GovernanceAccess to and use of safe drinking water to achieve household level water security by empowering rural communities

Bharat LalRajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission

Department of Drinking Water SupplyGovernment of India

April 13, 2010

India – Rural water supplyits all about scale

• 1.2 billion people -15% world’s population and 5% land mass• Only 1.5% world’s water resources• About 720 million rural population lives in 650,000 villages or

1.6 million habitations• Full coverage but annually about 16% habitations slip back • About 12% population i.e. 125 million people without

improved water sources;• 32% drinking water sources - bacteriological contamination• 9% drinking water sources - chemical contamination • In some parts of the country, due to droughts, emergency

arrangements for drinking water supply including through road tankers and even trains, made

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Background • 1950 : Constitution of India - water placed in the State list• 1972 : At national level, Accelerated Rural Water Supply

Programme launched to supplement the efforts of States • 1986 : National Drinking Water Mission (NDWM) set up renamed

as Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission in 1991• 1993 : 73rd Amendment in the Constitution - ‘rural water supply’

placed in the XIth Schedule of to be devolved to local self- Governments i.e. three-tier Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs)

• 1999 : Sector Reforms i.e. de-centralized, demand-driven, community-managed rural water supply programme initiated

• 2009 : ARWSP revamped as National Rural Drinking Water Programme

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Centre StateIst (1951-56) 0.00 3.00Iind (1956-61) 0.00 30.00IIIrd (1961-66) 0.00 48.00IVth (1969-74) 34.10 208.00Vth (1974-79) 157.17 348.00VIth (1980-85) 895.38 1530.17VIIth (1985-90) 1905.64 2471.53VIIIth (1992-97) 4139.74 5084.44IXth (1997-02) 8454.57 10773.11Xth (2002-07) 16254.42 15102.42XIth (2007-12) 39490.00 49000.00

Investment made in Rs CrorePlan Period

Investment in RWS water sector

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Rs. in crore

Rising expectations

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With increasing awareness, economic prosperity, people realizing the importance of time, rise demand for

• adequate quality of water

• quality of water supplied, and

• reliability of service

Governance Emerging issues & new challenges

• In a democratic set up, dealing with demanding & assertive public - rising people’s expectations

• In rural areas, improved quality of life and therefore infrastructure and delivery of services a priority

• Active and vigilant civil society – use of Right to Information Act (RTI) and need for transparency

• All round professionalism – contractors, suppliers, • Changing role of institutions/ Government• Expanding economy & rising demand of water • Household level water security – health issues becoming

central to RWS sector• Introduction of new technology in many areas

GovernanceDrinking water security

• Overdependence on ground water - 80% of drinking water supply schemes;

• Drought a recurring phenomenon in many areas; • About 15% villages/ habitations slipping back i.e. sources and

or systems becoming defunct due to :i.) poor O&M leading to systems becoming defunct; ii.) sources drying up due to unregulated over-extraction of ground

water for irrigation and industryii.) sources getting contaminated by chemical contaminants, viz.

Arsenic, Fluoride, Iron, salinity, other pollutants, etc. iii.) leaching of fertilizers into soil thus contaminating with nitratesiv.) leaching of untreated industrial effluent and sewage, and

dumping of solid wastes leading to nitrate contaminationv.) leaching of sewage leading to bacteriological contamination

Gujarat - 2001Freshwater availability

Uneven water availability in the State (cu m/ person/ annum)

India - 1,836 Gujarat - 1,137 South & Central Gujarat -1,932 North Gujarat - 342 Saurashtra - 734 Kutch - 875

• Water scarcity in 2/3rd part of the State• 7,675 habitations quality-affected

Fluoride - 4,187 Salinity - 2,508 Nitrate - 1,335

Scarcity of drinking water

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Drought Prone Areas Supply Through Railways

Supply Through TankersQuality Problems – Fluorosis, Salinity, Nitrate

Problem Areas

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Drought prone areas Supply through railways

