Shared Springs: How People in Rural Sikkim Source Water
This blog post is a primer on water management in Sikkim, a state where the drying of springs is emerging as a major concern for long-term water sustainability.
Abriti Moktan and Sarala Khaling
The rural drinking water situation in Sikkim is unique. The challenges here are similar to other Himalayan states and mainly stem from the fact that water supply is from distributed public and private sources and the characterisation of water quality and quantity is virtually non-existent.
When the Jal Jeevan Mission aims to ensure 100% coverage of functional tap connections, it is necessary to explore how a project like this works in a Himalayan state like Sikkim, where the geography and social contexts are vastly different from a majority of the country. This blog post is a primer on water management in a state where the drying of springs is emerging as a major concern for long-term water sustainability.
About 80% of the households in Sikkim have tapped water.
A significant fraction of rural water supply is sourced from springs and streams. Most urban areas receive piped supply from tanks or stored infrastructure, but in the rest of rural Sikkim, 80% households rely on springs as the main source of drinking water from which piped water is derived.
Two government agencies play a role in rural drinking water. The first is the Rural Development Department (RDD), which manages the Dhara Vikas Yojna (springshed development scheme) to rejuvenate drying water and ensure source sustainability for safe drinking water.
The second is the Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED), which is responsible for ensuring safe drinking water and sanitation. It also manages the establishment of functional sewage treatment plants to prevent pollution of water bodies. However, it does not have any role in managing water sources like springs and springsheds, which are critical to water security in the mountains.
Sikkim’s unique characteristics pose challenges for rural water supply
Water supply in Sikkim is complicated by the structure of villages, of which there are two types. In large commercial production landscapes (like tea gardens, Sikkim has only one), the communities live in a colony of homes clustered around the plantation.
In the rest of rural Sikkim, homesteads are scattered throughout the landscape, each farm household residing close to their fields. Houses are spread out across an undulating terrain making piped supply difficult.
Historically, people walked to the spring water source. Depending on where the household was situated, this may involve a trek up and down the hill. The nearest source might also be seasonal; in the monsoon, the household could get by on harvested rainwater. Direct pumping of piped water to households was extremely rare.
Rural water supply has been transformed under NRDWP and JJM
Full household tap connections have extended previous efforts under various RDD programmes and JJM. These involve building a tank near the spring and distributing water to nearby households via galvanised and poly pipes. Typically, the water is gravity fed to households. Under JJM, individual habitation-level tanks are being constructed or renovated to enable piped water supply to each household. People run pipes mainly through their own or other people’s farms. For most part, people cooperate in terms of allowing right of way.
The water source itself is often in a nearby common or forest area. It’s piped to a sedimentation tank and supplied to different distribution/ reserve tanks from where the households have direct/ indirect connections.
Often the location of the storage infrastructure in the village can be politically determined. Where you are located in a village is important. We see that much of the tank building is happening close to where people are influential. But presently, through MGNREGA, most households are getting the support to build RCC (reinforced cement concrete) tanks. Nevertheless, economic class and political connections matter more than caste in Sikkim.
RDD has been engaged in springshed management for source sustainability.
In many Himalayan states, drying of springs has been a source of concern. It is still not completely understood whether this is caused by deforestation, climate change, upstream diversions or groundwater over-abstraction.
But to address the threat, the government has focused primarily on the creation of springshed programmes under Dhara Vikas Yojna, managed by the Rural Development Department. The RDD identifies recharge zones for springs. These programmes typically involve digging trenches to slow the speed of water runoff in the monsoon and increase percolation — as many as 100 trenches in a one hectare-space is identified as a recharge zone. As the RDD is also responsible for MGNREGA, this is another source of funds for spring rejuvenation.
