Ensuring Drinking Water

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1.

Status of Drinking Water in Gujarat

Rural Areas

Historically speaking, there was no serious problem of drinking water reported in the state in

the pre-independence period, except for a few references to shortages of drinking water in

some situations (Patel 1970). This was largely due to the fact that ground water situation

was fairly good in most parts of the state and it was available even during droughts. In

fact, construction of water extraction structures was undertaken as a part of famine relief

works to supply water to people (Bhatia 1992). Acute shortage of water was first noted

during the droughts of 1960-61. The first survey on drinking water was conducted in 1963-

64 to study the problem. The survey reported that about 1043 villages had no dependable

facility for drinking water and 3219 villages had inadequate supply of drinking water, that is,

about 16-17 per cent villages suffered from drinking water shortages.

The problem of drinking water acquired significant dimensions gradually with the increased

use of ground water in irrigation on the one hand and the declining traditional water

systems of managing local water supply on the other hand. In the Fourth Plan, the concept

of No Source Village (NSU) was introduced to identify problem villages with inadequate

supply of water, and accordingly a village was an NSV if it did not have a reliable source of

water *. The policy of the government was to identify such villages and provide them with a

source. With the depleting ground water resources, accompanied by fluctuating rainfall, the

sources identified frequently turned out to be temporary. As a result, the villages “with

source” many times became “no source villages” when the temporary source dried up. The

estimates of NSVs therefore fluctuated widely overtime, from 5086 in 1980, 4833 in 1985,

16351 in 1987-88 to 186 in 1990 and 416 in 1992 (Hirway and Patel 1993). This indicated

the fluctuating nature of the problem.

* A village is a no source village if it has any of the following characteristics: (1) No public well, (2) has a public well that dries up in summer making villagers travel more than 1 km to fetch water, (3) a source of watersupply more than 1 km away, (4) no possibility of a well, needed a tube well for drinking water, (5) there is a

public well, but the supply is below 70 lpcd, (6) non potable water supply (GWSSB 2000).



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Though the situation deteriorated in the 1990s, it needs to be noted here that the natural

availability of water resources , particularly for drinking and domestic use, has not been very

poor in the state in spite of the inter-regional variation in the water supply. Gujarat is highly

heterogeneous in terms of physical parameters like lithography, geomorphology, geo-hydrology, rainfall, temperature, evaporation etc. Based on these parameters, the state can

be divided into the following regions: North Gujarat, Central Gujarat, South Gujarat,

Saurashtra and Kachchh. Though the rainfall in these regions varies from 300-350 mm in

Kachchh to 700-800 mm in North and Central Gujarat to 2000 +mm in South Gujarat, the

low rainfall regions have favourable conditions for storage of ground water, and till about 2-

3 decades ago, these regions enjoyed good water supplies, at least for the purpose of

drinking water.

For example, the low rainfall regions of North Gujarat and Kachchh have favourable

geomorphic conditions capable of storing rich ground water and the region enjoyed good

ground water supply. However, this water has been continuously over exploited for the past

30-35 years, with the result that the region at present suffers from severe depletion and

degradation of ground water. Even today the water tables in this region are going down by

about 10 feet every year thanks to the over-drafting of ground water! Similarly, the

permeable geological formations along with Saurashtra coast can store aquifers of sweet

water in this low rainfall region; but the indiscriminate exploitation of water by farmers

without any attention to recharge has exhausted this supply, with the result that this region

is degraded, saline and suffering from severe shortage of drinking and domestic water.

Again, the forest region in the eastern tribal belt had thick forest, which retained water

supply in streams and rivulets through out the year. However, deforestation and

degradation of environmental resources in this region lead these streams dry up a few

months after the monsoon, leaving tribal population to suffer from serious shortages of

water supply.

In short, over drafting of ground water in many parts of the state, particularly in Kachchh,

Saurashtra and North Gujarat has resulted in severe depletion and degradation of ground

water, and depletion and degradation of forests has depleted water resources in the eastern

tribal belt. In addition, the other factors that have contributed to the problem are (a) water

logging and the resultant salinity of water supply on some of the canal irrigated regions,



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particularly in South Gujarat, where water use has been much more than what is necessary,

and (b) pollution of surface and ground water in the regions where industrial discharges,

agricultural discharges (with chemicals) and discharges of human settlements have

degraded the quality of water supply of ground and surface water.

It appears that the state has not been able to manage its water resources well. The state

has promoted agricultural growth by providing high subsidies for construction of wells/tube

wells and supplying almost free energy for drawing ground water, without paying any

attention to its recharge, with the result that severe depletion and degradation of ground

water has taken place in many regions causing serious shortage of drinking water. Also, use

of canal water has been highly subsidized to promote agricultural growth, which has

frequently led to overuse of water and the consequent water logging and to salinity of land

and water. Again, lack of effective regulations with regard to industrial, agricultural and

domestic discharges have badly polluted ground and surface water in many areas causing

shortage of potable drinking water in these areas.

In the past two decades, the state has lost about 27 percent of its ground water resources,

the loss being 50 percent in North Gujarat. About 87 percent area of the state has become

“non white” in ground water, implying unsafe withdrawal of ground water in these areas

(Hirway 1999). The per capita availability of water supply has declined from 1322 M 3 in 1991

to 1137 M 3 in 1999-2000 against the norm of 1700M 3 at satisfactory level. This availability is

427 M3 in North Gujarat, 734 M 3 in Saurashtra and 875 M 3 in Kachchh 2 (IRMA 2001), which

indicates serious “water stress” situation. This water crisis is reflected in innumerable

incidents of public rallies and demonstrations (some times resulting in violence) taken out to

protest against water shortage in the different towns and cities as well as in villages in the

state. 3

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According to the norms, per capita availability of water above 1700 M3

is “satisfactory”, 1000-1700 M3

is“water stress”, 500-1000 is not favourable to human health as well as economic growth and below 500 M 3 is“threat to life”.3 The first major violent water riots were witnessed in Falla village of Jamnagar district (Saurashtra) in 1999.However, before that, in 1990s, several demonstrations and rallies have been witnessed in villages of Kachchh,Suarashtra and North Gujarat, in several urban centres in the state as well as in Gandhinagar, the state capital. Inthe recent years these rallies are frequently turning violent (Times of India May 2, 2001, February 19, 2002 andJanuary 18, 200; Indian Express April 6, 2002; Economic Times April 9, 2002; Gujarat Samachar May 4, 2002,May 18, 2003 etc.).





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(Hirway and Lodhia 2004). It has been esti mated that during the summer months of draught

years (which are not infrequent in Gujarat) more than 50% of villages suffer from shortage

of adequate potable water ( Master Plans of different years of GWSSB).

Poor Quality of Water Supply : Another major problem of rural water supply is regarding itsquality. GWSSB has been providing data on the habitats, which have excess fluoride, excess

salinity and excess nitrates in their water supply. A recent survey conducted by GWSSB in

collaboration with the Rajiv Gandhi Mission on Drinking Water has collected data on the

quality of water supplied to 32140 rural habitats in the state (2002-03). The study shows

that:

• About 38% habitats do not satisfy the WHO Guidelines with respect to the fluoride

content in water supply and about 23.6 % habitats do not even satisfy the maximum

permissible limit of the fluoride content in water. North Gujarat suffers the most by

excessive fluoride followed by Saurashtra and Kachchh. More than 70% habitats in Patan

and Gandhinagar suffer from excessive fluoride in their water supply, followed by

Banaskantha, Panchmahals, Dahod and Surendranagar.

• About 66.70% habitats do not satisfy the WHO guidelines with respect to the TDS

content and about 10% habitats do not satisfy the maximum possible limit of the TDS

content. Again, North Gujarat, mainly Patan, Mehsana and Ahmedabad are the worst

sufferers with 44% habitats suffering from excessively saline water supply.

• Excessive nitrate is a lesser problems as 83 percent habitats satisfy the WHO Guidelines

and only 4.5 percent habitats suffer from this problem. Rajkot and Junagadh are the

worst sufferers of this problem, with about 28 – 33 percent habitats suffering from this

impurity in drinking water. These districts are followed by Porbandar and Sabarkantha.

Excessive salinity is negligible in the drinking water in Dangs, Navsari, Surat and Valsad

in South Gujarat, in Dahod and Panch mahals as well as in Ahmedabad.

Many of the habitats in the state suffer from more than one quality problems. The data

show that more than one third of the habitats (34.52%) suffer from one or more problems.

This is a serious matter, as it implies that one third of the public sources of water supply do

not provide potable water to their users!