Supply through tankersQuality Problems – Fluorosis,Salinity, Nitrate

Problem Areas

Gujarat In 2000 and 2001

• Out of 18,066 villages, more than 12,000 villages were facing water scarcity;

• Water supplied through road tankers – in all about 8,000 ;• Water supply in two regions by railway wagons;• Law and order problem started – 4 persons died;• Large scale migration; relief operation and cattle camps• Large scale emergency water supply works taken up;• On 26th January, 2001, earthquake hit the State – 20,000

persons died, • Government preoccupied with relief operation, emergency

management both for earthquake and drought affected;• Other developmental & economic activities suffered

Mitigation of drinking water scarcity(by State Government)

Year

Work done

In the number of villages

Expenditure(Indian Rs. in million)

1999-2000 6,423 1,379.60

2000-2001 6,601 1,186.00

2001-2002 5,914 1,011.30

2002-2003 4,847 1,233.50

2003-2004 797 292.40

2004-2005 527 238.30

Bulk water transfer : infrastructure

development and management

State GovernmentWater Supply Department

Gujarat Water Infrastructure Ltd.

(GWIL)

Gujarat Water Supply & Sewerage Board

(GWSSB)

Water and Sanitation Management Organisation

(WASMO)

Water distribution up to village level

To facilitate village people for community-managed water supply

programmes

Governance unbundling of the sector – institutional set up

Paradigm shift• Role of each institution redefined and sector unbundled;

• Focus shifted from ground water to surface water - extensive water resource management;

• Shift in the role of Government - from Provider to Facilitator

• All in-village management of water resource, water supply and sanitation - responsibility of the village level local self-Government – Village Panchayat

• Empowerment of PRIs by enactment, massive capacity building and handholding — Mission Mode

• NGOs/ civil society a major partner

• State wide drinking water grid for drought proofing and sustainability

State-wide water supply Grid

Water supply coverage of villages through

State-wide water supply gridScheme Planned Implemented

& water supply started

Work under progress

Sardar Sarovar Canal Based Drinking Water Supply Scheme

5,315 4,033 1,282

Sujalam Sufalam Yojana

4,904 3,770 1,204

Regional Rural Water Supply Schemes

4,772 4,330 442

Total 14,991 12,133 2,928

Drinking water infrastructure

Bulk Pipeline 1,889 kmDistribution network

1,06,000 km

ESR 6,415 number 654.00 million litre

Sumps 4,689 number 1,102.20 million litre

Treatment plants 149 number2,500 million litre per day

In-village water security : The approach• Water Committees/ Village Panchayats :

– A 10-15 member elected by body by the village community with suitable representation to women and weaker sections;

– In-village water resource management, water supply and sanitation– Planning, approval, implementation, procurement, management,

operation, maintenance, tariff collection, etc.

• Village community to contribute partial capital cost and full O&M responsibility;

• Upto 90% capital cost funding from WASMO;• 10% of the Capital cost by WASMO as an Incentive funds for

replacement, upgradation, emergency repair, etc.• NGOs as implementing support agencies;• Third party inspection and technical support;• Bulk water supply up to the village level on payment basis

The facilitator – WASMO Set up in March, 2002 to facilitate decentralized, demand-driven,

community-managed water and sanitation programme; As a Knowledge Resource Centre – believes in partnerships and

working together with other such organizations; Friend, Philosopher and Guide to Water Committees/ Village

Panchayats, local communities; Core areas - community mobilization, engineering support, water

quality monitoring, financing, geo-hydrology, communication, campaign, documentation, monitoring & evaluation, etc.;

Funding Water Committees, facilitating their works; Strong partnerships with more than 75 NGOs Very high level of motivation to achieve the goal – ensuring safe

and clean water to all on long-term basis

Water quality monitoring & surveillance capacity building

• Aiming to prepare community and GPs to take over the full responsibility of managing drinking water – focus on water quality issue

• 5 persons to be trained in each Gram Panchayats• Water testing kits to be made available• Encouraged to carry out regular indicative tests• In case of contamination, samples to be taken to Labs

for confirmatory tests• Remedial action to be initiated by the community as

well as public health authorities.

