India, Science and Technology:  2008

S&T for Rural India and Inclusive Growth

Drinking water supply vis-a-vis technological interventions for social empowerment of Rural India

 Kasturi Mandal

India has the largest rural drinking water supply program in the world serving about 1.6 million habitations spread over 15 diverse ecological regions and 742 million people. The provision of clean drinking water has been given priority in the Constitution of India, with Article 47 conferring the duty of providing clean drinking water and improving public health standards, to the State. According to the National Water Policy for ensuring sustainability of the systems, steps were initiated in 1999 to institutionalize community participation in the implementation of rural drinking water supply schemes through the sector reforms project which is expected to bring a paradigm shift from “Government oriented supply driven approach” to “People oriented demand responsive approach”.

Water Quality in the Rural Drinking Water Supply has emerged as a major issue.  The Government of India had launched the National Rural Drinking Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance Program in February 2006, which has institutionalised community participation for monitoring and surveillance of drinking water sources at the grassroots level by gram panchayats followed by checking the positively tested samples at the district and state level laboratories. In view of the problems of pollution of national water resources, the Ministry of Environment & Forests issued the Notification on 22 June, 2001 constituting the "Water Quality Assessment Authority (WQAA)" with effect from 29 May, 2001.

The States implements drinking water supply schemes. The Government of India supplements the efforts of the States by providing financial assistance under the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Program (ARWSP). Additional assistance is also available to the States for Rural Water Supply Programme under various externally aided projects. The entire programme (ARWSP) was given a mission approach when the Technology Mission on Drinking Water Management, called the National Drinking Water Mission (NDWM) was introduced as one of the five Societal Missions in 1986. NDWM was renamed as Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission (RGNDWM) in 1991. ARWSP, is currently being implemented through the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission. The prime objectives of this Mission are:

1. To ensure coverage of all rural habitations, especially to reach the unreached, with access to safe drinking water.
2. To ensure sustainability of the systems and sources; and
3. To tackle the water quality problems in affected habitations.

Based on various gaps existing in the present rural drinking water supply system in the country, the Department of Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of Rural Development has very recently come up with a paradigm shift in policy under which the ARWSP has been renamed as “National Rural Water Supply Program (NRWSP)”.

Till the 10th plan, an estimated total of Rs.1,105 billion had been spent on providing safe drinking water. One would argue that the expenditure is huge, but it is also true that despite such expenditure lack of safe and secure drinking water continues to be a major hurdle and a national economic burden (Water aid background paper, 2008).

Drinking water supply is also one of the six components of Bharat Nirman, which has been conceived as a plan to be implemented in four years from 2005-06 to 2008-09 for building rural infrastructure. During this period, 55,067 uncovered habitations were to be covered and 2.17 lakh quality-affected habitations were to be addressed. Tackling arsenic and fluoride contamination was given priority. Impressive achievements have been made in the first two years. In 2006-07, against the target to cover 73,120 habitations, 1,07,350 habitations was covered. As on 1.4.2007, there were 29,534 uncovered habitations, 1,74,782 ‘slipped-back’ habitations and 1,59,348 ‘quality-affected’ habitations. The status of state wise uncovered habitations under Bharat Nirman indicates the need for accelerated implementation in the lagging states. Large incidence of slippage from “fully covered” to “partially/not covered” categories is due to a number of factors such as sources going dry; lowering of the ground water table; systems outliving their lifespan; and increase in population resulting in lower per capita availability.

Figure 1 gives a schematic representation of how various government agencies are involved in supplying drinking water to the rural people. Besides, the efforts of the Central and State governments are also backed by international organisations such as the bilateral agencies of Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Australia, Netherlands, etc., and multilaterals such as the World Bank, WHO, UNICEF (Water and sanitation programme-South Asia), UNDP and the European Union. These external support agencies (ESA) have made invaluable contributions to the sector in terms of sustaining demonstration and experimentation at the project level, research, introduction of technological innovations etc.

Fig 1: Responsibility of various agencies in drinking water supply

Government bodies associated with Rural Water Supply

Central Water Commission (CWC):  Responsible for regulating the use of surface water for irrigation, industry and drinking water purposes. It also mediates in inter-state water allocation disputes.

Central Groundwater Board (CGWB):  Responsible for the monitoring of groundwater levels and rates of depletion and the production of water resource inventories and maps.

