Parched Nation

Parched Nation:

Water Supply Management

in India

Christine Chase

Amiya Dingare

Nupur Hiremath

Yehia Houry

Sanjana Khoobchandani

15th May, 2006

School of International & Public Affairs

Columbia University, New York

A World Bank-Commissioned Report

Table of Contents

Executive Summary......

Introduction......

Global Water Situation......

The Conditions of India's Water Sector...... 7

Increased Water Consumption due to Industrial Growth......

Overexploitation of Existing Water due to Agriculture Growth......

Discrepancy between Urban/Rural Water Supply due to Urbanization..

India's Informal Groundwater Economy......

Governance in the Water Sector...... 11

India & the Millenium Development Goals......

Water Policy & Regulation of Water in India......

Case Studies: Maharashtra & Rajasthan......

Maharashtra......

Rural Area: Nanded District......

Urban Area: Pune......

Rajasthan...... 24

Rural Area: Alwar District......

Urban Rural Area: Jaipur......

Recommendations......

Conclusion...... 33

References......

Executive Summary

India, one of Asia’s most recent economic leaders, has experienced an impressive economic growth rate in the last decade. The rapidly developing economy is seeing an ongoing reverse brain-drain as experienced expatriates return to expanding opportunities back home and many multinational corporations are exploring the option of locating research and development activities in India to take advantage of the highly skilled labor force. The booming industrial growth, however, does not reflect a uniform change in the status of India’s citizens. While science and technology initiatives have skyrocketed and improved the standard of living for many people, a majority of the population still suffers without the basic amenities of life, particularly with regard to water. The lack of access to safe water for drinking and sanitation and the absence of an assured supply of water for agriculture directly affect the living conditions of this growing portion of the world’s population.

The desperate water situation is hindering India’s progress in the context of the world economy. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set forth by the United Nations have given several nations, including India, specific targets to ameliorate the water and sanitation situation. Given the importance of addressing this problem, both in order to improve the lives of the Indian people as well as to augment the economic growth of the country, the Government of India and several private and non-governmental entities have been working aggressively to address the water situation.

This report explores the water situation in India with a broad overview of governance, particularly the role of public and private entities in providing equitable water coverage to the citizens of India. In particular, it focuses on the availability of safe drinking water. We then discuss the specific problems that hinder an efficient water economy and the existing measures that have been employed to resolve them, particularly with reference to the MDGs, which sets the most immediate goals for developing nations. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of these problems and strategies at the grassroots level, we also examine case studies of four vastly different urban and rural areas in the states of Maharashtra and Rajasthan. In short, we believe that the current conception of greater awareness, transparency, community participation and accurate information collection about water supply operation and management can help create a more robust water economy in India.

Introduction

India, one of Asia’s most recent economic leaders, has experienced an impressive economic growth rate in the last decade. While science and technology initiatives have skyrocketed and improved the standard of living for several people, a majority of the population still suffers without the basic amenities of life, particularly with regard to water. The lack of access to safe water for drinking and sanitation and the absence of an assured supply of water for agriculture directlyaffectthe living conditions of this growing portion of the world’s population.

Moreover, the economic development of the India is contingent on the improved standard of living of its people and the desperate water situation can thus hinder the progress of the nation in context of the world economy. The Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) set forth by the United Nations have given several nations, including India, a universal aim of ameliorating the water and sanitation situation in the country. Given the importance of addressing this problem both in order to improve the lives of the Indian people as well as to augment the economic growth of the country, the Government of India and several private and non-governmental entities have been working aggressively to address the water situation.

Global Water Situation

The water situation in several parts of the world continues to pose the biggest obstacle in the daily lives of millions of people. Global water consumption is doubling every 20 years, a rate more than twice the rate of population growth.[1] By the year 2000, one-sixth of the world population, approximately 1.1 billion people, lacked access to safe and reliable water services[2]. Furthermore, the existing access was disproportionately divided between the urban and rural population. Each of the MDGs is intimately, although indirectly, linked to the assured provision of clean drinking water and sanitation as can be seen from Table I.

TableI. Contribution of clean drinking water and sanitation to the achievement of the millennium development goals.

