Assumptions, Frameworks, and Methodologies

Nisheeth KumarKnowledge Links, India

How Secure Is Water in Rural India ? Program Initiatives

and Pathways

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INDIA: some facts

• More than 1000 million people

• 617 districts

• 35 states and union territories

• Around 700 million people live in more than10,00,000 villages in rural areas.

• Around 400 million people live on less than 1$ a day.

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INDIA: some facts

• 638 million (578 million in rural areas) people defecate in the open (as per the Joint Monitoring Programme of UNICEF and WHO 2010)

• 362,000 children die of diarrhoea every year

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Programme Initiatives

1972-1986: Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP)

1986-1998: ARWSP and Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP)

1999-2002: Sector Reform Programme (SRP) and Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)

 

Programme Initiatives

2002-2010: Swajaldhara and Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)

2006-2010: National Rural Drinking Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance Programme (NRDWM&SP)

2009-2012: National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP)

On-going since 1999: Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)  

Programme Features

1972-1986

Provision of adequate drinking water supply to the rural community Creation of infrastructure i.e. large water supply systemsHabitation: not covered (NC); partially covered (PC) and fuly covered

(FC)Implementation agency: Public Health Enginering Department (PHED) 

Programme Features

1991-1992

Provision of adequate drinking water supply to the rural community Creation of infrastructure i.e. large water supply systemsHabitation: not covered (NC); partially covered (PC) and fuly covered (FC)Implementation agency: Public Health Enginering Department (PHED)Water qualityAppropriate technologyHuman resource development 

Programme Features

1999-2000 (sector reform programme in 69 districts across 18 states on a pilot basis)

Community involvement in planning, implementation and management of drinking water supply schemes

Programme Features

2002 (scaled up as Swajaldhara across all the states)

Community involvement in planning, implementation and management of drinking water supply schemes

Programme Features

2009 (National Rural Drinking Water Programme-NRDWP)

Shift in focus from habitations to households: ensuring sustainability of water availability in terms of potability, adequacy, convenience, affordability and equity

Decentralised and demand driven

Sustainability of the source, system, finance and management

Framework for implementation: movement towards ensuring people’s drinking water security in rural India

Programme Features

2005 (National Rural Drinking Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance Programme-NRDWQM&SP)

Launched in February 2005-now merged with NRDWP

All drinking water sources should be tested at least twice a year for bacteriological contamination and once a year for chemical contamination

Programme components: Information, education and communication (IEC), HRD and Field Test Kits (FTKs)

Conclusion

Programme design is faulty and is not going to work

Policy in order to be implemented needs to be based on an informed understanding of how things work within the existing institutional arrangement.

Liquid dynamics needs to include ‘institutional’, as it is the critical variable for producing results on the ground.

Institutional factor is the one that determines social, technological and environmental.

Thanks

04/10/2313