Hello.  My name is Manda Jamkar.  I am a resident of Hiradamal village.

I am a member of the Water User Committee formed by us under the guidance of Water For People India and I am also working as Community Resource Mobiliser in UDAN program initiated by Govt. of Maharashtra for women empowerment. I came to Hiradamal village at the age of 14, when I got married.  At that time, there wasn’t any drinking water facility available in the village. 

We walked for over two kilometers to the nearest handpump to fill and carry water for drinking, sanitation and hygiene purposes. At that time we used to wake up at 3 am to go and fill the water and bring it back to the household.  It took us nearly four hours every day and we used to come back around 7 am.  And we could only fill and carry two pots of water.  Every day we spent almost 3 to 4 hours early in the morning only to carry water. 

That time was very hard for us.  Then Water For People India come to our village and they constructed pipe water supply scheme with the support of Colgate. 

Now each household in Hiradamal is getting clean and enough drinking water every day.  We are also doing water shade development work in our village for strengthening water sources in our village to avoid scarcity in summer season.  Only because of Water For People India and Colgate, I understand the importance of water and we are also now trying to make aware people in my village to save and conserve water for future. 

I am very much thankful to Water For People and Colgate to educate me about importance of water.