Source: UNICEF: UN:

MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS / CONTRIBUTION OF IMPROVED DRINKING
WATER & SANITATION TO MDGs
Goal #1:
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger / Improved living conditions in terms of sanitation can improve the health of the entire household since adults who are either ill or must care for sick children are less productive.
Avoiding Illnesses caused by unsafe drinking water and inadequate sanitation can help circumvent high health costs that are a burden to the poor.
Preventing water-related diseases, particularly helminthes, which rob their hosts of calories may improve the overall health of the people, since healthy people are better able to absorb nutrients in food than disease-afflicted individuals.
The time lost because of long-distance water collection and poor health contributes to poverty and reduced food security. Elimination of these obligatory collection tasks helps ameliorate stark poverty and hunger situations.
Goal #2:
Achieve universal primary education / Improved health and reduced water-carrying burdens can improve school attendance, especially among girls.
Providing separate sanitation facilities for girls and boys in school, especially after they enter adolescence, increases school attendance by girls.
Goal #3:
Promote gender equality and empower women / Reduced time and intensity of care-giving burdens from improved water services gives women more time for productive endeavors, adult education and leisure.
Water sources and sanitation facilities closer to home put women and girls at less risk of assault while collecting water or searching for privacy.
Goal #4:
Reduce child mortality / Improved sanitation and drinking water sources reduce infant and child morbidity and mortality.
Goal #5:
Improve maternal health / Accessible sources of water reduce labor burdens and health problems resulting from water portage, thereby reducing maternal mortality risks.
Safe drinking water and basic sanitation are needed in health-care facilities to ensure basic hygiene practices following delivery.
Goal #6:
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases / Safe drinking water and basic sanitation help prevent water-related diseases, including diarrhoeal diseases, schistosomiasis, filariasis, trachoma and helminths.
The reliability of drinking water supplies and improved water management in human settlement areas reduce transmission risks of malaria and dengue fever.
Goal #7:
Ensure environmental sustainability / Adequate treatment and disposal of wastewater contributes to better ecosystem conservation and less pressure on scarce freshwater resources. Careful use of water resources prevents contamination of groundwater and helps minimize the cost of water treatment.
Goal #8:
Develop a global partnership for development / Development agendas and partnerships should recognize the fundamental role that safe drinking water and basic sanitation play in economic and social development.

The overall water coverage estimates for Asia are the second lowest, following those of Africa, at 81 percent, with a large discrepancy between the urban and rural populations. Urban areas are covered at 93 percent while rural areas are covered at 75 percent2. Moreover, these seemingly high coverage numbers are deceptive because they do not account for water quality or coverage sustainability. Figure I illustrates the actual and targeted water supply coverage for 1990 and 2000 and the projected coverage for 2017 and 2025, for the urban and rural sector as well as the total water supply coverage.

Given the population growth rate estimates in Africa, Asia and Latin America, in order to meet the MDGs by 2017, 1.5 billion more people would require access to a safe and reliable water supply in addition to those estimated to be currently receiving proper access2. This calculation amounts to providing water supply services to 280,000 people everyday for the next 17 years2.

FigureI. Water Coverage in Asia

Met
On Track
Progress Made, But Still Lagging
Declining Access

(a) Actual & Target Total Water Coverage

(b) Actual & Target Coverage in Urban Areas

Source: The World Health Organization, “Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000 Report,”

The Conditions of India’s Water Sector

India is a country that epitomizes the complexity of providing clean and reliable access to water for the world’s growing population. Not only is demand for water growing, but the available sources of water are often mismatched, spatially and temporally, to this demand. Geographically, India can be broadly divided into 17 ecological regions.1 The total annual precipitation of 4000 cubic meters makes India one of the wettest countries in the world.1 However, due to topographical constraints and a lack of adequate infrastructure, only 60 percent of the surface and groundwater is harvested and has proven to be beneficial to India’s populace[3]. In addition, there are large variations in the seasonal and geographic distribution of rainfall. Nearly 75 percent of the annual precipitation occurs in less than 120 days from June to September during the monsoon seasons1. Some areas, such as Cherapunji in North Eastern India, receive as much as 10,000 millimeters annually, while other areas, like Rajasthan in the North West, receive only 100 millimeters over the course of the entire year9. Although the land is riddled with 14 major, 44 medium, and 55 minor river basins, approximately 16 percent of the country’s landmass still remains drought-prone9. According to the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI), the water table is falling in all parts of India at a rate of 1-3 millimeters every year.1 A 1999 report by the National Commission on Water showed that at current demand levels, by the year 2050, India’s demand will exceed all available sources of supply[4]. As of 2006, 17 percent of the aquifers(an underground layer of soil saturated with water) are considered to be in critical condition and unless there is a change in the situation, this number will rise to 60 percent in 25 years10.

