Whitman Direct Action (WDA) is excited to announce the web release of one of the most tangible outcomes of the Sadhana Clean Water Project: The Water Book.  WDA is a non-profit, student-run, and open-source organization from Whitman College dedicated to helping marginalized people by promoting economically and environmentally sustainable community development.  For the last year, WDA’s team has been working on the Sadhana Clean Water Project, a multi-faceted approach to helping solve India’s water crisis.  Our Water Book is a collection of case studies, reports, and stories from a diverse array of people and organizations working to address the socio-political and technological aspects of this issue.  The Water Book is intended to be more of a discussion starter than a manual, an addition to the growing discussion on water rights and access, with a hope to even perhaps spark collaboration among NGOs, social entrepreneurs, or school organizations working in the sector.  Four months after its debut at the Safe and Sustainable Water Conference, we’re pleased to make The Water Book available for free download on our website.

Creating this publication was by no means an easy endeavor.  After more than one missed school assignment and a couple of all-nighters in the library working tirelessly with Jessie Conrad, Jyotsna Shivanandan, and the rest of the WDA Team to get the book ready for publication, Tim Shadix had this to say about the effort:

I feel the small sacrifices we made were more than paid off in seeing the final product published.  It is immensely satisfying to have a concrete object, a book that I must say looks pretty smart, to present for all of our hard work.  The greatest goal and the most rewarding achievement of the book has been to provide both a forum for NGOs to share their experiences and, we hope, a catalyst of conversation and collaboration. All of the speakers at our Mumbai conference were experts in their own right on a particular aspect of the water issue, but so too were the members of the audience representing many NGOs that have been diligently tackling the issue for years.  In addition to giving our speakers a venue to share their knowledge, we conceived of the Water Book as another forum in which the rich experiences of the NGOs and the many lessons they have learned could be brought to light.

Producing this publication was largely a community effort.  First and foremost, we would like to extend a warm thanks to all the book’s invaluable contributors.  Thanks to the publisher, Smaran Advertising, who was so cooperative with us about getting the book off the computer and into print at such short notice.  And finally, a special thanks goes to ASWC, the Asian Studies Office, and to all those whose effort helped tremendously to make this resource a reality.

The Water Book contains the following chapters, for reading online or download.  We encourage you to check it out, and leave your comments at the end of each:

• Chapter One - Experiences of ARTS in Providing Irrigation Through Small Water Harvesting Structures to Rural Poor in India - ARTS: Action in Rural Technology and Services
• Chapter Two - A NGO’s Initiative on Community Participation on Water Management - Vigyan Vijay Foundation
• Chapter Three - India’s Water Future: Secure or Scarce? - Sudhirendar Sharma
• Chapter Four - Safe Drinking Water Scheme in Villages: A Sustainable 4P Model - Byrraju Foundatation
• Chapter Five - A Case Study of Three Villages under the ‘Pani Thiye Panjo’ Programme: A Multi Institutional Decentralized Solution to Drinking Water Scarcity in Abdasa Taluka, Gujarat - Arghyam
• Chapter Six - Water Security in Thar - GRAVIS
• Chapter Seven - Providing Potable Water to Millions of India’s Rural Poor: Creating Models for Sustainable Development - Bala Vikasa
• Chapter Eight - Clean Water by Riverbank Filtration - Dr. Thomas Boving
• Chapter Nine - Household Water Treatment: A Summary of Methods and Techniques - Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST)

We encourage you to share this resource to colleagues and friends.  Thanks for reading, and enjoy!

In attendance:

• Tim Shadix (via telephone)
• Jessie Conrad (via telephone)
• Daniel Bachhuber (via telephone)

Agenda/Minutes
Conference problem with lunches

• Lunch is going to cost us $13 a head which comes out to an extra $2700
• Options
  • Cut conference in half (i.e. only have a morning session)
  • Take people from the Science Centre to somewhere else
    • Networking sesh/get to know each other on the bus, dynamic seating arrangement at lunch

Application we want to create for NP’s to attend the conference

• One application for the conference and an addendum for a travel scholarship
• Conference application includes
  • Basic contact info
  • Paragraph about the NGO
  • Paragraph about the region they operate in
  • Paragraph about their keystone water projects
  • How many people they want to send/ interested in attending
• Travel scholarship application includes
  • Location
  • A paragraph about why they need a travel scholarship (or some way to demonstrate need)
  • What sort of travel conditions/ accommodations they are willing to accept

Travel scholarships

• Our budget says we have $2500 for these, but then again our budget needs an audit

Restructuring the water book

• Jessie’s idea (more of a directory for conference attendees)
  • Part one: name of NGO, paragraph description
  • Also include text from speeches, or essays from speakers
  • Text and synthesizes of workshops
• If we have time: massive case study book
  • Initial content will be compiled before conference
  • Interviews of the NGOs involved at the conference
  • Editing and publication in the two months after the conference
• Conclusion: go forth with first idea and, although we like the second idea, we need to discuss it with WDA

Action items

• Letterhead for formal invites (Jessie)
• Conference NGO application (Tim)
• Travel application addendum (Jessie)