National Rivers Conservation Directorate (NRCD): Oversees the implementation of Action Plans to improve the quality of the rivers in India

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB): Promotes basin-wide pollution control strategies. It liaises with State Water Pollution Control Boards for laying down standards for treatment of sewage and effluents. The Board is also responsible for action in the case of non-compliance by agencies.

Department of Drinking Water Supply (DDWS):  Formulates policies, sets standards, and provides funds and technical assistance to the states for rural water supply and sanitation activities.

Ministry of Agriculture (MoA):  is involved in planning, formulation, monitoring and reviewing of various watershed based developmental project activities.

Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI):  under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare deals with the collection, compilation, analysis and dissemination of the information on health conditions in the country.

Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS): is responsible for drafting of standards pertaining to drinking water quality.

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC): owned by the Government of India as part of its statutory requirements, has to invest 25 per cent of net accretion from its controlled funds in socially oriented schemes such as housing, education, water supply and road transportation. It has been advancing loans to local bodies and state level water supply and sewerage boards.

Scenario in rural water supply:

The 2001 Census reported that 68.2 per cent of households in India have access to safe drinking water. According to latest estimates, 94 per cent of the rural have access to safe drinking water. Data available with the Department of Drinking Water Supply shows that of the 1.6 million rural habitations in the country, 1.06 million are fully covered (FC), 0.34 million are partially covered (PC) and 0.19 are not covered (NC). However, coverage refers to installed capacity, and not average actual supply over a sustained period or the quality of water being supplied which is the most essential part (Water aid background paper, 2008). So, although an apparent improvement is seen, the crisis arises when emphasis is given to the availability, quality and sustainability of freshwater, largely used for drinking/ domestic purposes. Water Aid India, however, says the statistics stem more from physical infrastructure than from actual functioning. In most cases hand-pumps may take months to repair. A 2006 World Bank report notes that piped, treated water is available only for short periods daily, leaving poor populations vulnerable to other generally polluted sources. A study sponsored by the World Bank and UNICEF reports that not only is the coverage of drinking water supply in rural India inadequate, but is also highly imbalanced, varying widely across the country. The per capita water supply also ranges from a low of 9 lpcd to a high of 584 lpcd. Table 1 from NFHS 3 gives us an idea of the time and effort villagers, specially the rural women spent on collecting of drinking water.

Table1: Percent distribution of rural households by collection time and person who collects the drinking water.

Less than 30 minutes

Source: NFHS 3

Providing access to water has been considered primarily important and thus the issue of water quality remain secondary. As a result monitoring the impact on habitations affected by poor water quality subsequently “is not happening”. The most serious malfunction in India’s water-supply system is its hazardous quality and gigantic cost to human health. India ranks 120^th out of 122 countries, in poor potable water-quality. Groundwater is the major source of water in our country with 85% of the population dependent on it.  Though ground water is less susceptible to pollution as compared to surface water, the nature of quality problem in ground water is of two types: (i) It is inherent in the form of contamination caused by the very nature of geological formation, viz. excess fluoride, arsenic, brackishness, iron, etc. (ii) Ground water pollution caused by human intervention (anthropogenic) e.g. nitrates. 15 per cent of the rural water supply comes from surface water sources. Major quality problem for surface water is seasonal turbidity. Water also suffers from bacteriological contamination, reasons being anthropogenic. The reasons for chemical and bacteriological contamination are: poor hygienic conditions around the water sources, improper disposal of sewage and industrial waste water, callous disposal of solid waste, indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers having high quantity of nitrates used in the agricultural sector, pollution from industrial effluents (untreated), over-exploitation leading to quality degradation, pollution of the source due to ignorance of the people, over-population and lack of public awareness.

In 2005, a Central Pollution Control Board countrywide survey found 66 per cent of samples had unacceptable organic values, while 44 per cent had coliform, occurring generally from feces. Chemical contamination through over-exploitation of groundwater, resulting in excessive iron, nitrates, arsenic and fluoride is equally widespread. Arsenic contamination is now grim reality in, ironically, almost the entire Gangetic belt notwithstanding its ample rivers while fluoride contaminated drinking-water similarly affects 20 States. Reports say that there are high fluoride-levels in drinking-water in villages with a prevalence of deformed children from Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Assam and Uttar Pradesh. The problems of chemical contamination are thus prevalent in India with 1, 95,813 habitations in the country are affected by poor water quality (Water aid background paper, 2008).  Fig 2 and 3 indicate the crisis that exits in safe drinking water supply in terms of quality. It is surprising to note that states like Bihar and Haryana do not show any problem related to chemical contamination.

