World Water Week 2023: Consensus among agencies must to provide universal access to potable water

“People have to struggle to get drinking water. Mothers and sisters have to travel 2, 3, 5 km carrying the load of water on their heads. A large part of their lives is spent in struggling for water. Therefore, this government has decided to emphasise upon a special task and that is—how to ensure availability of water in every house. How does every house get water, pure drinking water? And so I declare from the Red Fort today that in the days to come, we will take forward the Jal Jeevan Mission. The central and the state governments will jointly work on this Jal Jeevan Mission. We have promised to spend more than `3.5 lakh crore on this mission in the coming Years,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation on August 15, 2019.

The Union government launched Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) with the aim to provide functional household tap connection to every rural household to supply potable drinking water of prescribed quality in adequate quantity on a regular basis, by 2024.

Conceptually, functional household tap connections cover the whole range of drinking water supply chain, envisaging assured and regular water supply of prescribed quality and quantity.

Functionality demands safe and sustainable source, storage and distribution of water to all households, surveillance and monitoring of water quality, sustainable system of quality and monitoring with cost recovery for financial sustainability. These are the parameters to be addressed in planning for JJM.

Thus the goal is loaded with specific items for action:

(i) drinking water security, thereby meaning sustainability of sources and systems; (ii) service level should be not less than 55 litre per capita per day (lpcd); (iii) the water quality should be as per Bureau of Indian Standards, free from all contaminants; (iv) service should be on regular basis (v) operation and maintenance; (vi) capacity building of communities; and (vii) institutional arrangement for long-term sustainability.

Under JJM nearly 80 per cent of the source of water supply is to be groundwater. Past experience suggests that source sustainability, institutional arrangement for long-term sustainability, capacity of community and quality of water were main inadequacies of rural water supply schemes.

It would, therefore, be appropriate to analyse whether JJM as being implemented now, effectively addresses the above issues or not.

There are about 40 million energised borewells that irrigate farm lands for agriculture purpose. They draw groundwater from the same aquifers that are meant to supply water for drinking purpose.

Over exploitation of groundwater to meet irrigation needs is the main cause of failure of source and thus source sustainability assumes greatest importance for success of JJM.

Agriculture, cattle, industry and domestic water supply practically compete for the same source to meet their water needs. Needless to say that domestic water supply has to assume highest priority.

It is practically impossible to regulate extraction of groundwater and prioritise its use through any legislation. Self-regulation by the communities seems ideal who can decide, depending on water availability in the aquifers post monsoon, the next crop, prioritise water use and need for water conservation.

This would enable the communities to understand the benefits of rainwater harvesting, treating groundwater as common pool resource, water budgeting and accounting, prioritisation in use of available water and its equitable distribution. Wherever the communities have taken command of management, the results are highly satisfactory and encouraging.

Successful examples like Hivre Bazaar in Maharastra and Pennagram in Tamil Nadu point to community ownership of aquifer management that also ensures equitable distribution of the resource.

Community model is the most self-reliant and successful model. Gram Vikas in Odisha has proved this model of community engagement including capital cost sharing for creating open-defecation-free communities with universal functional household tap connections in Odisha and Jharkhand.

This is a sterling example of a successful civil society initiative in rural water supply with community participation.

Swajal in certain areas of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand has created community-led management of drinking water service delivery; the water it supplies is cheaper than that supplied by Jal Nigam. Against this background, we need to see the performance of JJM since its inception in 2019.

Perils and possibilities

Majority of the schemes so far have been implemented by Public Health Engineering Departments or Jal Nigams. These are purely engineers-driven approach which does not involve community in the design, procurement and implementation of rural water supply projects.

The schemes are handed over to the communities only for operations and management. This approach also does not take into account the sustainability of the source.

Since JJM is being implemented as a targeted programme, it relegates last priority to the role of communities. The projects designed and implemented by government agencies are found to be 30-40 per cent costlier, materials being sub-standard and improperly implemented.

After completion, these projects are handed over to the communities or punchayati raj institutions (PRI) for future operations and management, including collection of charges. They are a big drain on PRIs’ resources.

Though these projects are neither sustainable nor create any ownership, they invariably fail. Already reports have started coming in of failure of some projects due to source failure, inadequate operations and management, and the absence of institutional arrangement.

Given strong control of the government agencies, vested interests have not so far allowed in majority of states active participation of communities from the project inception, though it is one of the important objectives of JJM. We expect these projects not to meet the objectives in the long run.

Success of JJM would therefore be predicated on the following:

1. Source sustainability requires regular source augmentation and the best way to do it by delineating watersheds on 1:10,000 scale remote sense map to identify the exact locations for undertaking rainwater harvesting measures. Communities should take full responsibility of developing rainwater harvesting measures under the technical guidance of government agencies and maintaining the same.

2. Post-monsoon, the communities using piezometer should know quantum of groundwater available so that they together decide the next crop, sowing horticulture/forest plants, use water-efficient devises, and prioritise water use as demand response through water budget and accounting. This ensures equitable distribution of water and proper conservation.

3. Capacity development of communities is required to be undertaken on a large scale
so that they are able to identify source, design the size of rural water projects based on demand and people’s willingness to pay, procure material, construct and undertake operations and management. This will develop institutional capacity for long-term sustainability of water supply project.

4. The government institution should facilitate periodical technical assistance to the communities so that they are sufficiently equipped to undertake rural water projects.

5. Government agencies should train Bhujal jankaars (community representatives who are groundwater informed) who, in turn, will assist the communities for rainwater harvesting, about underlying geological formations and rainwater harvesting measures. This was done with very successful outcome in Gujarat.

6. Civil Societies have an important role to play in capacity building of the communities and hand holding them. They have played an important role in the success of rural water supply in states like Bihar, Gujarat and Odisha.

7. Government agencies should also train the communities in water quality assessment and remedial measures.

8. Solar plants should be installed to meet the energy requirement of drinking water projects.

It may be of interest to know that water regulation falls within the ambit of the states.

At the same time, the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution has cast an imperative on the state governments to devolve upon the PRIs the functions, functionaries, and funds related to drinking water as well as water management, minor irrigation, and watershed development under the list of functions in the XIth Schedule of the Constitution which are to be performed by gram panchayats within local jurisdictions.

Despite judicial pronouncements and constitutional position, states are reluctant to decentralise water management and drinking water responsibilities to PRIs.

This is in spite of a deliberate push for meaningful devolution of the above functions to PRIs by the Union government, through various programmes based on sector reform.

There should be federal consensus to achieve the above noble objectives of JJM. It has to be a game changer even if its implementation takes years longer than the target. There should be no compromise on role and responsibilities of PRIs as stated in the Constitution and several judicial pronouncements.

Shashi Shekhar is former secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation

This article was first published in State of India’s Environment 2023 released by Centre for Science and Environment and Down To Earth Magazine on March 23, 2023

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