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Pollution of Water Supply : In addition to the above problems, there are problems of water

contamination arising from solid and liquid waste disposal from industries and human

settlements. Gujarat is one of the industrialized states of the country, with pollution prone

industries (like oil refineries and petrochemicals, colour and dyestuff, pharmaceuticals,mineral based industries etc) dominating the industrial structure. Though the government

has made several attempts to control pollution, it has not been very successful in this task.

Gujarat has about 600 large and medium size water polluting factories and about 4300 small

scale water polluting industrial units. Gujarat who has large number of solid waste producing

units. Some of the industrial cetres/ regions are located in South Gujarat, where the

pollution has contaminated their drinking water sources. The regions around the major

industrial centers like Vadodara, Bharuch, Ankleshwar, Vapi, Valsad, Surat, Navsari etc have

polluted water sources, which have affected their drinking water sources adversely. Many

times water from hand pumps spew coloured polluted water, wells are contaminated and

river / streams are also contaminated (PSS 2004). A study in Ankleshwar taluka of Bharuch

district has shown that (1) 88.5% villages have contaminated water supply, (2) 38% villages

have colour in drinking water, (3) 58% villages have smell in drinking water and (4) 50%

villages have sediments in drinking water. (Ankur Baruah 2004). Though we do not have a

macro level picture of pol luted drinking water supply, the available micro level studies

indicate that the problem is widely prevalent in many of the industrialized regions in the

state.

Water Supply Under Regional Schemes: Since the RWSS approach is becoming increasingly

important in the water sector, it will be useful to examine the quality and quantity of supply

provided under the schemes in the state. Several studies have examined the working of the

regional schemes in the state. Usha Sharma’s study of randomly selected 29 RWSSs located

all over the state (Sharma 1996), Haskoning’s study of the Netherland supported RWSSs in

Banskantha, Mehsana, Amreli and Bhavnagar (Haskoning 1999), CEPT’s study of Lathi-Liliya

RWSS in Amreli (Sharma and Soni 2003), DANIDA’s study of two RWSSs located in

Banaksantha and Mehsana (DANIDA 1996), the study by Mahajan and Bharwada of the

RWSSs of Kachchh (1997) and the CAG Report (2001) are some of the important studies.

One major finding of all the studies is that the village level availability of water supply is not

satisfactory. The studies show that (1) tail end villages are usually deprived of water supply,



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(2) for the other villages also the water supply is frequently irregular and unreliable, (3) the

quantity of water supply is many times far from adequate (less than 10 lpcd some times),

(4) the quality of water is not potable either because of the problems with the source or

because of contamination caused by leakages and breakages. Some studies (Sharma 1996

and Mahajan and Bharwada 1996) have compared the performance of regional schemeswith individual village level schemes (IWSS) and shown that the performance of the latter is

better than the former in most cases.

The reasons for this poor performance are found not only at the village level, but also at the

project level, regional level and the state level. Some of the reasons are (1) the poor

operation and maintenance of regional schemes at all the levels arising from the top down

approach without appropriate supervision and monitoring, (2) breakages and leakages due

to less than satisfactory maintenance and monitoring of pipelines, under growth of plants in

pipelines, lack of enough pressure of water supply in pipelines, unauthorized connections

and siphoning off water supply and thefts, (3) inadequate sources of water supply resulting

in the supply not meeting the demand for water, (4) rampant theft of water supply by the

powerful, (5) lack of involvement of people in the management of the schemes at the local

level etc. The CAG Report (2001) has drawn attention to the corruption and

misappropriation of funds in the state under water related programmes in general and

regional schemes in particular.

Several studies have observed that not all the villages covered under the regional schemes

are No Source Villages. Many of them have local sources, which are defunct due to their

neglect, frequently because water is now available from the regional schemes. Some times

even villages located on river banks (rivers are dried up) depend on bulk transfer of water.

As mentioned by the careful study by Usha Sharma, the present RWSS approach positively

discourages local water sources to survive and grow (Sharma 1995)

It is also observed that the cost of RWSS is much higher than the cost of individual

schemes. Though this issue will be discussed at length later on, we quote here Usha

Sharma’s study where she compares the cost of RWSS and IWSS. The study shows that (1)

the per capita capital cost as well as per capita O & M cost of f RWSS is higher than the

same of IWSS, (2) as against this, the water availability (average) is higher in IWSS than in



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RWSS, (3) the quality of water supply is better in RWSS than in IWSS and (4) the regularity

and reliability of WS also is higher in IWSS than in RWSS.

Looking to the constraints of the planning and implementation of RWSS in the state, someimportant observations have been made by the studies:

q The larger the scheme (RWSS), the higher are the capital cost (per capita) and O &

M costs (per capita).

q The larger the scheme, the more vulnerable it is to problems and losses

q The larger the scheme, the more difficult it is to manage and facilitate participation

of people.

In short, the large number of studies on RWSS do indicate that there are several problems

with regard to this approach as well as its implementation. How to overcome these problems

is a major concern of the policy makers and implementers at present. We shall discuss this

later on.

Urban Areas:

Gujarat has about 150 urban centers, of which 7 are under municipal corporations and the

rest are under municipalities. There are 8 Class A towns, 32 Class B towns, 44 Class C and

58 Class D towns.

The available secondary data indicate that except for Vadodara which provides 182 lpcd and

Surat which provides 149 lpcd, none of the municipal corporations provides the stipulated

150 lpcd. Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar provide only about half of the norm of 150 lpcd.

A careful look at the small towns in Gujarat indicates that the municipalities are in a much

worse condition, providing 60 lpcd to 85 lpcd of water supply! Saurashtra towns provide an

average of 52 lpcd, while towns in South Gujarat provide 94 lpcd (Hirway and Lodhia 2004).



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Irregular Water Supply : The water supply in urban areas is highly irregular. Among the

municipal corporations, only Ahmedabad and Surat receive water for more than one hour

per day. Rajkot, on an average, receives water for 0.25 hours per day, Jamnagar for 0.50

hours, Junagadh for 0.30 hours and so on. In the case of smaller towns, most of them

receive water for 20-30 minutes a day (Patan, Morbi, Mansa, Chhaya etc.) to one hour daily(Palanpur, Disa, Lathi, Bagasara etc.) and to 3 hours daily (only a few towns like Paradi,

Vapi, Valsad, Dharampur – all in South Gujarat). About 8 towns (Chalala, Porbandar,

Vankaner, kapadvanj and others receive water on alternative days for half an hour or so; 3

towns (Kodinar, Limdi and Gandhidham) receive water once in four days for 40-50 minutes

and 5 towns (Surendranagar, Vadhvan, Jafarabad) receive it once in five days for 25

minutes to one hour! Keshod people receive water once in a week. (CMAG 2001). The

availability of water supply changes with seasons, the summer months being the worst

months for water supply.

Unequal Water Supply : An important aspect of urban water supply is its highly unequal

distribution across town classes and across wards, particularly between slum and non-slum

populations.

Table 1Water Supply in Municipal Towns, According to Size Class

Average per capita water supply (LPCD)Class Minimum Maximum Average NormsClass-A 16.22 171.63 74.46 180Class-B 8.37 161.88 84.62 140Class-C 9.52 182.46 73.54 120Class-D 0.13 250.85 57.57 100Source: Director Municipalities, Gandhinagar

Table 2Region-wise water supply

Average per capita water supply (LPCD)RegionMinimum Maximum Average

Saurashtra 0.13 119.22 52.01North Gujarat 10.82 154.88 75.31South Gujarat 14.26 250.85 93.99Source: Director Municipalities, Gandhinagar



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Table 3Classification of Municipalities According to Water Supply

Number of Municipalities according to water supply (lpcd)0-25 25-50 50-75 75-100 Above 100 Total

RegionSaurashtra 10 21 19 6 5 61North Gujarat 2 13 10 5 12 42South Gujarat 4 7 9 10 16 46ClassClass-A 2 2 1 2 2 9Class-B 1 5 9 6 11 32Class-C 6 7 14 5 12 44Class-D 7 27 13 6 5 58Source: Director Municipalities, Gandhinagar

The above three tables indicate that smaller towns tend to get smaller water supply, towns

in Saurashtra and North Gujarat in general get lower water supply and the minimum water

supply received by some urban populations is indeed very small!

The per capita availability of water supply is quite low for people living in slums. For

example, in Bhuj domestic water use was 14 lpcd in slums while it was 79 in middle class

housing societies and 108 in upper class societies; in Rajkot people in slums consumed 18

lpcd while in upper class societies people consumed 83 lpcd (and 300 lpcd of water when

they got water tankers); in Jamnagar the consumption was 7.5 lpcd in slums and 95 lpcd in

upper class societies and in Ahmedabad the consumption of water was 5lpcd in some slums

and 500 lpcd in Shahibag! In general many slums get 7 to 8 lpcd in the state. (IRMA 2001).