Most of the springshed programmes take place on state-owned forest department land. There have been instances of springshed development occurring in private forests, when landowners allow access. But the problem is that the whims and fancies of these landowners determine access. The structures built a certain year have to be desilted the next, but often landowners argue that while they are giving up productive land to trenches, there are no benefits to them. Only downstream users are benefitted. No clear model for compensatory payments to upstream landowners has so far emerged in Sikkim.
The more interesting story, though, is on private water supply arrangements.
Although rural water supply has been expanding, the majority of rural water supply in Sikkim is actually routed through informal private connection; and no mention of this is found in government statistics or records. According to the RDD, a large number (68%) of springs in a drought-prone region in Sikkim, where springshed management work is being undertaken, were found to be located on private lands (agricultural fields). Similar situations cannot be ruled out in other parts of Sikkim.
Arrangements like these have to be reflected in government plans and policies pertaining to water security.
These occur because the closest source to most households is a spring in someone’s private land. Most rural households would rather negotiate with a private landowner than undertake the expense of a pipe to the nearest mains. There is an informal negotiation between neighbours and typically the spring ‘owner’ charges a fixed fee per year — for instance up to Rs. 1,500 annually in one site — to allow another household access. Historically, these arrangements may have been casual, but over time have become monetised. Such informal arrangements are common, and while there are occasional conflicts whereby the owner of the water sources may arbitrarily stop access, they generally run smoothly.
Even where government piped supply connections are given, seasonality remains an issue. Many springs go dry in the dry season. It’s not uncommon for households to contract with two or three spring owners for access and use whichever one is flowing. Up to 4–5 households may be connected to a single private spring source. Each household lays their own pipe directly into the spring. Typically, standard 1-inch flexible PVC pipes are used.
Another form of private water supply arrangement occurs on tea estates. Here it is left to tea garden owners to provide these facilities. Management may work with PHED to divert spring water to store in tanks on the estate. Typically, water supply is regarded as part of a larger package of benefits including housing and ration for plantation workers.
In urban areas, like Gangtok, water supply typically is sourced from a reservoir or a large tank. In peri-urban areas, outside the piped supply area, communal springs are common. These are common pool resources. Some may have complex institutional arrangements for access, others may be ‘free for all’.
Overall, it should be noted that in quantitative terms, water usage is lower in the hills. Water is used for multiple purposes, such as washing and flushing. Bathing is infrequent compared to the plains. And in the dry season, there is still a tradition of community washing at the river when springs go dry.
Emerging problems with source protection
Water quality issues are a relatively recent issue in the region. Traditionally, it was common to get a lot of sediment in the pipe, as mud seeps into the springs when it rains. And although boiling is common, RO and UV treatment remain rare in rural areas.
Nonetheless, water quality issues are an emerging threat, particularly downstream of towns. Both untreated sewage flows and landfills are a cause of concern. There is no tracking of sewage flows, so we don’t actually know how much is directed into the STP, underlining the urgent need to map water quality. Wastewater treatment is rare, except for larger towns which have a city supply.
Another emerging threat is pharmaceutical effluents. Pharmaceutical companies in Sikkim have mushroomed due to tax exemptions. These companies don’t use river water, rather, they drill deep borewells along the river and dump effluents in the river.
Groundwater represents an institutional vacuum. The closest CGWB office is in Calcutta, impacting water security planning both from quality and quantity perspectives.
Research gaps in rural water in Sikkim
We need water quality data, which is not easy to collect. Often the systems designed for the plains don’t work well here. For instance, during field work in the adjacent Darjeeling hills, our field researchers would sleep with the samples close to their body to maintain the temperature and prevent freezing. Interestingly, in those surveys, we did find a lot of E. coli in springs, even in pristine sources coming from a wildlife sanctuary with no apparent source of contamination.
We need water quantity data. Unfortunately, spring flow measurements are few and far between. Seasonal data and developing spring typologies to better characterise rural drinking water sources is a major lacuna. Recent advances in low cost monitoring make the whole region ripe for citizen collected data but this has yet to be done systematically.
