Water-poor villages face discrimination

by Theresa Carino

In March and May this year, Theresa Carino undertook a household survey of 7 villages in Guizhou and Guangxi Provinces where the Amity Foundation and CANGO (Chinese Association of NGOS) had carried out drinking water projects with the support of EED (a German, church-related development organization). The aim was to assess the impact of the six projects and their sustainability. The survey involved 135 households in 3 counties and one district. Below, she shares some of her observations.

Guojiatun residents used to collect water from a polluted river.

“What was the greatest impact of having a water system and piped water in your homes?” I casually popped the question as our research team sat down to lunch with residents in remote Fuliu Village in Southern Guangxi. “Removing the stigma of being tagged a ‘black village’,” was the village school master’s swift and sharp retort. “Blacks — that’s what they used to call us,” he stressed, his voice rising with emotion, “our young men could not find brides because women from other places were unwilling to marry into a village where we spent more than 5 hours a day fetching water.” There was no mistaking the close link between the lack of safe drinking water, poverty and stigma in China’s countryside.

In Fuliu, as in many parts of rural China, the search for safe, accessible drinking water had taken several decades. Men, women and children used to take part in daily expeditions over hilly terrain to fetch drinking water from unreliable surface or underground sources. Despite the enormous effort and the amount of time spent, water quality was extremely poor. In neighbouring Lengnian Village, the old water source had been an open pond filled with stagnant, greenish and turbid rain water. In Xiao Gumao (in mid-western Guizhou Province), the desperation for water had led villagers to draw water seeping from a disused coal mine.

Tainted by minerals, the water would sometimes turn red and even the oxen would refuse to drink the contaminated water. Mottled teeth among residents was a sign of excessive fluorine in the water. In downstream areas, villagers who drank water from shallow wells and polluted rivers suffered frequently from gastro-intestinal ailments.

Water vital to health and harmony

The plight of these farmers highlights the fact that close to 300 million villagers in China have no access to safe drinking water. In Guizhou there are 11.5 million people and in Guangxi another 10 million whose drinking water is unsafe. The six projects that were completed in the last three years have enabled hundreds of villagers to draw clean water either from deep, underground rivers or mountain springs. Their impact on villagers’ health has been dramatic. Farmers reported a sharp decline in gastro-intestinal diseases after the completion of the water projects, especially in downstream villages. Safe water accessible 24 hours a day has also meant better hygiene and sanitation for everyone.

water contaminated by a coal mine

Women seem to have benefited most from these water projects since they were the ones who had borne the brunt of fetching water and managing scarce water supplies for the household. In all villages, the women were extremely grateful to be freed from the back-breaking, time-consuming chore. They now could spend more time in economically productive activities. Su Ling, an energetic young woman from Xiao Gumao, proudly confessed that she now had 16 pigs compared to just two before the water project.

Women readily admitted that the competition for drinking water had been a source of frequent conflicts. Fights often erupted among villagers waiting in long queues for water. Domestic quarrels would break out over who should fetch water after a long day’s work in the fields. The arrival of piped water had brought an end to these conflicts.

Rise in living standards

With running water, farmers can now concentrate on raising their incomes and standards of living. Most noticeable during our field visits was the number of new homes under construction. In Ting Nian Village, 28 new homes had been built in the last six months, 30 in Xiao Gumao and 13 in Na Me Village, a Yao minority village. We were told that having running water had reduced the cost of construction considerably. Clay and stone homes were being demolished in favour of brick and concrete ones.

A man with his granddaughter shows his new tap in Guojiatun

Most villagers invest time saved from fetching water into more cultivation and animal rearing. Some seek more lucrative jobs in towns and cities. They say that having running water puts them more at ease about leaving their children with elderly parents. This, of course, has contributed to the new social problem of “left-behind” children in rural areas.

Despite these emerging problems, having piped water in their homes has become a source of pride for farmers. They now want cleaner surroundings and are beginning to raise issues concerning water run-off, pollution and garbage disposal.

Water conservation and sustainability

Indeed, the arrival of piped water has been a boon for all and nothing short of a miracle for those who have spent much of their adult life fetching water. Farmers want to conserve precious water and show concern about the sustainability of the water systems in which they have invested cash, labour and time. The participatory approach advocated by both Amity and CANGO had evinced a strong sense of ownership and responsibility among villagers. In most villages, farmers’ cash contributions to construction costs ranged from CNY150 (US$21) to CNY500 (US$73) per household, on top of Amity’s contributions and government counterpart funding. Every household had also provided labor time in the construction process.

a woman farmer in Xiao Gumao

Villagers now have to pay a water fee to sustain the operation and maintenance of the completed systems. In downstream villages, where underground water has to be pumped up, and filtration equipment is needed to ensure the water is clean and safe, fees charged range from CNY2.00 to CNY2.50 per ton depending on operational costs. To make it affordable, fees are being kept as low as possible but this means that very little is left for preventive maintenance. Paying for water is something new for China’s farmers and many households try to keep consumption levels low to avoid paying more. In fact, in many cases, household water consumption is now lower than before the project, with farmers often harvesting rain water for laundry and cleaning purposes.

There was a high level of user satisfaction with the water systems and most respondents in the household surveys indicated a willingness to pay more if necessary. So far, all households, (except for the very poor who receive government subsidies) are able to pay their water fees even if there are delays in doing so. Fee collectors complain that they have to visit some homes several times in order to collect. Others grumble that their stipend is highly inadequate for the time-consuming job. One village had to share the same technician and fee collector from another village because no one wanted the job.

For long-term sustainability, effective water management systems will be vital. Management systems vary from village to village but in those we visited, each had a village water committee that had members elected from among household representatives. There is a growing demand for accountability and transparency. Water fee collectors either issued receipts or had record books for meter readings and payments. Annual financial reports are posted on public notice boards and in one village, quarterly financial reports are made available. Major decisions about water pricing, repairs and maintenance are usually made at public gatherings where most households are represented.

Farmers have been articulate about their concerns and women, especially, want to make sure that issues such as water pressure, even distribution and financial viability are addressed. “We want to make sure we will always have running water!” declared the head of the local women’s development committee in Xiao Gumao.