Quality of Urban Water Supply: As ground water is the major source of water supply inurban areas, its depletion and degradation in several regions has affected quality of urban

water adversely. Excess salinity is observed in coastal towns, excess fluoride is observed in

many towns and cities located in Saurashtra and North Gujarat, while excess nitrates and

pollutants are observed in some of the urban centres located in South Gujarat.

The other major causes of poor quality of water supply are inadequate sewage system,

inadequate sewerage treatment and industrial effluents mixing with water supply.

Indiscriminate discharges of factories into rivers, ponds, tanks etc. is observed in largenumber of industrial towns and cities. Frequently these discharges are made without even

proper primary treatment. In spite of the efforts of the GPCB and the court’s interventions, it

has not been possible to control this source of impurity of urban water supply.



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Less than satisfactory maintenance of water distribution pipelines is another source of

contamination of urban water supply. Most urban towns have old pipelines, which are many

times leaking or are broken, allowing outside impurities enter the water supply. In some

cases water pipelines get mixed up with drainage lines, causing severe epidemics of

jaundice, typhoid, cholera etc. It has been observed by the government of Gujarat (UrbanDevelopment Department) that the incidence of contamination and pollution of water supply

is on the rise, resulting in the increasing incidence of water borne diseases. The quality

problems of water supply are observed in all the regions of the state, right from Jamnagar,

Jetpur, Rajkot, Vadhwan etc. in Saurashtra to Patan, Disa, Mehsana etc. in North Gujarat to

Bharuch, Ankleswar, Vapi, Valsad etc. in South Gujarat.

Poor quality and inadequate quantity of water supply has resulted in a high incidence of

water borne diseases and skin diseases in urban Gujarat. The incidence of diseases like

Jaundice, Cholera, Typhoid, Gastro enteritis etc. is quite high in some urban centres (Hirway

and Mahadevia 2003). Also, lack of adequate water supply for bathing, cleaning and

washing ahs frequently resulted in skin diseases (IRMA 2000). The incidence of Fluorosis

also has been observed in some cities. It has been estimated by us (Hirway 2002) that the

welfare cost of non potable water supply in the state (i.e. the medical cost of sickness

including the cost of hospitalization and the cost of mortality caused by water borne

diseases) for rural and urban areas combined is of the tune of Rs 1205.65 crores per year

(1999-00)!

It needs to be added that Narmada canal water will not necessarily make much difference to

this situation, firstly because the distribution pipelines within cities are old and not

maintained properly and secondly because the O & M function in most urban centres is

observed to be very weak. In other words, unless the maintenance of pipelines improves,

and in some cases new pipelines are laid, the quality problem will not be controlled even

under the Narmada canal based project.

To sum up, the population of Gujarat, living in rural and urban areas, have problems with

respect to drinking water. Though the overall situation seems to be better in urban areas,

both the areas suffer from inadequate water supply in terms of quantity as well as quality.





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problem villages and promoting individual village schemes based on local resources,

whenever possible.

The RWSS approach (also known as Multiple Village Water Supply Scheme – MVWSS) was

also introduced at the all India level in the 1970s as local sources were observed to bedeclining in many villages. One major cause of this was stated as ground water depletion

that created shortage of water supply in many villages, and contamination of local water

supply in some regions due to mineralization of ground water (due to over drafting of

ground water) and pollution of water supply. The first major RWSS in India was set up in

Raniganj coal area in Asansol, which covered 215 villages and 48 collieries. The Central

government as well as many state governments have adopted this approach “to provide

adequate water supply to water deficit areas”.

Over the years, the state government in Gujarat has relied more and more on RWSSs and

shown less and less faith in developing local water resources for drinking water. This is

because (1) the local sources have been drying up due to increasing depletion and

degradation of ground water and the quantity and quality of water supply was deteriorating,

(2) the traditional systems were declining due to the reasons discussed earlier, (3) the

demand for water for drinking and domestic use has been increasing due to changing life

style of people and due to increasing population, (4) the increasing crisis situation required

quick solutions and the regional schemes were seen as a good solution, and (5) with the

increasing centralization in this sector and with the GWSSB taking up the responsibility of

providing drinking water to all, the authorities preferred centralized solutions with a top

down approach. The regional schemes have been liked by people also, as they did not have

to take up any responsibility in managing water supply.

With the increasing water crisis in the state, the government has been moving more and

more towards crisis management. The increased frequency and intensity of droughts, which

were accompanied by shortages of drinking water, pushed the state to look for quick

solutions to the problem. The major components of the crisis management are as follows:

q Fixing new pipelines for RWSSs to reach problem areas

q Lifting Narmada water to feed new and old drying pipelines



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q Feeding new and old pipelines (where sources have dried up) by drilling emergency

bores and tube wells, whenever possibleq Transferring water to problem areas by water tankers, water trains and even ships!

q Drilling bores, tube wells etc. to access water from deeper aquifers for local

population, whenever possible.

The number of regional schemes was very small till about 1980 (there were 9 schemes in

1970 and 43 in 1980) and each of the schemes covered 3 to 7 villages each. The number of

schemes jumped to 209 in 1990 and to 444 in 2000, and the number is still increasing. At

present (21/07/2003) there are 119 new regional schemes under implementation. Of which

21 are partly completed, 57 are in progress and 41 have been just initiated 4.

That is, about 5500 to 6000 villages (out of the total 18000 and odd) are covered or being

covered under the regional schemes (February 2003). In addition, the government has now

initiated a RS. 7200 crores project for supplying water to 8215 villages and 135 towns by

laying 2700 km pipelines under the Narmada project. This implies that more than 55-60

percent of the villages and more than 90 % urban centres in the state will be soon covered

by RWSSs ! These accelerated increase in the coverage of RWWSs reflects the acceleration

in the water crisis in the state. The number of “white” talukas (i.e. talukas where the

drafting of ground water is at a safe level) has fast declined in the state from 168 (88

percent) in 1980-82 to 54 (21 percent) in 1997-98. In addition, quite a few talukas are

suffering from polluted and degraded water supply.

The expenditure incurred on these schemes in 1990s under various projects and

programmes 5 has been presented in the adjoining table. This table, which presents

expenditures at 1999-00 prices, shows that the state government has spent a huge amount

of Rs. 2822.14 crores as capital costs and Rs. 110.33 crores as O & M costs on RWSS during

1990-91 and 1999-00. That is, the state has spent in all Rs. 2932.47 crores on RWWSs

during the last decade! This figure will rise further when the Narmada based projects are

completed.

4 According to the latest data available from GWSSB on the on going regional schemes, there are 92 ongoingschemes in Central and South Gujarat, 107 schemes in North Gujarat, 245 schemes in Saurashtra and Kachchh.5Such as, the Minimum Needs Programme, Externally Aided Projects, Accelerated Water Supply Schemes,Emergency Water Supply Schemes etc.



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Table 4Incremental cost of depletion and degradation of water supply for drinking and domestic use during 1990-91 to1999-2000 at 1999-2000 prices

(in Rs crores)RWSS Tankers Quality Improvement

RO/Desalinization Defluoridation

Year Capital O & M WaterTankers CapitalCost O & M Cost CapitalCost O & MCost Grand Total

At 1999-2000 prices At 1999-2000

prices

At 1999-2000

prices

At 1999-2000prices

At 1999-2000

prices

At 1999-2000

prices

At1999-2000prices

1990-91 295.62 11.39 5.08 0 0 0 0 312.091991-92 201.18 13.72 22.60 0 0 0 0 237.501992-93 219.83 12.57 2.93 0 0 0 0 235.331993-94 157.50 12.04 13.07 0 0 0 0 182.611994-95 155.67 12.31 0.00 0.53 0 4.70 0.47 173.681995-96 158.05 11.22 1.01 0.41 0 1.91 0.19 172.791996-97 281.2.9 11.17 0.20 0.93 0.61 4.58 0.46 299.241997-98 288.20 8.70 0.13 0.88 0.57 19.34 1.93 319.751998-99 347.63 9.12 7.23 0.83 0.55 32.33 3.23 400.921999-00 717.13 8.09 7.41 0 0 793.5 7.93 819.91

Total 2822.1 110.33 59.66 3.58 1.73 142.2.1 14.21 3153.82Source: GWSSB Reports, Master Plans of GWSSB for different years

Table 5Private Expenditure on Buying Potable Water (1999-2000)

(in Rs crores)Type For 1999-2000

Private Tankers 30.2One litre Bottled Water 64.5Branded Pouches & 10-20 litre packing 24.0Unbranded Water 161.0Equipments for purifying water 214.0Total 493.7Source: Indira Hirway (2002), Quick Valuation of Depletion and Degradation of Environmental Resources in Gujarat, Centre ForDevelopment Alternatives, Ahmedabad

Table 5 shows that in the year 1999-00 private expenditure on accessing drinking water was

about Rs 493.7 crores. Of this Rs. 214.0 crores were spent on purchasing water purifying

equipments (like Aquauard, Zero B, Softel, Ion Exchange, Power H 2O etc.), Rs. 161 crores

on buying unbranded purified water in small and big packages, Rs. 88 crores on branded

water bottles and packages and Rs. 30 crores on private tankers (Hirway 2002). If we add

the public sector incremental expenditure of Rs. 819.91 crores in that year, the total

incremental cost of water supply for 1999-00 comes to more than Rs. 1300 crores!

