided the women with skill development and training.
These skilled women visit their designated villages as per the schedule in the Union Territory with their Field Testing Kits (FTK) to test the water samples. During the testing process, it was revealed that out of 6507 water samples, 171 turned out to be contaminated. The department successfully addressed minor contaminations due to the absence of significant industries that discharged wastewater into groundwater.
According to Nurboo Tundup, an information education and communication specialist with the Jal Shakti Department, 815 women have received training to assess local water quality in Ladakh through JJM.
He informed that to ensure safe water supply to people even in remote areas, at least five women from each village in Ladakh are being trained to test the quality of the water. He continues that two or three women are trained in villages with small populations. These trained women alert the Jal Shakti Department, also known as Public Health Engineering (PHE) if any type of contamination they find where the PHE quickly stops the source and filters the water.
Even These skilled women receive FTKs, the UT comprises three subdivision-level labs and two district-level labs. In the UT, there are five labs available for testing water.
Ladakh has 43,147 households with 37,127 receiving JJM tap water connections, compared to 1,414 in rural Utah as of 15 August 2019 with 250 small and large villages.