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User participation for safe water

Programme introduction and village level water quality team formation

14,216 WQ teams/ villages

Village Level Trainings17,456 training programmes held

125,167 persons trained for WQ testing

Block Level Trainings 1,067 (43,234 participants)

District Level Trainings 270 (5,117 participants)

State Level Trainings 34 (1,377 participants)

Water Quality Testing Kits distribution 13,904

Bacteriological Test Kits distribution 6,69,423

Sanitary Survey conducted 20,262

Improvement in water qualityCoverage Pre-

MonsoonPost-

MonsoonAfter the campaign

No. of districts 23 26 14

No. of Blocks 184 225 110

No. of Villages 7,973 12,135 6,499

No. of samples 17,961 32,074 21,612

Chemically fit samples 13,602 (75%)

23,943 (74%)

17,992 (83%)

Bacteriologically fit samples 9,228 (51%)

22,936 (72.5%)

20,960 (97%)

Safe water - corrective actions

Corrective action - Sanitation drive

Innovations• Gravity based schemes (spring -

based systems) • Sameep hand pump• Cluster storage systems• Waste water use- Excess water in

trough and then to soak pit• Waste water use for kitchen garden

and even sold for agriculture

Tapping perennial springs

Use of spillage from stand post

Sameep hand pump

Cluster Storage Systems

Kitchen garden through waste water

Rooftop Rain Water Harvesting

Scaling up

Scaling up in-village management

• Started with 82 villages in 2002, Pani Samitis (Water Committee) formed in 15,807 villages

• Water supply work taken up in 9,024 villages– Work completed in 5,488 villages– Work ongoing in 3,554 villages

• Water committee managing water supply in 12,000 villages out of 18066 villages

• In 14,216 villages, regular water quality testing done by the village community

Year-wise water supply through tankers

Women’s opinions on problems in fetching water (pre and post implementation by Pani Samiti)

Gujarat Vidyapeeth, 2008

EvaluationProject details & financial issues discussed in village meetings

88.5 %

Display of project expenditure details in public place 77 %

Gram Sabha convened more than 5 times during the project cycle

90 %

Average collection of water tariff by Pani Samiti per person per annum

Rs.114.27

Access to water at household level increased from 17.8 % to 75.6 %

Satisfaction with improved water services 81.4 %

Improvement in hygiene practices among school children – Cutting nails regularly

96 %

Washing hands after toilets and before meals 63 %

Grievance redressal as per set time schedule 99.6 %

Users satisfied with the work of Pani Samiti 96.89 %

ORG – MARG, 2007

Myths that have been broken

•Village community cannot take over this responsibility;

•People are unwilling to contribute, not willing to pay for O&M;

•Gram Panchayats incapable of carrying out construction works;

•Gram Panchayats cannot maintain fiscal discipline/ transparency;

•Dependency culture - Government to provide drinking water free;

•Issues of inclusion – marginalized groups will be affected;

•Conservative society; women have no role to play;

•Scaling up of such an approach not possible;

•Water governance & regulation will be difficult;

•Government and its agencies will become irrelevant;

•Water quality aspects and safe drinking water will be the casualty;

• Village Panchayat / its sub-committee to be responsible for in-village management of water resources, water supply and sanitation;

• It is to be empowered to shoulder the full responsibility of in-village drinking water management, in which NOGs to play huge role;

• Focus on strengthening of their capacity and facilitate transfer of appropriate technology, knowledge, etc.

• In spite of strengthening of local water sources, if safe and clean water in adequate quantity throughout the year is not available, Government/ its agencies to provide water at the doorstep of the villages.

• Water quality surveillance by village people and linkage with National Disease Surveillance Programme to monitor water borne diseases

• WASMO awarded Prime Minister’s Civil Service Award (2007) and United Nations Public Service Award (2009) for bringing drinking water security and ensuring water quality

Essence of the model

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Thank you