There is no doubt that the unit cost of water supply has increased in the state over the past

decades, as the dependence on bulk transfer of water from surplus to deficit regions by the

regional schemes, and also tankers, trains, ships etc. has increased over the years. Under

the Sardar Sarovar based project, the cost ranges from Rs. 9.00 to Rs. 15.00 per 1000 liters,

while under the private sector the cost per liter goes up to Rs. 1.50 per liter to Rs. 10.00 per



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liter! As we shall soon see, these costs are much higher than the costs under the local rain

water harvesting structures. It seems that the state has moved to costly options of water

supply!

Narmada Based Project or Sardar Sarovar Based Drinking Water Master Plan: Looking to the severe depletion and degradation water resources in the state, it was decided

in the year 1990-91 (9 th Plan) to use water from Narmada (i.e. Sardar Sarovar) to provide

dependable water supply to the regions of Kachchh, Saurashtra and North Gujarat. A project

called Sardar Sarovar Canal Based Drinking Water Supply Project was therefore designed to

provide water supply to 8,215 villages and 135 towns of Saurashtra, North Gujarat and

Panchamahal districts of the state. The main objectives of the project are as follows:

q To supply adequate and safe drinking water to the areas suffering from severe

shortage of water supply.

q To feed the regional water supply schemes, which are not providing adequate water

supply due to failure of their respective sources.

q To provide water supply to those regional schemes and individual (village) schemes

which provide poor quality of water supply due to various reasons.

q To supply potable water to those towns and villages which have excess salinity,

excess fluoride or excess nitrates in their water supply.q To recharge ground water in depleted areas and to ensure drinking water to problem

areas even during drought years.q To reduce out migration of people by ensuring drinking water and by promoting

employment in the areas suffering from water shortages.

The Master Plan covers all the seven districts (old districts) of Saurashtra, Kachchh, and five

districts of Mainland Gujarat, i.e. Ahmedabad, Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Banaskantha and

Panchmahals.

The implementation of the project has been spread over three phases: Immediate Phase,

which includes the most problematic districts of Amreli, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Surendranagar

and Kachchh. Phase I covers the areas where the water supply is not so frequent and also

ground water is partially available. These areas include Panchamahal, Sabarkantha,



18

Banaskantha and Surendranagar, and Phase – II covers all the remaining areas that fall

under the project.

The state government plans to complete that entire project during the Tenth Plan. In

addition to the budget allocation of Rs. 2,300 crores under the plan, the state governmentplans to borrow Rs. 200 crores from financial institutions and Rs. 60 crores will come from

the government’s equity in Gujarat Infrastructure Limited, bringing the total outlay in the

Tenth Plan to Rs. 2,560 crores. For the remaining amount, the state government proposes

to get financial assistance under externally aided programmes. In short, this project is one

of the biggest drinking water projects in India, with its coverage of 8,215 village and 135

towns and total cost of more than 7,400 crores! It covers more than 45 percent villages and

more than 90 percent of urban centres in the state. It is also one of the most costly

projects, with the estimated cost of Rs. 9.00 to Rs. 15.00 per 1,000 liters!

Role of local Rain Water Harvesting Stru ctur es in Drinkin g Wat er

In 1986 the Central government adopted a Mission approach and decided cover No Source

Villages by dependable sources by the end of the Seventh Plan. Five Sub Missions relating to

the quality of water supply and 55 Mini Missions in the form of pilot projects were taken up

in the country. These Sub-Mission included control of Fluorosis, removal of excess iron and

excess salinity from drinking water, eradication of Guinea worm and conservation &

recharging of water. A review during the Plan, however, revealed that results were not very

satisfactory, primarily because (1) many states experienced rapid depletion and degradation

ground water, (2) temporary sources for problem villages went dry within a short period

leaving villages as problem villages, (3) maintenance of existing works was neglected and

because (4) communities were not involved in most of these programmes.

During this period, several NGOs in the different states in the country had demonstrated

successes by involving communities in developing and managing local water resources,

mainly through rain water harvesting. The Government of India therefore decided in the 9 th

Plan to focus on people’s participation and local water resources. Sector Reforms were

introduced in 1999 on a pilot basis by the Government of India and three districts of the

state, namely, Surat, Rajkot and Mehsana were selected for this programme. Sector



19

Reforms, which aimed at ensuring sustainability of water supply, had three major objectives:

(1) to ensure enabling politically legally and institutionally supportive environment for Sector

Reforms, (2) to ensure institutional sustainability of Sector Reforms through community

participation and (3) to ensure financial viability and financial sustainability of Sector

Reforms through proper cost recovery. The Government of India thus for the first timepromoted demand based participatory approach instead of supply based top down

approach.

Based on the experiences of Sector Reforms in selected districts, Swajaldhara was

launched in the entire country in 2002. Like Sector Reforms, Swajaldhara is a paradigm shift

focusing on community participation in the planning, implementing, operation and

maintenance of schemes of its choice (GOI 2003). It is a decentralized approach and a

bottom up approach empowering local communities for water management. Under

Swajaldhara it is believed that water is a scarce resource and a socio economic good, which

needs to be provided to all at a price and not as a free good. Experiences have shown that

as a free good it is misused and highly unequally distributed. Also, people pay for water if

they own it, they plan and manage it, they collect funds for it and when they know that the

government will not maintain it. Swajaldhara thus focuses on locally managed water

resources and preferably locally augmented water resources.

Following the Central Government, the state government also has taken steps to promote

local water systems. In the mid 1990s the state government set up a state level Recharge

Committee to promote rainwater harvesting. In the Action Plan for the year 1996-97, the

government decided to promote two rainwater harvesting schemes, namely, Roof Water

Collection Tankas for households and the scheme of recharging ground water through local

rainwater harvesting structures at the community level. Rs. 100 lakhs and Rs. 200 lakhs

were allotted to these two programmes respectively. So far more than 11,000 tankas and

500 ground water recharge structures have been constructed in the state (GWSSB 2003)

In 1998-99 the state government launched Sardar Patel Participatory Sahbhagi Jal Sanchay

Yojana (SPPWCP) to promote the ongoing check dam movement in the state, and

particularly in Saurashtra, which is a highly suitable area for check dams, with the rapidly

flowing 70 rivers in the region. Under this scheme people/NGOs are expected to contribute

40 percent of the costs against which 60 percent of the costs is given by the Government for



20

constructing check dams. This programme has received very good support from people. It

has been estimated that about 20,000 – 25,000 check dams have been constructed under

this programme till 2002-2003. An Independent Evaluation of the Scheme (Shingi and Asopa

2002) has examined, among other things, the impact of check dams on the availability of

drinking and domestic water supply in the supply in the surrounding regions of check dams.This evaluation study has observed, “an overflowing majority of respondents indicated that

check dams were able to reduce the severity of drinking water problem in their village.”

However, the study shows that this effect of check dams does not last for more than one or

at the most two drought years. One drought may change this situation dramatically. Check

dams can help in providing drinking water on a sustainable basis only if (1) they are

constructed near to the settlements (the impact of a check dam is restricted to a small

area), and (2) a large number of check dams are constructed so that water is recharged on

a significant area scale. The impact of these check dams will be translated into sustainable

supply of water only after 3-4 years.

Watershed Development Programme promoted in the 1990s is also expected to help in

improving the local availability of drinking water. In fact, drinking water gets the first claim

on the water collected under the programme. However, direct water harvesting structures

have an advantage over WSD for drinking water as (a) WSD is a long-term process, which

takes about five years to complete and (b) it is more expensive than construction of local

water harvesting structure. Though the advantages of WSD cannot be denied, as far as

drinking water is concerned, local water harvesting structures are better solutions. It needs

to be noted that there is no conflict between local structures and WSD. In fact, both

supplement and complement each other in the long run.

Sector Reforms were introduced in the state in 1999 in three districts, Surat, Rajkot and

Mehsana. Though isolated activities under the programme continued for some time, the

serious implementation started in 2001 when District Water Missions were formed under

Guardian Ministers. An IEC Implementation Process Manual was prepared and intensive

work was carried out for communication development, which included posters, poems,

slogans, short films and other material. NGOs were closely involved with the programme.