Fig 2: Percentage of affected habitations chemical contamination wise (as per ARWSP Norms)

Source: http://www.ddws.nic.in/

Fig 3:  Percentage of chemically contaminated habitations --  Not Covered (NC) and partially covered (PC) (as per ARWSP Norms)

Source: http://www.ddws.nic.in

In this context, the Ministry of Water Resources is assisting the WQAA in carrying out and coordinating its functions. The Water Quality Review Committees have been constituted in the States with the objective of improving coordination amongst the Central and State agencies, review/assess schemes launched/to be launched to improve quality of water resources, review water quality data analysis and interpretation in order to identify problem areas and develop action plans for improving quality on a sustainable basis, identify hot spots for surveillance/monitoring and to look into other specific miscellaneous issues related to water quality arising from time to time. Based on the recommendations of Expert Committee and Task Force, a gazette notification on the Uniform Monitoring Protocol for adoption by all the water quality monitoring agencies has been issued in June, 2005. A Working Group has also been constituted by WQAA to deal with issues relating to minimum flows in river systems. In accordance with the decisions of WQAA, the Water Quality Monitoring Committee (WQMC) is also constituted to assist the WQAA in its functions. WQMC, in turn, constituted 3 Standing Groups to initiate action considering present status and requirement/modality about action to be taken on related functions of WQAA as per the gazette notification. In order to make State Water Quality Review Committees more effective and to establish co-ordination among various agencies in the field of water quality monitoring, one workshop at national level and four Workshops at regional level, have been organised.

Health Cost: The health burden of poor water quality is enormous. It is estimated that around 37.7 million Indians are affected by waterborne diseases annually (viral hepatitis, cholera, jaundice, typhoid are examples), 1.5 million children are estimated to die of diarrhoea alone and 73 million working days are lost due to waterborne disease each year. The resulting economic burden is estimated at $600 million a year.  Ten million people are vulnerable to cancers from excessive arsenic and another 66 million are facing risk of fluorosis, now endemic in 17 States. Fluorosis is affecting future generations too through pregnant mothers whose anaemia is caused by fluorosis. Anaemia produces low birth-weight babies who in turn manifest their mothers’ nutritional deficiencies through physical and mental deformities. Besides, there prevail health impacts of drinking-water with other environmental pollutants such as industrial wastes. Fig 4 and Table 2 reflects on the cases of water borne diseases like cholera and acute diarrhoea occurring in various states of India.

Fig 4: State wise Cases Due to Cholera in India 2007 and Acute Diarrhoeal Disease in 2006

Source: Report from Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

Table 2: Cases and deaths due to water borne diseases in various states

Source: Chapter on “Drinking water, sanitation and clean living conditions”, 11^th Five Year Plan Document

Role of Technology in Rural Water Supply

History stands witness to man’s use of varied forms of technology and science, ranging from the simplest to the most complicated, for storing and extracting water. India has a particularly strong tradition of water harvesting – communities have met their minimum water requirements effectively by collecting rainwater locally, diverting and storing water from local streams and springs and tapping sub-surface water. However, these traditional technologies and methods have fallen prey to inattention and ignorance over time, and need to be revived and rejuvenated. On the other hand are the most modern, state-of-the-art technologies and practices which could make a lot of difference in these water-stressed times.

Figures 5 and 6 provide an insight into how the S&T factor has grown in a span interval of six years and also into the status of different states while treating drinking water.

Fig 5: Percent distribution of rural households by treatment of drinking water in 1998-99 and 2005-06 respectively

Source: NFHS 2&3

Fig 6:  Percent distribution of rural households across states not treating the drinking water in 1998-99

Source: NFHS 2

From figures 5 & 6 it is evident that technology penetration has rarely taken place in rural India. On the contrary, the role of technology is very significant in the expansion of drinking water supply coverage in rural India and to fulfil the vision of making safe drinking water available to all people. Table 3 (at annexure) offers a wide range of technological choices which can help in executing water security plans in an effective manner. Our scientists have done monumental work, but very few know about it. However social engineering is required to enable technology to deliver the desired result. For water quality affected habitations, low cost technologies are available in the country and can be employed for tackling chemical and bacteriological problems. The Public Health Engineering Departments have to be regularly updated on the knowledge of technologies, areas for R&D have to be identified and engineers trained for successful implementation of technologies. There is also a need to enable them to formulate projects in a better manner and seek release of funds from GoI. Manuals have to be prepared and user-friendly technologies for rainwater harvesting have to be developed and promoted in a big way. Lastly, safe drinking water supply via technological pathway should be linked to occupation generation in rural India to achieve successful diffusion.

