Water, Power & Sanitation

Water scarcity is one of the major issues in rural Andhra Pradesh. The National Rural Water Program (NRDWP) was launched under the Bharat Nirman mission by the UPA government to ensure safe drinking water. The MPR Society constructed hand pumps, a piped water supply, and a central water tank under NRDWP to facilitate sufficient and safe drinking water in the village. The Smart Village houses 2 functional Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants, providing water to the villagers at a cost as low as 2 rupees per 20 liters.

The village also has a 3-phase power supply providing an uninterrupted power supply to the villagers. The MPR Society also provided 130 LED bulbs in the village saving 60 percent of the power utilization.

Open defecation in rural India is one of the major social evils in the current times. The MPR Society undertook several awareness campaigns, Behavioral Change Communication Campaigns, and village tours to eradicate open defecation in Uppalapadu. These campaigns were very helpful in encouraging villagers to use toilets. Eventually, a new project to construct toilets for the village households started in December 2017. The society also built supportive infrastructure like waste management facilities and septic tanks in the village for a good sanitation system.

Under the Swatch Bharat Campaign, The MPR Society built toilets for individual households in a period of 6 months. 370 households in the Smart Village have toilets today. Every household in the village has a functional soak pit. The village also has a common water harvesting system, after the awareness campaigns conducted by the MPR Society.