They conducted PRAs, formed groups, imparted training, helped in preparation of village

level plans and contributed at all the levels (Jadeja 2003). This experience helped

considerably when Swajaldhara was introduced in 2001.



21

Formation of Pani Samitis: The state government, through its circular in 2002 (24 th

December), has made formation of Pani Samitis mandatory for all village Panchayats in the

state. According to this circular each village Panchayat has to form a Samiti by passing a

resolution in the Panchayat. Each Pani Samiti will have 10 – 12 members, of whom one thirdwill be women, 5 from the village Panchayat, 2-3 from locally registered NGOs (like local

cooperatives, Mahila Mandal, Farmers’ society etc) and 1-2 from SC/ST population. There

will be invited members like GWSSB representatives, local Health Worker and Talati cum

Mantri without the voting rights. The Pani Samiti will select its own Chairman through

election and the Talati/Mantri will be the member secretary. The major functions of the

Samiti are (1) to take care of water and sanitation management in the village, (2) identify

local water sources and prepare a scheme for its development for implementation, (3)

manage the water sources of the village, (4) carry out O and M of the regional scheme if

local sources are not available, (5) take care of sanitation and cleanliness of the village, (6)

assure equal distribution of water in the village and (7) fix and collect water charges from

people. The work of setting up Pani Samitis has been launched in the State.

Ghogha Water Supply and Sanitation Programme or Ghogha project on Community Managed

Regional Water Supply and Sanitation is an important landmark for promotion of community

management water supply and sanitation in the state. Though the project was originally

designed as a typical Regional Water Supply Scheme for 82 villages of Ghogha Taluka of

Bhavnagar district, it was realized that (1) it was necessary to involve local communities in

water supply management and (2) it was also necessary to explore augmenting local water

resources through rain water harvesting structures. The following objectives were therefore

decided for the project:

q To provide reliable, sustainable and cost effect water supply and sanitation facilities

in 82 villages of Ghogha, Talaja and Bhavnagar talukas of Bhavnagar district, and

q To develop and apply concepts and methodologies that support community owned

and managed water supply systems.

The major components of the project are provision of water supply; health, hygiene and

sanitation; and water resources management. The strategy is to set up community

organization and promote decentralized community and community managed water supply





23

Community Managed Water and Sanitation in Earthquake Affected Areas: The devastating

earthquake that struck Gujarat on January 26, 2001 resulted in a huge loss of life and

property mainly Kachchh district and to an extent in the districts of Jamnagar, Rajkot,

Surendranagar, Patan etc. The earthquake damaged both rural and urban water supply

systems including regional pipelines, storage structures, traditional structures in the affectedareas. There emerged an immediate need to restore water supply systems and the need for

a massive reconstruction and rehabilitation programme in this sector.

Swajaldhara: WASMO is the coordinating agency for the implementation of Swajaldhara

programme in Gujarat. As seen above, Swajaldhara was launched in the entire country in

2002.

According to the latest data available from WASMO (January 2004), so far 466 villages have

formed Pani Samitis, 455 villages have formed schemes and 414 village Pani Samitisand

Gram Sabhas have approved the schemes.

To sum up, the state government has adopted a two pronged strategy to reach water

supply to villages in the state: (1) transfer of water to problem villages / regions through

regional schemes or in some cases through tankers or water trains, water ships etc and (2)

promotion of local water sources by digging a well or drilling a bore well / tube well etc or

by encouraging local water harvesting structures. As seen in the first section, both the

approaches have problems, as both have their weak points.

Urban Areas

The state policy regarding urban water supply can be broadly divided in to two parts: (1)

water supply and (2) water services.

Wat er Resources :

There are three major sources of water supply for urban centres in the state: local surface

water, local ground water and bulk supply of water from distant sources which could be

ground or surface water. Saurashtra towns, particularly, small towns depend mainly on

ground water, while large towns use irrigation dam water also. In north Gujarat and South







26

GITCO & GMFB 1999, The World Bank 1999, Pitman 2002 etc.). The major problems are

identified as follows :

Op er a t io n a n d M a n a g em e n t ( O & M ) : Lacunas in O & M of water services have been

identified as one of the major problems of urban water services in India and in Gujarat. Ithas been observed that O & M systems in our urban centres have not been designed well.

Instead of organizing O & M on a sound strategy, ad hoc steps are taken for operating

water services. This is far from adequate for efficient management of water systems.Lack of

adequate funds for O & M also is responsible for shortages in staff, tools, spares etc. for

proper O & M. Shortage of power, electricity is another problem in the way of operating

water systems efficiently. Also, shortage of technical manpower, problem of urban

governance, inefficiencies and lack of proper supervision and monitoring etc. result in

inefficiencies of different kinds.

Leakages and Breakages: Leakages and breakages is another problem resulting also

from poor O & M systems. Poor pipeline material, lack of proper repair and maintenance of

distribution systems, unauthorized connections, theft of water etc. are the major causes of

leakages. These leakages result in UFW (unaccounted for water i.e. loss of water before it

reaches consumers) as well as in contamination of water supply.

In Indian cities, the leakages are estimated to be in the range of 30 percent to 50 percent

by the India Infrastructure Report (GOI 1996). In the case of Gujarat also the range has

been observed to be up to 50 percent (CMAG 2003). These leakages are in the range of 3

percent in Germany and 8 percent in Singapore.

Monito r ing Dist r ibu t ion Netw orks: This is an important task for ensuring efficient water

services. At present distribution of water to the different areas of the city/town is managed

by restricting the timing of water supply to 2 hours, one hour or sometime less than that,

once or twice a day. However, this method reduces water pressure and distributes it

unevenly, which damages the pipes resulting in leakages and breakages on the one hand

and reduces the quantity and quality of water supply on the other hand. There is an urgent

need to operate and monitor distribution networks efficiently.



27

In short, there are high systemic water losses in our urban centres, emanating from thefts,

mal-functioning of controls, illegal connections, meter errors and tampering with water

services. These losses, if controlled, can save significant amount of water supply. Good

maintenance of pipelines including cleaning them periodically and repairing in time is an

important solution to this problem. Another solution is metering water use for determiningwater charges. In fact, it is difficult to manage water use well without proper metering and

fixing charges according to the water use.

Water charges and Economic Viability: Providing water supply to town/city dwellers

costs money. These costs vary from city to city depending on the source of water supply, O

& M systems, water supply etc. In order to maintain the water services, it is necessary to

charge people not only to take care of O & M costs, but also to meet the capital costs in the

long run. This will improve the level of services, which will satisfy urban population. The

present method of charging flat rates does not seem to be adequate firstly because the

rates are low and secondly because the rates do not take adequate care of the quantity of

water consumed. Efficient metering seems to be the main solution to this problem. At

present the charges vary from town to town, from Rs. 50-60 per year per household to Rs.

300-400 per year per household. We have seen that even with full recovery, these charges

are not able to meet even the O & M costs of water supply. In reality, however, the recovery

is very low, ranging from 10 percent to about 50 percent, which just cannot meet even the

O & M costs. In fact, pending electricity bills and pending payments for water supply is a

major problem with many municipalities. In some cases these dues run in to crores of

rupees! In short, the water sector has become unviable sector and municipalities are

finding it more and more difficult to manage the sector.

I ssues in Urban Governance: Weak urban governance is one of the major factors

responsible for the poor performance of water services. The staff with municipalities is

frequently too small, not adequately skilled, poorly motivated, less than effici ent, not made

adequately accountable, corrupt and frequently rigid and procedure bound. There are also

problems with respect to supervision and monitoring of the staff. Consequently, in most

cases they are not able to deliver the goods in terms of efficient water services. Also, there

is no political will to charge people for making the water sector financially viable. Studies

have shown that there is a willingness to pay on the part of people for efficient water

services if water supply is available in adequate quantity and quality, but there is neither



28

willingness to provide efficient services nor willingness to charge viable water rates (CMAG

2003).

Lack o f Comm uni ty Par t ic ipa t ion : There is hardly any community participation in the

water sector in urban centres in Gujarat. People are neither involved in organizing watersupply nor in managing water supply and services. Water supply is provided in a top down

fashion to people. Also, there is not much awareness about the need for undertaking

community action to resolve the problem in this sector. Except for a very few isolated cases,

common people are totally indifferent to the problems. Most urban people take their right to

water supply as granted and believe that the state government should organize this at low

rates.

