Kavudulugama is a remote village in the Medirigiriya Division of Polonnaruwa District. Deprived, and lacking in organization, the villagers were unfocused at the time the pilot project of Gemidiriya, Village Self Help Initiatives (VSHLI) extended its helping hand towards them in September 2004. Life was hard but with organized community behaviour geared to addressing their own problems squarely, things began to change gradually.
The village has a population of 1012 distributed in 315 households, out of which 10 are most vulnerable, 232 are poor and 56 are of middle income.
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It didn't take long for the community to identify their most pressing issue; scarcity of drinking water. The few wells in the village barely provided their minimum requirements and for that too, many households had to toil hard. Matters worsened in the dry season when these wells ran dry. The high salinity level of the water was an added problem. No wonder then, that the Village Development Plan prepared and agreed on collectively by the community, assigned top priority to solving the drinking water problem.
Urgent though it was, the action of the community was organized and systematic. The environment has to be conserved for future generations as well. A thorough survey of the available water sources and resources of the area was the first step. The survey was carried out by a team of geologists. Based on the survey findings and guided by the Water Resources Board, the community identified a suitably located tube well as the ideal source to be tapped for a drinking water project.
Construction work began on 31st January, 2005 and was completed in April 2006. 215 households have applied for inhouse connections of water and 203 have already got it. Isn't it a big relief ! No more hassle. Now they have the time and opportunity to concentrate on things of more strategic importance.
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The water project is only the physical output. What is exemplary is the active and enthusiastic participation of the entire community. All the decisions were made by the community collectively. They met 10% of the project cost in cash contributions and a further 20% through voluntary labour leaving the balance to be provided for, by Gemidiriya. The adversity of water scarcity was used as a rallying forum for community action. Now they have their own organized decision making apparatus in place for greater things to come. The energy to help themselves was latent in them all the time. Gemidiriya intervened to show the way to harness it and they willingly took up the challenge and emerged victorious.
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