Ensuring Drinking Water To All: A Study In Gujarat. Indira Hirway 1

Transcription

1 Ensuring Drinking Water To All: A Study In Gujarat Indira Hirway 1 Introduction Gujarat State, located in the western part of India, is one of the prosperous states in India. It enjoys a relatively high per capita income and has a diversified economy backed by a fairly diversified workforce. The state has about 50 m. population (2001) spread over sq. km area which is highly diverse in terms of geo-physiological characteristics, ranging from thick forests and hilly areas in the south to arid desert areas in the north and northwest. Gujarat is a water stressed state, with its per capita availability of fresh water at 1137 m 3 (less than 1700 m 3 per year). Several region of the state even suffer from chronic water shortages. This shortage is reflected in the shortage of potable water in many parts of the state, particularly in North Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kachachh. Though efforts have been made to ensure adequate water supply to all, somehow these efforts have not been very successful. There is therefore a need to take a fresh look at the problem and at the efforts in order to understand the problem better and to reorient the efforts. This paper intends to do this. The paper is divided into three sections. Section one describes the status of drinking water in the state, section two assesses the efforts made by NGOs and by the government to reach adequate water supply to all, while section three draws inferences for designing sustainable approach to providing drinking water to all in the state. 1 Paper prepared for the 4 th IWMI-TATA Annual Partners Research Meet, February Some parts of the paper are based on a larger study ( Status of Drinking Water: Towards a Sustainable Approach by Indira Hirway and Shital Lodhia) sponsored by WHO, New Delhi. 1

2 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 The first survey on drinking water was conducted in 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 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, in 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 water supply 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). 2

3 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, geohydrology, 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 mm in Kachchh to mm in North and Central Gujarat to 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 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, 3

4 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 against the norm of 1700M 3 at satisfactory level. This availability is 427 M 3 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 2 According to the norms, per capita availability of water above 1700 M 3 is satisfactory, M 3 is water stress, 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 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. In the recent years these rallies are frequently turning violent (Times of India May 2, 2001, February 19, 2002 and January 18, 200; Indian Express April 6, 2002; Economic Times April 9, 2002; Gujarat Samachar May 4, 2002, May 18, 2003 etc.). 4

5 An additional factor that has contributed to the problem is the decline of the traditional local systems of water supply. Traditionally, water supply was managed through local systems in most villages in the state. Each geo-hydrological region in the state had its own methods of collecting and using local water systems. These local systems seem to have declined because (1) the local Panchayats / community organizations declined and became defunct and there were no local organizations to maintain and manage local water systems, (2) developmental works like roads, buildings and other infrastructure works created obstacles in the natural flows of water, affecting the natural recharge adversely, (2) over drafting of ground water depleted local water resources very badly leaving no adequate water supply, in terms of quality and quantity, for local people (Bhatia 1992), (3) GWSSB took over the responsibility of managing water supply with increasing use of regional schemes and increasing control of individual schemes, which left local people demotivated and disinterested in local water systems and (4) the general neglect of developing local water resources for meeting domestic and drinking water need water supply. In short, the state has not been able to manage its water resources well and has not been able to maintain the priorities in the use of water (for example, giving first priority to drinking water). The process of economic development has increased the demand for water for agriculture, industries and other economic activities on the one hand and the increasing population, including increasing urbanization and changing lifestyles have increased demand for water drinking and domestic purposes on the other hand. Somehow the different policies pertaining to the use of water in the state have not been able to manage the equilibrium between the demand and supply of water at the macro level as well as at the second level through proper allocation of water among the different sectors. As a result, the state is experiencing severe shortage of potable water in many parts of the region. Inadequate Water Supply: It has been estimated that rural areas have a relatively small share in the total water supply meant for drinking and domestic use. Though the rural population constitutes about 65% of the total population, it consumes about 42% of the total domestic water supply. Saurashtra has more than 25% of the total rural population, but the population consumes only about 16% of the total water supply. The corresponding percentages are 3.4% and 2.4% for Kachchh, % and 56.93% for South Gujarat and 20.7 % and % for North Gujarat respectively. Saurashtra and Kachchh receive much less than 40 lpcd of water supply, which is also much less than the state average of 42 lpcd 5

6 (Hirway and Lodhia 2004). It has been estimated 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 its quality. 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 rural habitats in the state ( ). 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 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! 6

7 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 poluted 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, 7

8 (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 schemes with 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 8

9 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, some important observations have been made by the studies: The larger the scheme (RWSS), the higher are the capital cost (per capita) and O & M costs (per capita). The larger the scheme, the more vulnerable it is to problems and losses 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). 9

10 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 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 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 1 Water Supply in Municipal Towns, According to Size Class Class Average per capita water supply (LPCD) Minimum Maximum Average Norms Class-A Class-B Class-C Class-D Source: Director Municipalities, Gandhinagar Table 2 Region-wise water supply Region Average per capita water supply (LPCD) Minimum Maximum Average Saurashtra North Gujarat South Gujarat Source: Director Municipalities, Gandhinagar 10

