CB BureauThe company has stated that its flagship water stewardship programme, Project Jalodari, recently achieved key milestones in helping create sustainable water sources and raising awareness on water conservation and sanitation in rural communities in Himachal Pradesh and Assam. The project is part of Tata Trusts’ WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) initiative, aimed at supporting 4,000 + villages across 12 states and around 2.5 million people.
Two of Project Jalodari’s critical areas of intervention – Paonta Block of Sirmaur District, Himachal Pradesh, and select estates in Jorhat and Golaghat districts of Assam – have seen positive developments in implementing holistic strategies to conserve and recharge water sources, improve rural water quality, and propagate water-usage practices. CauseBecause’s follow-up email to the company for expanding upon these ‘positive developments’ did not receive a response.
In a press release, Amit Chincholikar, Global CHRO, Tata Consumer Products, said this about the relevance of the project: ‘A NITI Aayog report warns us that 40% of Indians may not have access to drinking water by 2030. Hence, water-resource management will continue to remain a critical part of our sustainability strategy at Tata Consumer Products. Project Jalodari aims to create sustainable water sources, raise awareness on water conservation, and build capacities on water and sanitation. It does this through a multi stakeholder intervention, which includes Tata Trusts, Tata Consumer Products, government bodies, NGOs at local levels, and community action. This will help integrate livelihoods with water and food security, sustainable agriculture, renewable forestry and renewable energy.’
Divyang Waghela, Head – Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, Tata Trusts, said, ‘Tata Trusts’ goal is to create a healthy and water-secure future for underserved communities through provision of access to safe, assured and adequate water and improved hygiene services. Towards achieving this, the organisation advocates a decentralised, demand-responsive and community-managed approach, promotes innovative technological and economically sustainable solutions, and engages like-minded institutions to develop programmes, synergistically, for greater impact, scale, and sustainability.’
CauseBecause’s query on the specific interventions that helped raise awareness about water conservation among the communities remained unanswered at the time of publishing this update. Another unanswered query was: ‘One of the images here shows water being packaged in plastic bottles. Are these given out regularly? And how are the empty plastic bottles handled?‘