Issue of Standardization

A view has been expressed since a long while that drinking water control and surveillance need to be established on a firm footing through separate legislation, after building the necessary capacities, human resource development and strengthening the existing infrastructure, and meanwhile the incremental standards formulated by BIS could be enforced. Presently the Bureau of Indian Standards specifications IS: 10500-1991 govern the quality of drinking water supplies in India by public agencies. These are based on International standards for drinking water quality issued by the WHO and the manual of standards of quality for drinking water supplies, ICMR, 1971. It is understood that BIS is in the process of second revision of IS:10500, based on EU directives relating to the quality of water intended for human consumption (80/778/EC). Table 2 gives a reflection of the current BIS standards operable in the country.

Table 3:  BIS Standards on drinking water

Source: www.bis.org.in

In order to gear up the operations of safe drinking water supply with the aid of latest technologies, standardization of such technologies is equally important. Water quality problems may be solved by judiciously planning and adopting an integrated approach for Drinking Water management: it requires a blend of alternate safe drinking water supply, domestic and community level treatment units, in-situ water conservation for dilution and roof-top rainwater harvesting.

Areas of Technological Intervention in drinking water

Fig 7:  Schematic representation of areas which requires technological intervention

Based on the above areas several technologies have been developed and transferred for combating drinking water problems. Besides the list of technologies in Table 3, there are several other technologies like the Pot Chlorinator For Wells and Water filter removal for organochlorine pesticide developed by NEERI (CSIR), Water Filter Candle by Regional Research Laboratory, Jorhat and Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute, a process for recharge of ground water aquifers/hand pumps/dug wells/tube wells through rainwater by Regional Research Laboratory, Bhopal, Solar desalination Unit developed by The Energy Research Institute, Ion-Exchange Resin developed by Ion-Ex change India Ltd, Rice Husk Concrete Filter developed by Tata Research Development and Design Centre (TRDDC), Pune.

Desalination Technology: An option for solving the water crisis 

Our country has 7,000-8,000 kilometer long coastal regions. Quite a significant part of coastal area does not have adequate sources of safe drinking water. Seawater is an abundant source of water. Seawater desalination is an attractive option for producing desalinated water from seawater. "India receives 4,000 billion cubic metre of rainfall per year and 3,000 billion cubic metres goes back to the sea", says a senior scientist of BARC. Already a number of plants both based on thermal and membrane technologies are in operation in water starved areas in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Coupling desalination plants with power plants or process industries with availability of waste heat can provide safe water at significantly lower costs. Reverse osmosis plants which operate on electrical power can be used for producing safe water wherever waste heat or power plants are not available. Thermal desalination  technologies using low grade/waste heat from coastal power plant/process industries have great potential to produce distilled water from seawater, which would not only reduce the cost of high purity water to the industries but equivalent quantity of water, which the industries would otherwise draw from the public distribution, would be available for the general public. Several R&D laboratories spread across India have been engaged in the development and application of membrane technologies for desalination and water purification including effluent treatment applications.

Developments in water desalination: Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), CSIR laboratory located at Bhavnagar, Gujarat has more than three decades of experience in the development and deployment of membranes for water desalination and purification. The laboratory has developed thin film composite reverse osmosis membranes also. In the last seven years they have installed both brackish water, two stage sea water reverse osmosis desalination plants and water recovery and recycle plants, as shown in table 4. They have also installed reverse osmosis plants for potable water production in rural areas using animal power and solar power.

Table4: List of Plants Installed by CSMCRI

Source: CSMCRI Scientist

As a part of the national programme to improve the quality of life in our society, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) is also engaged in research, development and deployment of desalination and water purification technologies for a wide range of water related applications. It includes sea water Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant for coastal areas, brackish water RO plant in different salinity affected regions for producing safe drinking water, Multistage Flash (MSF) plant for seawater desalination using low grade steam, Low Temperature Evaporation (LTE) plant using waste heat for seawater desalination, Membrane (Ultra-Filtration) based Water Purification Technologies for domestic and community use, Waste Water Recycle and Reuse plants for the effluent. RO technology and Domestic Water Purifier have been transferred to various parties. BARC has put up several big and small plants in different parts (Fig 8) of the country and provides guidance and consultancy to several agencies in this regard.