Governm ent Policy and Program m es for Urban W ater Supply :

As in the case of rural areas there are several programmes designed to promote water

supply facilities in urban areas. The major programmes that help urban local bodies to

improve their water supply and water services are discussed below:

Accelerated Urban Water Supply Programme (AUWSP ) : This is a centrally sponsored

programme, launched in 1993-94, aiming at extending support to state government and

local bodies (urban) for providing water supply facilities in the towns having population less

than 20,000 (1991 census). The main objectives of the programme are (1) to provide safe

and adequate water supply facilities to the entire population of the towns with population

less than 20,000, in a fixed time frame, (2) to improve the environment and quality of life

and (3) to promote better socio-economic conditions and higher productivity of people

thereby. The Government of India has selected 25 projects in Gujarat at the cost of Rs.

30.99 crores. Out of these 8 are completed (Dharampur, Bantwa, Okha, Mendarda, Jodia,

Barvala, Visavadan and Dhrol) and 17 are on going. Seventeen more schemes will be

undertaken in the Tenth Plan.

Bajpayi Nagar Vikas Yojana: (BNVY): This is a state government scheme launched in 1999

with a view to promoting urban infrastructure and services and to improving quality of life of

the urban poor. The two main reasons for launching the scheme are (1) poor status of

urban services and quality of life, particularly of the poor and (2) weak financial conditions

of urban bodies to take up works to improve this situation. Each municipality is entitled to Rs



29

1.65 crores to Rs 2.20 crores in two phases for implementing well designed projects. Of

these amounts 50 % (40 % in the case class A cities) is given as grants and 50 % (60 % in

class A) as loans. A city/town level committee is to be set up to design and approve

schemes, while a district level committee is to be set up to give the final approval. District

level committees are headed by ministers, followed by collectors as deputy chairman. Localbodies are provided technical assistance, for preparing projects by the state government.

Urban Development Fund and Urban Infrastructure Development Programme : Urban

Development Fund has been created by the state government to provide cheap loans to

urban bodies to undertake urban development works. Water supply, storm water

management, sewerage management are included in the list of the urban development

works under the Fund.

Grants from Entertainment Tax and Programme for Development and Welfare of Urban

Poor: Among other things, water supply and sanitation for the poor are also included under

these two programmes. The state government passes on 50 percent of the revenue from

the entertainment tax to GMFB for enabling them to finance public services in urban areas.

Both water supply and sanitation are included in these services. Municipalities are expected

to prepare proposals and submit those to GMFB, which scrutinizes and then sanctions the

required funds mainly as grants. So far (between 1997-98 and 2000-2001) about Rs. 100

crores have been spent under this programme. GMFB puts aside 20 percent of the funds

received from the state government (from the revenue from the entertainment tax)

separately as a Fund for development and welfare of the urban poor. The works which could

be undertaken under this Fund also include water supply and sanitation for the urban poor.

So far (between 1997/98 and 2000/01) Rs. 7.83 crores have been sanctioned under this

programme.

Rain Water Harvesting Systems: Looking to the importance of rain water harvesting for

augmenting urban water supply, the state government decided to introduce rainwater

harvesting programme in urban centres of Saurashtra and Kachchh in 2000. As a first step,

it was decided to introduce this scheme in Unjha (North Gujarat) and Limdi (Saurashtra) on

a pilot basis. KRG Rain Water Harvesting Company of Chennai was asked to prepare a

feasibility report for these two towns. About 25 more municipalities, 18 from Saurashtra and

7 from North Gujarat, have come forward to adopt rainwater harvesting. These feasibility



30

reports are being prepared at present. Six more tribal area municipalities have been included

in this programme recently.

The Best Practices Catalogue 2002 by CMAG has noted two such cases, in Ahmedabad and

in Navsari. In the case of Ahmedabad the AMC has undertaken a water harvesting initiativeby revitalization of percolation tanks to improve ground water levels. In all, 11 low-lying

areas of the city have been identified and 35 discarded percolation wells are to be

revitalized. In addition, 26 municipal parks have been identified for percolation of ground

water, with people’s support. Though the efforts are worth mentioning, the level of

operation is very low.

In the case of the coastal town of Navsari, which suffered from salinity in ground water due

to its overdrafting resulting in sea water intrusion, the municipality decided to revitalize its

major surface water body, namely, Dudhia Talav located in the centre of the city. The total

cost of this project has been Rs. 6 crores of which Rs. 1.58 crores has come as grants from

the GWSSB. With the filtration plant, it is now possible to give potable water to people. I t

has been estimated that the water supply collected in the talav will be enough to meet the

demand for water of the projected population in 2020. The cost recovery will be done, for O

& M costs and capital costs, through water charges. This case is indeed a good example of

seeking sustainable local solution for urban water supply.

In short, the policy and programmes with respect to urban areas need considerable

reorientation to make the sector sustainable and viable.

Rainwater Harvesting Efforts by NGOs

It is frequently claimed that rainwater-harvesting structures at the village level can collect

enough water to take care of the local demand for water. How valid is this claim? How far

can these water harvesting structures help in resolving the problem of water supply in rural

areas of Gujarat?

It is important to note that reviving traditional systems of water supply implies revival of not

only water sources, but revival of many other things. Also, many changes have taken place

in our society, and these have implications for the revival of traditional sources.



31

q The demand for water per capita has increased today due to the changed lifestyle.

The norms of per capita per day consumption of water are of 70 – 100 lpcd for rural

areas, while the consumption was much less (up to 40 lpcd) in the past. With the

population growth, the total quantity of water demand has increased multifold.Traditional sources will have to increase their capacity to meet this demand.

q Collecting water in traditional tanks, wells etc. has become difficult as the catchment

area is frequently not available. Roads, buildings and other infrastructure etc. have

blocked the catchment areas. One has to clear these obstacles to catchment areas.

q Also, ground water tables are frequently empty, degraded or have water with

excessive minerals or pollutants. Care will have to be taken while collecting rain

water in safe aquifers.

q The demand for water for irrigation has increased considerably after the Green

Revolution. Protecting water supply for people from irrigation (and other alternative

uses) is a major task today. Farmers are always keen to use up collected water for

irrigating their farms to reap the benefits of new technologies in agriculture.

q New technologies, which are more effective and more cost efficient, are available

today for storing rain water. It will be necessary to adopt these technologies to suit

to local situations.

q Reviving traditional methods implies revival of community based institutions; which

can manage these sources efficiently. To make them economically viable, it will be

necessary to charge for water and collect these charges. Revival and strengthening

of community based institutions is important for revival of rain water harvesting

structures.

Keeping the above points in mind, we need to discuss the feasibility of reviving local

rainwater harvesting structures in the different regions in Gujarat. Documentation of several

successful cases in India has shown that it is possible to revive these systems with

modifications that adapt to the new situation (Agarwal and Narain 1997; Athavale,

Rangarajan and Muralidharan 1988; Hazare 1997, Athavale 2003 and Narain 2003). It has

been estimated by Anil Agarwal that any village in India with an average rainfall of 300-350

mm can collect enough water locally to meet the needs of local people (Agarwal 2000).

Several NGOs in Gujarat also have experimented with rainwater harvesting methods to

collect water to meet the local demand.





33

Secondly, there is a need to see that the harvested water supply is first used for drinking

and domestic use. It is frequently observed that water from watershed, check dam or a tank

is siphoned off by farmers for cultivation depriving local people of potable drinking water.

Controlling the use of water, however, is one of the challenges before the authorities as well

as the NGOs. A mere legislation will not be adequate (though it will be useful), as it willrequire people’s commitment to it. Strong community organization can contribute

significantly to this.

Community participation is an essential component of this approach. In fact, it has worked

very well in the cases of check dams, watershed development, drought proofing and other

NGO experiences. Strengthening of communities and village Panchayats has to be an

important part of this approach. Involvement of NGOs to form community organizations is

essential here.

Fourthly, there is no one method of harvesting rainwater. As discussed above, different

regions require different methods that are suitable to the specific conditions of the regions.

Also, traditional methods need considerable modifications and adaptation to suit to the new

situations. Experiments made by experts and NGOs in Gujarat and outside Gujarat provide a

variety of techniques to choose from. Again, there is a need to use multiple techniques of

water harvesting, as any one method may not be enough to meet the needs. For example

roof water collection tankas need to be supplemented by check dams or by other community

level water recharging techniques. This is because good combinations of methods

supplement and complement each other for the purpose of ensuring water supply in a

sustainable manner. It needs to be reiterated that watershed development, though an

important method of natural resource management, need not be relied on for harvesting

drinking water. Other short-term methods should get precedence over it.

In short, the approach of promoting local water harvesting structures for accessing drinking

water is a paradigm shift for the state. Instead of relying on centralized, top down supply

based approach of laying pipelines, it depends on decentralized, community managed local

systems. The conditions for success of local water harvesting structures to meet the demand

for water, however, need to be fulfilled. Local structures will require scale as well as time to

give sustainable results.



34

3.