11 Table 3 Classification of Municipalities According to Water Supply Number of Municipalities according to water supply (lpcd) Above 100 Total Region Saurashtra North Gujarat South Gujarat Class Class-A Class-B Class-C Class-D Source: 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 in urban 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 large number 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. 11

12 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 (Urban Development 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 crores per year ( )! 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. 12

13 2. Efforts of the State Government: Understanding the Water Problem Rural Areas Historically speaking, in the early years of independence, in the 1950s, the main interest of public policy at the all India level in this sector was to protect people from water borne diseases, as there were not serious problems of quantity of water supply, thanks to the comfortable ground water situation in the state. After the first survey on the availability of drinking water in the state in the concept of No Source Village was introduced in the state and the criteria for it were fixed. The policy was to find local sources of water supply for these villages. Since many state governments in the country were observed to be less than efficient in dealing with the problem villages, the Government of India introduced the first Centrally Sponsored Programme, ARWSP (Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme) in to cover problem villages under dependable sources of water supply. This cent percent centrally sponsored programme aimed at accelerating efforts of state governments in covering problem villages under the dependable sources of water supply. The ARWSP was followed by another centrally sponsored programme, the MNP (Minimum Needs Programme) in under which assuring potable and adequate water supply was identified as a minimum need to be fulfilled on a priority basis. In spite of these efforts however, the number of problem villages increased in many states, including Gujarat, and with the decline of the local sources, many states gave a high priority to transfer of water to problem villages under regional water supply schemes. The RWSS: The Mainstay of Government Policy: In the late seventies and the early eighties the state government introduced large regional water supply schemes to transfer bulk water supply to problem villages. The Netherlands supported schemes and the World Bank assisted schemes were important among these. In the Sixth Plan the government spent Rs. 65 crores on rural water supply and sanitation. In a ten-year Master Plan was designed for the period 1980/ /91 at the cost of Rs. 572 crorores. This Master Plan included two major approaches: Regional Schemes of transferring bulk water supply to 13

14 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 be declining 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: Fixing new pipelines for RWSSs to reach problem areas Lifting Narmada water to feed new and old drying pipelines 14

15 Feeding new and old pipelines (where sources have dried up) by drilling emergency bores and tube wells, whenever possible Transferring water to problem areas by water tankers, water trains and even ships! 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 and odd) are covered or being covered under the regional schemes (February 2003). In addition, the government has now initiated a RS 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 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 to 54 (21 percent) in 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 prices, shows that the state government has spent a huge amount of Rs crores as capital costs and Rs crores as O & M costs on RWSS during and That is, the state has spent in all Rs 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 ongoing schemes in Central and South Gujarat, 107 schemes in North Gujarat, 245 schemes in Saurashtra and Kachchh. 5 Such as, the Minimum Needs Programme, Externally Aided Projects, Accelerated Water Supply Schemes, Emergency Water Supply Schemes etc. 15

16 Table 4 Incremental cost of depletion and degradation of water supply for drinking and domestic use during to at prices (in Rs crores) RWSS Tankers Quality Improvement RO/Desalinization Defluoridation Year Capital O & M Water Tankers At prices At prices Capital Cost At prices O & M Cost At prices Capital Cost At prices O & M Cost At prices Grand Total At prices Total Source: GWSSB Reports, Master Plans of GWSSB for different years Table 5 Private Expenditure on Buying Potable Water ( ) (in Rs crores) Type For Private Tankers 30.2 One litre Bottled Water 64.5 Branded Pouches & litre packing 24.0 Unbranded Water Equipments for purifying water Total Source: Indira Hirway (2002), Quick Valuation of Depletion and Degradation of Environmental Resources in Gujarat, Centre For Development Alternatives, Ahmedabad Table 5 shows that in the year private expenditure on accessing drinking water was about Rs crores. Of this Rs crores were spent on purchasing water purifying equipments (like Aquauard, Zero B, Softel, Ion Exchange, Power H 2 O 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 crores in that year, the total incremental cost of water supply for comes to more than Rs 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 to Rs per 1000 liters, while under the private sector the cost per liter goes up to Rs per liter to Rs per 16

17 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 (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: To supply adequate and safe drinking water to the areas suffering from severe shortage of water supply. To feed the regional water supply schemes, which are not providing adequate water supply due to failure of their respective sources. To provide water supply to those regional schemes and individual (village) schemes which provide poor quality of water supply due to various reasons. To supply potable water to those towns and villages which have excess salinity, excess fluoride or excess nitrates in their water supply. To recharge ground water in depleted areas and to ensure drinking water to problem areas even during drought years. 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, 17

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 government plans 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 to Rs per 1,000 liters! Role of local Rain Water Harvesting Structures in Drinking Water 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 18

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 time promoted 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 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 , 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 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 19

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 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

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 members, of whom one third will 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: 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 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 21