Fig 8:  Locations of Desalination plants installed by BARC

Sustainability emanates from acceptability which in turn is dependent on reliability, affordability and adequacy. In order to ensure sustainability to such efforts of the public funded research organizations, the financial participation of the user group is very essential. Depending on the site specific factors the cost of water may vary. Subsidies may have to be provided depending on the economic conditions of the local population. A DAE-CSIR program has been envisaged which involves deployment of technologies developed by respective laboratories in a reliable and sustainable manner. The implementation involves synergistic participation of DAE-CSIR laboratories, executing agencies and users, each with financial contribution and commitment to ensure self-sustenance preferably with a multiplier effect. For setting up and sustaining the facility, public private partnership will also be considered. The present program aims at making the technology acceptable at every location. Once this is achieved, the technology would multiply on its own. The reliability will be ensured through appropriate site specific design considering the local constraints with adequate thought to the conservation of natural resources and environmental aspects. The affordability should be measured not by direct costs but by crediting indirect benefits in terms of health care costs. A number of financial models are possible with different levels of financial participation depending on the end user with the ultimate aim of sustaining the process as well as replicating for the societal benefit. The field implementation of the project is proposed through recognized and reputed NGOs. In order to ensure sustainability of small capacity plant, an MOU may be signed by the concerned parties. Membrane desalination, water purification and water recovery & recycle plants shall be implemented through technology transferees of BARC and CSIR laboratories wherever possible. The total project cost envisaged is about Rs. 742 crores (DAE: Rs. 602 crores and CSIR: Rs. 140 crores) including site selection, site development, civil and electrical works, procurement, installation, testing & commissioning of the plants. The implementation strategy envisages a nodal committee consisting of experts from Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) to oversee the implementation. 

The first two years shall focus on identifying the locations and establishing partnership, collection of base water quality and quantity data and establishing necessary infrastructure. Simultaneously the private parties/ vendors (preferably BARC/ CSIR licensees) who will supply the systems and maintain in the initial period would be identified. From third year onwards the units will be deployed and data on operational and maintenance aspects shall be collected. By the end of the project, it is envisaged that the units would be in operation on self sustaining basis.

Some Success Stories

Many State Governments have reported success stories on ground water recharge, roof-water harvesting and surface water collection e.g. in Gujarat, through various programmes, 87,179 check dams, 35,479 boriband and 1,71,400 khet-talavadi (farm ponds) have been constructed for ground water recharge and dilution of contaminants. During the last 7 years, the State has implemented and taken up 3,585 recharge structures which have resulted in rise of ground water levels from 0.5m to 12m in the vicinity of recharge structures. Roof-water harvesting has been made compulsory for all government buildings in Tamil Nadu. In Karnataka, roof-water harvesting is implemented by Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF) in fluoride affected habitations of Kolar and other 2 districts. Andhra Pradesh has enacted the AP Water, Land and Tree Act in 2003, which specifies that permission is required to be taken to drill a bore hole if drilling is within 250m radius of a drinking water source. Tie up with National Geophysical Research Institute (CSIR) is being done for creation of water sanctuary. Restoration of one water tank in each village under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is proposed to ensure multiple sources of water and lead to drinking water security. Mizoram and Lakshadweep are amongst the pioneers in roof-water harvesting structures. Roof-water harvesting has also started in other States like Kerala, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, etc. Maharashtra has come up with a unique methods of unconventional blasting like bore blasting, stream blasting, etc. in order to enhance the percolation rate of soils, to enhance the aquifer capacity and/or create a secondary aquifer for ground water recharge.