Strategy For Sustainable

Water Supply

Sustainable water supply has these major dimensions: (1) Sustainability in terms of water

resources, (2) Sustainability in terms of economic viability and (3) Sustainability of services

or of the institutions that manage water supply. The following paragraphs discuss this

strategy for rural and urban areas.

Rural Areas

We have seen above that depletion and degradation of ground water and surface water

sources (tanks/ponds) has resulted in water shortages in many villages, particularly in the

summer months and in drought years, which are not infrequent in the state. In many of

these regions water drafting from deeper aquifers (due to water mining) have made ground

water non-potable, (particularly in North Gujarat, Coastal region, and the non-coastal

regions of Saurashtra and Kachchh). Pollution of local water sources, both ground and

surface water, arising from indiscriminate disposal of pollutants by factories, human

settlements and by farmers has contaminated local water sources in several regions.

The state government has adopted a two pronged strategy to face these problems: Firstly,

transferring water to problem regions/villages through long distance pipelines and some

times through water tankers, and secondly, promoting local sources at the village level. The

former strategy has grown considerably in the past 2-3 decades: the number of the villages

per regional scheme has increased and the distances to the source of water supply have

also increased; gradually irrigation dams are increasingly used to feed water in these

schemes; with the local dams failing to provide the required water supply, Narmada water is

feeding a large number of regional schemes, and with the increasing distance to the source

of water the capital costs as well as the O & M costs per unit of water supply have increased

on a continuous basis. In spite of these efforts, however, water flow is frequently found to

be irregular, inadequate and poor in terms of quality.



35

How sustainable is water supply that is fed to the regional schemes? The past experience

shows that the earlier sources have not been sustainable, with the result that the size of the

regional schemes has continuously increased. The latest source (source of the last resort?)

is Narmada water. The use of dam water for drinking / domestic purposes on an increasingscale is likely to create (or it is already creating) shortage of irrigation water in agriculture.

Also the cost factor will also make (or has already made) the strategy non-viable

economically.

At the same time, however, the problems with respect to augmenting local water sources

also are not few. First of all, local water harvesting structures work only when the rainfall is

good. These structures work for a long period only when the number of structures (the

scale) is high and harvesting is done for 3 – 5 years, depending on the local situation. It is

also important to see that the stored water is not used up by local farmers for agriculture.

In short, both the approaches have problems! What should be the right choice? The state

government seems to have faith in the regional schemes approach, as water supply is

believed to be under the control of the government for reaching it to the problem regions

and villages. It is not that the state government does not want to develop local sources. In

fact, WASMO, a unique organization, has been set up for promoting local sources and local

community based management of water supply. The major dependence, however, is on the

transfer of water through regional schemes because “they ensure water supply to problem

regions.” It is believed that when local water sources are depleted / degraded and when

droughts are frequent, one cannot depend on local sources for ensuring water supply to all.

This faith is reflected in the high and increasing expenditure and coverage of the schemes.

The expert group set up by WASMO to look into the problem of drinking water has also

recommended strengthening of the regional schemes in Gujarat to provide a minimum 50

lpcd (+ 30 lpcd per cattle head) to all in our rural areas. Since the ground water source is

not sustainable for regional schemes, the group has recommended that all regional schemes

should depend on surface water – dam, tanks, ponds, reservoirs etc. to provide this

minimum water supply. The group has suggested that the additional water, if needed can be

accessed by local communities through augmenting local resources.



36

We do not agree with this approach. We believe that the strategy should be based on the

following principles:

• Minimize the use of bulk transfer of water supply to distant places because (1) it is a

costly option (its cost per unit of water is more than the cost of most local rain waterharvesting methods. It also costs more than desalination of water), (2) it has certain

built-in disadvantages with respect to maintaining pressure, arranging smooth flow of

water and ensuing equal distribution of water supply to all the villages, (3) the

experience shows that it is not easy to prevent breakages, leakages & theft as well as

contamination of water(It is a Herculean task to maintain long pipelines and police it),

(4) there is no local control on the flow of water, as it does not allow for local control

and management of water supply beyond a point (If there is a breakage or a technical

problem in the pipeline before the water comes to the village, local population does not

have any control over it) and (5) it creates unnecessary pressure on irrigation water.

Since more and more dams are now used for providing domestic water supply to villages

and large urban centers, there is a reduction in the water supply for irrigation).

• Encourage local rain water harvesting structure for collecting water for drinking and

domestic use at the local level. This is because (1) it is cheaper option of augmenting

water supply (it has been estimated that the cost per unit of water supply under this

approach is much less than the same under the regional schemes), (2) most of the local

rainwater harvesting methods (except for rain water harvesting tankas) have highly

favourable impact on the local ecology, as they recharge the local aquifers and promote

ecological regeneration in the village, (3) under this approach, the local organization has

a control over the source of water supply. It is easy therefore to organize lo cal

management under a Pani Samiti and (4) since the demand for water for drinking and

domestic use is not very high (70 lpcd – 100 lpcd), local water harvesting is feasible for

a village up to 10,000 population when the average rainfall is upto 400 mm.

• Thirdly, the option of desalination through the RO technique seems to be a sound option

in the regions where water supply is brackish, where it has excessive fluoride or it has

other pollutants or bacteria. The cost of this approach through the RO technology has

been estimated to be 2 to 3 p. per liter. With a dual water policy, it will be economical to

use this method in many coastal villages or the villages in North Gujarat and Kachchh







39

• Quality of Water Supply : We have seen above that quality of water supply in regional

pipelines is frequently less than satisfactory due to leakages and breakages as well

as lack of adequate treatment of water supply. Also, water supply is not tested at the

village and household level (in a random manner) regularly, and even when tested,

results are not available to local people. There is therefore a need to introduceregular testing of pipeline water supply and to put up the results on public places like

panchayat offices. Lack of monitoring of quality of water supply is a major weakness

of regional water supply schemes (as well as other schemes), which need to be

corrected.

• Jal Sunavai Or Public Hearing on Water : Considering the fact that there are many

complaints about the working of regional pipeline schemes (as several studies have

pointed out), it will not be out of place to suggest organizing “Jal Sunavai” or “Public

Hearing” on water under regional schemes. This will create awareness among people

on the one hand and make administration stand on it toes on the other hand. In

addition, the state government can also consider setting up district/taluka level

grievance cells for hearing and discharging complaints.

In short, the state government will have to work very hard, at different levels, to ensure that

regional water supply schemes are able to provide water to people. Since many of the the

above steps are expensive and administratively difficult, there will be a tendency on the part

of the government to shift to other strategies.

Transition To Local Water Systems: In order to promote local rainwater harvesting and

augment local water resources, efforts will have to be made create space and give

encouragement and priority to the alternative approach of local water harvesting for

meeting local demand. One way of achieving this will be through economic tools. Firstly, it

will be useful to charge villages for the water provided by regional schemes at the rate that

meets O & M costs in the short run and the capital costs in the long run. The state will have

to use its political and administrative will to charge and recover the rates. The high charges

will encourage local bodies and people to go for cheaper options based on local resources.

Secondly, economic incentives could be given to the villages, which opt for local water

harvesting schemes. The local bodies, which opt for local resources could be given capital

subsidies and easy access to loans along with technical and professional guidance and help.



40

At present, there is a clear discouragement to develop local resources, with the result that

local systems are dying. And thirdly, special financial incentives could be given to those local

bodies, which complete their work of organizing water supply in a time bound fashion.

Institutional restructuring will be required at all the levels to bring about decentralization, toempower local bodies, to encourage community participation, to ensure financial viability of

the sector and to encourage GO-NGO-private sector partnerships in the water and sanitation

sector. To start with, at the local level, each local body should be made responsible, as per

the 73 rd Amendments of the Constitution, for managing their own water and sanitation. As

in Swajaldhara, the local body will set up a committee to plan, implement and monitor local

action plan based on local augmentation of water supply. Local bodies will also need

supporting institutions for financial help-grants & loans, technical and professional guidance

and for capacity building. These will have to be organized by institutional restructuring at

the state level.

Since water and sanitation form a part of the State List under the Constitution, the Gujarat

state government has at present set up state level institutions and organizations to

undertake this task. The water supply wing of the Narmada Water Resources and Water

Supply Department (NWRWSD), which is headed by a secretary, is the key institution at the

state level. This institution is responsible for formulating drinking water policy, preparing

annual and five year plans for the development of this sector, allocating funds to

implementing agencies, and guiding the sectoral development. The Gujarat Water Supply

and Sewerage Boards (GSWSSB), the state level autonomous organization is responsible for

proper development and regulation of drinking water supply and sanitation services in the

sate (except for the metro cities and cantonment areas). GWSSB is the nodal agency

responsible for implementing bulk drinking water supply schemes to urban and rural areas.

