Kattur- Adopt a Village by Ashok Leyland
Story by: Vaishali Sharma
Sourced by: Laxmi Narayan
Now when the government has announced Unlock 2.0 in the nation, Tamil Nadu is a state where the Lockdown is still there and it’s been 3 months since the state is following the rules and regulations to protect themselves from this invisible virus.
Voice of Consumers
Mrs Thisla, Age-48,
“It’s been one and a half years since my family and I have started taking water from Sarvajal and can't imagine my life without this service. Sarvajal water is God's gift especially during this lockdown period.”
One of the locations Kattur in Chennai was adopted by Ashok Leyland on 22nd January 2019 to provide safe, affordable, and accessible drinking water services with the implementing partner Piramal Sarvajal.
The population is largely depended on agriculture. In January they cultivated a huge amount of rice (Paddy in Tamil). When the nation lockdown was announced, the community faced challenges in doing their daily practices.
As the community had 3 COVID positive patients as shared by our operator Vennila Ji and the consumers as well. Local panchayat announced it to be a completely restricted area and from then all are staying at home.
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| Sarvajal Enterprise Management System showing the monthly pattern of daily dispense |
During this difficult situation, people stopped taking water from the private plant which is at Kadapppakam village, 3 km away from Kattur. When the quality and cleanliness were the priority, a total of 116 new cardholders enrolled for the services of Sarvajal. Till date, the location has 458 cardholders. The water off-take from March (97,039 litres) to May (1,31,124 litres) total production showed improvement by 36%.
Voice of ConsumersMrs Latha age-35,“I got hope and became a member of Sarvajal when Vennila Ji explained the stages and process of purification. I initially used to think that a lot of chemicals is used to purify the water. I am now satisfied and taking water regularly from our clean Sarvajal plant. Now it has become a lifeline for us.”
While speaking to our consumers they shared about how they build trust with our services over a period of time. Vennila Ji has fixed the timing of her availability, 6 to 10 AM, and 4 to 9 PM and has mentioned the same outside the plant. She regularly speaks to the people and allows them to visit the plant from inside and see how it is regularly cleaned. One of the consumers talked about how Sarvajal services keep a track of their monthly expenditure on the water as compared to Kadappakam which has a coin facility.
Vennila Ji is the first women operator among all the locations of Ashok Leyland. She set an example that women can also lead and take charge of the facility installed for the benefit of all people. She is smoothly managing the plant with 9 Village water Committee members and feels happy and confident for the efforts they put in together.
“Only by giving are you able to receive more than you have.”— Jim Rohn