The Government had also launched the National Water Award and Bhumijal Samvardhan Award to encourage NGOs/Gram Panchayats/Urban Local Bodies for adopting innovative practices of ground water augmentation through people’s participation. One National Award of Rs 10 Lakh and 18 Bhumijal Samvardhan Puraskars of Rs 1 Lakh each with a plaque and a citation will be presented. These awardees have been selected by a four member committee set up under the chairmanship of Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, MP and nominations were invited through state governments. 55 nominations were received and the committee recommended 1 National Award and 14 Puraskars. The launching of Farmer’s Participatory Research Programme in 5000 villages in different agro-climatic regions of the country with the help of 50 Agriculture Universities and Research Institutes to produce more crop and income per drop of water, is in the planning stage. Moreover, the Government has constituted Advisory Council for Artificial Recharge of Ground Water in April, 2006 to popularize the concept of Artificial Recharge among all stake holders.  As per recommendation made by the Advisory Council in its first meeting, the first Ground Water Congress was organized  by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB)  under  the auspices of Ministry of Water Resources at New Delhi   on 11^th September 2007 with a view to provide a platform for interaction among scientists, engineers, planners, policy makers and representatives of industries/NGOs/Voluntary Organizations and Stakeholders on various aspects of ground water in order to evolve a suitable policy framework on emergent ground water related issues. Her Excellency, the President of India gave away the first Ground Water Awards for the year 2007 during the valedictory session of the Congress.

Outcome and recommendation of National Congress were:-

• Emphasized the role of education, awareness and voluntary participation of stakeholders in ground water conservation.
• Stressed the need for equitable, efficient and sustainable water use policy.
• Expressed urgency for complete synergy in the activities of all stakeholders in the sustained development of ground water resources.
• Outlined new techniques for encouraging more income per drop of water.
• Resolved to prevent over-exploitation and pollution of ground water.
• Highlighted the role of Panchayats in ground water management.
• Stressed upon the adoption of integrated approach for water conservation; for improving water security system and increasing agricultural production

(http://wrmin.nic.in/index3.asp?subsublinkid=771&langid=1&sslid=783)

Conclusion

One major problem when it comes to addressing the problems related to water is that the provisions for water are distributed across various ministries and institutions. With several institutions involved in water supply, inter-sectoral coordination becomes critical for the success of any program (as shown in Fig 1). The ownership of water is the core challenge of water management posed at different scales: between the state and communities in general, between the central government and respective states or provinces and between local and state governments. When it comes to dealing with maintaining water quality, the users and in large the communities have to play a key role in maintaining hygiene near water sources.

Thus, policy issues to be addressed to improve rural drinking water supply scenario are:

• To strengthen state-level institutions thus enabling more cost-effective rural-based services, e.g.  in the past, state policy was to install one hand-pump per cluster of 500 persons in rural areas, but this policy often proved arbitrary and missed many of the poorest persons in need. Thus, the clustering criterion should be relaxed, and need — based on current access to a reliable supply of safe water — be given more importance.
• Introducing a number of important innovations in technology, public administration, and policy, e.g. Integrated Watershed Development Program (IWDP) is an important step in harvesting rainwater in rural India.
• Good inter-departmental coordination by the project's monitoring and coordination cell
• Water augmentation:  A combined strategy of reviving our water bodies and interlinking channels on the one hand and supplying treated sewage for industrial use will more than adequately address the artificial water shortage

The rural water supply component represents an effective marriage of initiatives from government departments and beneficiaries:  locally elected governing bodies identify groups of villagers who need improved water supplies, and these groups take ownership of and maintain the completed hand-pumps. The government departments provide key technical expertise to locate the best sites, supervise construction, certify the water as satisfactory for drinking purposes, and provide spare parts. Several private bodies, NGOs are contributing significantly to the development of this sector. Organizations like Water Aid, Water Partners, World Bank, UNESCO, The Aga Khan Foundation, Naandi Foundation, Centre for Science and Environment have played important roles in shaping the drinking water scenario of the country. Naandi Foundation has developed and is implementing a holistic model that recognizes that demand for quality water exists and that by capitalizing on communities’ willingness to pay, accountability can be enforced through a contractual relationship between service providers and the local government. This innovative model of public-private partnership tackles the issue of contamination in drinking water through a unique combination of advanced and appropriate technology. It thus reaches under-served populations through a replicable, sustainable commercial model wherein capital and recurring costs are recovered through the collection of user fees. Community’s contribution increases ownership, improves accountability of services.  Water Partners projects are funded through grant, loans or a combination of grants and loans. Their loan program is the first of its kind with the idea of community based water supply projects. By offering innovative financing methods through its Water Credit Initiative, Water Partners empowers local communities to develop and sustain solutions to their own water needs.

