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AHMEDABAD: Sharda, 12, is happy to be able to go to school again after a long time. In fact, it is after many years that the primary school in Moti Morsal of Sayla taluka in the drought-prone Surendranagar district has shown a jump in attendance of students from a dismal 30-40 to 100 - 50 per cent of whom are girls.

And this isn't due to some education drive. Rather, it's the fact that there is drinking water in the homes of almost each of the 130 families residing here.

This is a luxury considering that acute water scarcity stares in the face of around 300 villages in Surendranagar at present.

Villagers say that earlier, girls were forced to stay at home to either help collect water from distant sources, or look after younger siblings while their parents fetched water.

However, with over 90 per cent of the residents adopting a rainwater harvesting programme over the past few years, they have underground water tanks filled with drinking water, allowing parents to send their girls to school.

"My daughter and I used to trek two-three km every day to fetch water. Non-availability of water is the most pressing problem and parents used to refrain from sending girls to schools, taking their help to fetch water.

My heart swells with pride now when Sharda goes to school,"said Lakhuben Vasrambhai, Sharda's mother. "Earlier, the teacher had to go looking around the village for students.

Things are much better now,"says Ramji Gohel, another resident of Moti Morsal who has sent his daughter Asha outside the village to study.

"Rainwater harvesting has proved to be a boon for people residing here. Over 1,700 underground tanks have been built in 15 villages in the district, most of them with a capacity of 10,000 litres,"says Natubhai Khavadiya of Aga Khan Rural Support Programme in Sayla.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/arti ... 509578.cms

"Clean Village" Award for AKPBS Project

The Indian village of Karan, in the Gujarat's taluka of Siddhpur, will receive the "Nirmal Gram" Award. The project to make the village "nirmal" (clean) was undertaken by the Aga Khan Planning and Building Services, India, with the full cooperation of the Patan district's rural development committee. Karan has a population of 766 people and 130 families. Each home has a toilet facility and underground sewerage. There have also been changes in common practice that have led to improved health. For more information about AKPBS, please see its home page <akpbs.html>.

http://www.akdn.org/agency/akdn_awards.html