Meet Marta, a clean India warrior from the US
LUCKNOW: Away from all the limelight on the drive to make villages Open Defecation Free (ODF) under Clean India mission, Marta Vanduzer-Snow, a US native, is silently working on providing people eco-friendly toilets in Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli district.
Credited with striking the cleanliness chord in the area way back in 2012, Marta has so far has constructed around 144 toilets in six villages using her own resources. When the funds got exhausted but her passion didn’t, she resorted to crowdfunding for the cause.
“Since it was for a good cause generating funds was never such a big issue,” says Marta who collected around Rs 8 lakh to transform Usri and other five villages of Rae Bareli.
Rutgers University pass out, Marta (36) first came to India in 2004.
“It was for a college project that I had to visit India. Later, I worked as a volunteer for Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojna (RGMVP)—a programme run by Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT). It was aimed at transforming the backward villages in India,” she says while recalling her eight-month stay in Usri, a small hamlet in Rae Bareli.
So what brought her back to India?
“Until 2004 when I came here first, I was never exposed to such extreme living conditions. Life without lights and lamp posts, toilets and potable water was unimaginable for me. Though I went back, India was in my thoughts. The desire to make a difference to people’s life brought me back in 2012,” says Marta who is staying here on an employment visa.
While she had been here for a while now, life was tough in the initial years.
“I was like alien to village folks. They used to refer to me as ‘gori mem’ or ‘angrezi mem.’ Things changed only after I had spent days and weeks among them,” recalls Marta, who decided to construct cheap, longlasting and easy to use to toilets.
The search ended at evapotranspiration toilets, special cost effective eco-friendly toilets designed to reuse the household black water.
“They are the special toilets capable of anaerobic digestion that helps in converting human waste into bio-gas and its layered structure helps in recharging the water table. The first layer is of plastic lining, second of broken bricks and third layer has used tyres for capillary action, fourth layer has gravel, fifth layer of red sand and sixth and last one of sand,” explains Marta who first got constructed over 60 toilets in Usri and Dhakuliya villages.
The cost of one toilet came around Rs 10,600 and it took Marta and her team almost two days to construct it. “We gave them free to villagers,” says Marta who later also undertook construction of 123 metre permeable road to connect the village.
Later, she got constructed a natural water filter in the village, huge enough to cater to the population of around 150 people.
She also undertook free distribution of solar lights, bulbs and a mobile charging point in 144 households.
“She left her home and stayed with us to bring development to our village. She is like our daughter,” says Shakuntala Devi, wife of Sukhdeen, a resident of Usri.
Hitendra Singh, Usri village head, is also full of admiration for Marta.
“She is a harbinger of change for Rae Bareli villages. Marta and her volunteers have brought development to the village by not only constructing toilets and roads but also by illuminating the houses of many, enabling their children to study during prolonged power roistering,” said Singh.
On central government’s Swaccha Bharat Mission, Marta says it was a long pending task.
“I am sure it will go a long way in making villages open defecation free,” she says.