Taking lessons from such initiatives, there is need to look at traditional ways of water management that have sustained over years and try to rekindle the same with new scientific knowledge. India is endowed with a rich and vast diversity in natural resources; “water” is one of them. Integrated water management is vital for poverty reduction environmental sustenance and sustainable economic development. Ours is a country with immense regional diversity and geo-hydrological features, cultural preferences, which require diverse solutions as per local context. Sustainability in systems can be ensured when projects are handled at the grass roots for which demystification of scientific knowledge is fundamental and key to mass acceptance by rural communities. Unless safe drinking water is taken up on a war footing, the health of rural citizens will not improve and our children will continue to live in unhealthy, unhygienic environments.  Improving the access of the rural poor to sustainable water supply services is difficult and complex especially under conditions of escalating population growth and limited resources. Neither public nor private sector can alone meet access, quality, financing and policy gaps. Government institutions remain central but private sector should be a key partner. There is urgent need to engage along a spectrum of public private solutions and at the same time to view water as an economic good rather than a public good.

The National Rural Water Supply Programme (NRWSP) to be effective from April, 2009 onwards comes with lots of expectations. The various components under this programme will be based on a) Coverage, b) Water Quality, c) Natural Calamity d) Support etc. Flexible policy implementation guidelines at local levels have been formulated and the criteria of allocation of funds have been revised. Setting up of Water & Sanitation Support Organization (WSSO) under State Water and Sanitation Mission (SWSM) is targeted. Constitution of District Water and Sanitation Mission (DWSM) is also provisionalised.  Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance has been given major emphasis and it is proposed to develop data from household level to be linked to the database at the Mission Level to ensure drinking water security at household level. At present most of the states have skeleton Water Testing Laboratory where water testing facilities is available, that too at District level. It is proposed to establish Water Testing Laboratory at sub-division level with provision of testing few chemical parameters (need based) and bacteriological parameters. National Agencies have been identified to provide advice on specialised and emerging science and technology issues as well as research and development activities. Similarly SWSM in each state is expected to identify and form State Technical Agencies (STA) to provide support to the PHED/Boards. Beside these policy issues such as “to ensure prevention of contamination of drinking water which are supplied by a single pipeline instead of intermediate supply it is advisable to supply 24 hours where ever possible but cost of supply of water beyond the basic minimum need is to be borne by the consume” and “to ensure this it is equally important to maintain potability, reliability of drinking water quality standards both at the production (water treatment plant) as well as at the consumption points (house hold level)” are innovative steps to be taken. In order to incentivise the Gram Panchayats to establish “drinking water security” at 100% time, Government of India is launching the award scheme called “Sajal Gram Puraskar” from the year 2008-09. It is felt necessary that this award/Puraskar necessitate triggering mechanism in the rural communities for drinking water security, quality, environmental and personal sanitation, and health & hygiene habits. All set and done let us be hopeful on “Every cloud has a silver lining!” 

References

• Drinking water quality in rural India: Issues and Approaches Indira Khurana and Romit Sen,  Background paper, Water Aid, 2008.
• MDG and India’s drinking water: racing ahead at what cost? Keya Acharya
• The quest for water: Rethinking water scarcity Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt
• Development (2008) 51, 5–11. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100468
• Bringing Sustainability to Drinking Water Systems in Rural India, The Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission, Department of Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, 2007.
• Drinking Water, sanitation and hygiene in India, NSS 54 th Round (January – June 1998), Department Of Statistics Government Of India July 1999.
• Drinking water and sanitation status in India, Water Aid, 2005.
• Department of Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, ddws.nic.in
• Fact Sheet, Water Partners, 2007.
• National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 2005-06
• Measures of Impact of Science and Technology in India: Agriculture and Rural Development,  Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, 2007.
• Planning Commission. 2002. India Asssessment 2002: Water Supply and Sanitation, New Delhi: Planning Commission, Governement of India.
• Proceedings of the National Workshop on Technologies for Drinking Water Quality, 4-5^th May 2006 – New Delhi
• Framework for Implementation 2008-2012, Department of Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India
• http://wrmin.nic.in/index3.asp?subsublinkid=771&langid=1&sslid=783

ANNEXURE:

Table 5: Details of Technologies developed and tested related to water quality

Source: Position Papers and Recommendations of Discussion meet on Desalination and Water Purification Technologies, Website of BARC and CSIR.

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