Gujarat State Drinking Water Infrastructure Co. Ltd. (GSWLICL) has been set up recently for

implementation and subsequent management of bulk water transfer. While this company is

“bulk carrier”, the GWSSB is the distributor of water to villages and towns. Gujarat Jalsewa

Training Institute (GJTI) is centralized water training institute set up with the World Bank

(IDA) credit. It provides in-service training to the engineers, managers and grass root

persons involved in the drinking water sector. WASMO (Water and Sanitation Management

Organization), a recently set up organization (2001) with the Dutch financial support, is now

an important organization of the state government for promoting community participation in



41

the water sector. It is an autonomous center, supported by the Water Supply Department. It

is expected to support the state government in developing management models for specific

geographical areas, technology and socio-cultural environments as well as to create

conditions for coordinated efforts in the sector by government and civil society

organizations, i.e. NGOs, CBOs and research institutes.

Under the new system, the role of the state will change radically, from provider and

financier to enabler and facilitator . The state level bodies will not manage the water sector

at lower levels, but will enable local bodies to do so and facilitate their task by providing the

required support.

The four major areas in which the lower level bodies will require support are technology,

training and capacity building, finances and community participation. The apex department

therefore will have four major wings to undertake this task: (1) Technology: to advice and

guide on a consultancy basis (A Technology Cell may be set up at the state level), (2)

Finances : to provide incentive grants and loans to undertake local works (A Finance Board

may be set up at the state level), (3) Capacity Building : to help implementation of the new

approach, preferably with focused and tailor-made training programmes (GJTI can do this

by undergoing the required changes) and (4) Promoting community participation and

empowering and involving local groups in the sector (WASMO can undertake this task).

Since the focus is on local resource generation and local management of water and

sanitation, special cells of all the four wings will be set up at the district and taluka levels.

District and taluka level committees will have to be set up to bring about coordination

among these major cells and their activities. In other words, there will be significant

decentralization of power, funds and activities to promote region specific local systems.

Restructuring of GWSSB becomes extremely relevant here. GWSSB will have to change from

“authority oriented” organization to “a consumer oriented” and “demand driven

organization.” It will have to charge for water for full cost recovery and generate its own

funds for functioning. It will be necessary to decentralize this Board to make it more

effective and people oriented. The Board will have to be open to employ outside experts and

NGOs to make it more people oriented (Haskoning 1994).





43

consuming fixtures. For example, as the Expert Committee on infrastructure (GOI 1996) has

observed, a toilet in India uses 10 to 12 liters of water on an average, against 5 liters in

USA. It is argued by the Committee that standardized fixtures can save about 50 % to 60 %

of water supply. Standardized fixtures and reduction in systematic losses together can

reduce water demand at least by 50 percent according to the Expert Committee onInfrastructure.

Supply Management : The two major components on the supply side are recycling of

wastewater and rainwater harvesting. The higher density of population along with the use

of flush systems generates good amount of waster water in urban areas. It has been

worked out by experts that more then 75 percent of the water consumed is thrown back as

wastewater (Gupta and Sharma 1999), which implies that it is relatively easy to recycle

waster water. Used water can be recycled at household level or at a group of houses (or

apartment buildings) level. Wastewater can also be recycled at the town / city level with the

help of soil aquifer treatment (SAT) for filtration in any open space. Unconsolidated sand

aquifers in riverbeds can also be used as a rapid infiltration wastewater renovation system,

employing SAT method. Using simple earthwork, a riverbed can be subdivided in to

infiltration basin for filtration. It has been estimated for Ahmedabad that a length of 4 km

of riverbed will be sufficient to renovate all the Ahmedabad wastewater (Gupta and Sharma

1999). This recycled water can be used for domestic use (also for drinking if treated well) or

for irrigation. It can also be stored in lakes for recharging ground water. Recycling

wastewater is the best use of wastewater: it solves the problem of disposal of wastewater

which is a serious problem and a serious health hazard in several towns and cities, and it

reduces the wild search of fresh water in deeper aquifers or farther surface water.

Rainwater harvesting is another major component of supply management for urban areas.

There are several methods of doing it:

q Roof water collection in Tankas: It was a tradition in many towns and cities in

Gujarat to collect rain water from roofs and store it in underground tankas. This

water, which was properly sealed, remained potable for years, and people used to

drink it throughout the year or even longer. These tankas in the basement helped in

cooling the home in the summer. Somehow this tradition declined with the spread of

modern housing. There is a need to revive this system and promote this on a large



44

scale, if necessary, by making it mandatory. The technology needs to be modified

today, keeping in mind the new methods available for storing and new ways of

keeping water’s quality.

q Recharging Ground Water For Improving Water Supply in Local Bore wells : This is a

highly doable thing in urban areas, where depleting ground water supply is reducingboth quantity and quality of water supply. A Housing society can collect rain water

from roofs and directly put it in to the ground using a percolation well or a

Khambhati well. This can improve the supply of ground water dramatically, which

can also enable the houses to use better quality of water at cheaper rates (as

electricity consumption declines with the improved water tables). The experiment of

Bimanagar in Ahmedabad confirms this.

q Revitalizing Water bodies: Most towns and cities in Gujarat had in the past several

lakes and ponds. These have declined over the years due to neglect or due to

reclamation of this land by developers and builders. It is still possible to revive many

of them for rainwater collection and for recharging ground water. Such lakes can

supply ample water to towns and cities. The recent experience of Navsari where

Dudhia talav has been revived to provide water supply to the city is worth

mentioning in this context. There is a need to give a big push to the revival of old

water bodies for water collection and water recharge.

q Storm Water Collection for Recharge: Disposal of rainwater from low lying areas and

preventing water logging is one of the major problems of municipalities in the state.

This Problem can be resolved by using this water for recharging ground water and/or

by storing it in local water bodies by using appropriate methods. Instead of

‘disposing’ this water outside the town by storm water drainage systems, this water

can be used as an important source of augmenting local water supply.

Other Innovative Methods of Water Augmentation: In addition to the above, the other

methods of augmenting water supply in urban areas could be solar desalinization,

defluoridation using the RO method or other quality improvement methods.

The implications of the new strategy are very important for generating Water Supply for

urban areas in Gujarat: (1) The demand for urban water supply can be reduced by 30 to



45

50% by checking systematic losses and the use of standard fixtures. Even if we assume

30% reduction, the need for fresh water will decline by 30%, (2) about 75% of the used

water is waste water. Even if 50% of this water is recycled, the demand for fresh water can

be further reduced by 37% and (3) a significant part of the rest of the demand (and in

many cases the entire rest of the demand) can be met by rain water harvesting. That is,many towns can augment all its water supply locally and many others can generate most of

its water supply locally. There is a need to provide them with the necessary environment

and incentives to do so.

There is a need to reorganize and reorient urban local bodies to enable them to undertake

the responsibility of ensuring dependable and adequate water supply to people. The

following steps are needed:

Making Local Bodies Responsible: The first and foremost requirement for ensuring

effective and efficient water services in urban areas is to make urban local bodies

responsible for providing and managing water supply and sanitation. It is important that the

local bodies manage these services through democratic governance with viable financial

systems. According to the 74 th Amendment of the Constitution, Water and Sanitation are the

responsibilities of the local government. Each municipality therefore should be asked, and

also enabled, to undertake this task in a time bound manner. Each municipality should be

asked to prepare an integrated long-term action plan for urban water supply and sanitation

for the coming 20 years keeping in mind the projected population growth as well as

sustainability – financial, environmental and institutional. They may be helped by experts in

different disciplines in undertaking these tasks. The plan should also include restructuring of

water services for the purpose of implementation of the plan.

The role of the state government will change radically, from being a provider and financier

of water supply and services to facilitator and enabler. The state government will create

enabling environment and provide help to municipalities in undertaking the responsibility of

the water and sanitation sector. Empowering municipalities through appropriate legislative

amendments to undertake the responsibility of water and sanitation, providing technical and

professional help, guiding them in institutional restructuring, providing financial support for

helping them to access loans and giving them incentive grants, help them in training and



capacity building etc. will be the major tasks of the government. These will have to be

organized with the help of GMFB, CMAG and other organizations.

Some of the important areas of concern and focus for improving water supply management

by municipalities are (1) strengthening municipalities in technical and professionalcapabilities, (2) improved delivery for ensuring quality services, (3) training for capacity

building, (4) role of community and civil society organizations, (5) reaching the poor, the

slums and (6) managing and monitoring progress at the state level.

To sum up, the water supply sector in Gujarat needs reorientation as well as reorganization.

It will be useful to set up a Task Force at the state level to usher in this new approach. This

Task Force will consist of the concerned officers, professionals, technical experts,

representatives of civil society organization and elected leaders. It will design the detailed

strategy and an action plan for the state to be implemented in a time bound fashion.

Documents

Ensuring Drinking Water