Rural Drinking Water in India: Insights from a Review of 10 Water Security Plans
Preparation of Water Security Plans is an important initial step in achieving rural water security. We examined 10 plans across aquifer types and executed by different organisations to understand what it contains and what’s missing.
The Niti Aayog, the Indian government’s apex policy planning unit, made a strong statement in a report it released in 2019 — ‘India is suffering from the worst water crisis in its history and millions of lives and livelihoods are under threat’. It goes on to say that the situation was only going to get worse in the future.
What’s contributing to this water crisis? One factor is a highly inefficient irrigation system, two-thirds of which depends on groundwater, a fast depleting resource. Water quality is another growing concern as poor sanitation systems fail to prevent the discharge of untreated sewage into water bodies. There is ‘a growing imbalance of supply and demand, as well as poor water resource management and climate change’, said the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in its India Policy Brief on water security.
To improve India’s worsening water situation in rural areas, both government bodies and non-governmental actors are taking steps by planning for water security at various scales — from the level of a single village or a gram panchayat to cluster of villages, according to their objective, ability and the available budget. An important part of any rural water security program is the preparation of a water security plan (WSP).
We had previously done a review of WSPs through the lens of agricultural water use. But we also wanted to understand how these plans factor in the drinking water needs of the people who live in rural India.
We analysed 10 WSPs, shared with us by Arghyam, a foundation that grants funds and partners with individuals and organisations involved in implementing WASH projects. All the plans we looked at were prepared over the last 10 years. In this blog post, we sum up three key insights that stood out in our review.
Read | Towards Ensuring Rural Water Security: Insights from a Review of Water Security Plans
But first, what does a typical WSP cover? It is meant to collate information about a region’s existing water supply situation, improvements in the existing system or additions that users need, want and can afford; how the proposed improvements or new infrastructure will be funded, implemented and managed to ensure that water is available at all times in the village for all households for all their needs (from Development Alternatives). WSPs are prepared by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), local-level government organisations such as gram panchayats as well as state groundwater departments for implementation of specific schemes like Atal Bhujal Yojana, a central government scheme launched in late 2019 to facilitate sustainable groundwater management.
Here are the typical contents of a WSP:
- Village profile — geographic and demographic details
- Situation of water (and sanitation) — water sources, and their condition
- Baseline data collection and problem identification
- Water balance calculation — difference between water demand and availability
- Implementation plan — WASH vision, activities, their respective budget, and source(s) of funding.
- Expected outcomes/ impact assessment
The level of detail on these different components vary across the different WSPs; the ones we reviewed did not follow a fixed template.
Aside from this, there were three points that stood out in our review of these 10 plans:
Only two of the 10 WSPs reviewed accounted for projected population growth and future change in demand for water.
As significant funds are allocated for water management projects, it is essential to plan for the long term. It is important to note that all the WSPs we reviewed were made before the 2019 launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), the central government’s flagship scheme to ensure 100% coverage of functional household tap connections. This scheme spells out that planning must ensure water availability for at least 30 years — the Village Action Plan, a document prerequisite for implementation of JJM in any village, calculates and plans to meet future demand after 30 years (i.e. 2053).
Most plans — 8 out of 10 — acknowledge the importance of setting up governance institutions.
Two plans include the formation of Village Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSC) under the gram panchayat, while five plans mention institution and capacity building/ the formation of Water User Groups/ springshed development committees/ training and/or linkages with VWSC (even though funds are allocated in these five plans, the activities are unclear). This is important as NGOs do not have resources to support any project indefinitely and must exit at some point. After that, it is the local bodies like gram panchayats or village councils that take responsibility to ensure that the structures built as per WSPs are maintained, and mechanisms and protocols set are followed. People from the community are assumed to have a sense of ownership and responsibility over these structures and ensure water security for themselves as they make up the gram panchayat and its sub-committees.
Seven of the 10 WSPs consider the water quality aspect — some testing only for one or few parameters.
Four plans have not documented any water quality testing and its results; one of which only mentions a risk or high possibility of water contamination without attaching test results. Only three plans tested for microbial contamination and all three were found to have it in the sampled water. This is worrying since nine of the 10 plans focus on or refer to rural drinking water supply, for which testing is vital to ensure safe consumption. WSPs must mandatorily test water quality and plan for mitigation measures based on the nature of contamination.
We were also conscious of including WSPs from different regions, types of executing bodies and sectoral focuses to ensure a diverse representation of samples. Here’s a snapshot of the WSP profiles:
Aquifer type:
- 4: hard-rock aquifers
- 3: spring- dominated Himalayan systems
- 2: both alluvial and laterite/ basalt aquifers
- 1: sandstone aquifer
Focus of WSP:
- 6: overall water security (including irrigation)
- 3: on drinking/ domestic water security (2/3: include livestock requirements
- 1: on irrigation water requirement
Executing Organisation:
- 5: CSOs — for CSR projects
- 3: Gram panchayats — with the support of an NGO or a technical corporation
- 1: government (here state govt)-private partnership
- 1: unclear (logos of 3 NGOs were printed on the cover of the WSP, but responsibility of implementation was attributed to the drinking water and sanitation department, VWSC, panchayat members etc.)