In order to determine the level of access to safe drinking water in rural areas, India’s Ministry for Rural Development established a norm of 40 liters. This requirement translates into at least one drinking water source for every 250 persons in a habitation5. In addition, a drinking water source should be located within 1.6 kilometers of a home in the plains or within a 100 meter elevation of homes in hilly areas5. Given these standards, in 2002, 89 percent of the then 1.4 million population was fully covered, 10 percent were partially covered and 1 percent was not covered at all[5]. However, in spite of these high coverage levesl, which were possibly a result of the informal groundwater economy, many citizens were dissatisfied with the availability of their service. In addition to concerns over sustainability and water quality, systems were falling into disrepair due to poor maintenance. Lowered groundwater tables caused water shortages during the summer months and extreme weather conditions, such as floods and droughts.5 Reasons for these water shortages are outlined in the following section.

Increased Water Consumption due to Industrial Growth

Since water demand is inextricably linked to economic development, it is important to examine water conditions in the context of the current state of the economy. Consider the major drivers of the Indian economy. Predominantly an agrarian economy, more than 60 percent of India’s is employed in the agricultural sector. Despite its heavy reliance on agriculture, however, the Indian economy is relatively diverse and encompasses traditional village farming, handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries, and a multitude of services[6]. Since 1994, the Indian economy has boasted of an excellent average growth rate of more than 6.8 percent in 10 years, reducing poverty by almost 10 percent. By 2005, India had achieved a GDP growth rate of greater than 7 percent by significantly expanding its manufacturing sector2. India’s unwieldy population, previously called its curse, is now touted as its strength as the services sector is currently the major source of economic growth, accounting for half of the country’s output2. India has capitalized on its large English-speaking, well-educated populace to become a major exporter of software services and human resources2. However, despite this high growth rate, the Indian Government, the World Bank and other global political entities are concerned about the combined state and federal budget deficit that is currently running at approximately 9 percent of GDP2.

The emergence of agro-based industries, in turn, has aggravated the need for water. From Figure II one can see that although the need for projected consumption of water for irrigation will decrease progressively till 2025, the need for water for other uses, namely household consumption, industry and energy production is projected to increase.

Figure II. Projection of Percentage Use of Various Sectors of the Indian Economy

Domestic
Irrigation
Industry
Energy
Other

Overexploitation of Existing Water due to Agriculture Growth

Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy, accounting for a quarter of the GDP and employing approximately two-thirds of the labor force. The rapid economic growth, particularly of the agricultural sector, has strained the existing water resources. In fact, 50% of the total irrigated area is dependent on the groundwater resources, which are rapidly being depleted4. Since agricultural production accounts for a large proportion of water demand, the government must adequately provide water for irrigation if it hopes to improve the pace of economic development. In addition, the consumer demand for water greatly exceeds what can be provided by the failing water infrastructure, by extant water and sanitation programs or by existing revenues. While rapid economic growth is promising in terms of economic development, it threatens the sustainability of natural resources like water.

Discrepancy between Urban & Rural Water Supply due to Urbanization

India’s economic development cannot be considered sustainable if the population continues to live in bleak poverty without basic needs of human life. India is an archetype of the rapid urbanization trends that the Third World has seen. The existing system of water supply and distribution favors rich, urban and industrial users, at the expense of small farmers and poor, rural people[7]. Massive crop failures, resulting from the inadequacy of irrigation systems, and the over-reliance of agriculture on the vagaries of the monsoon rains have caused migrations from rural to urban areas. People whose ancestors spent their lives farming have now renounced agriculture as a form of livelihood and flocked to cities in search of higher paying options. This shift has increased the strain on urban centers that have not expanded at the same rate. Indian cities have not had the infrastructure capacity to support this increased inflow of people. The water supply and sanitation conditions, among several other essential elements of city life, have struggled to match the migrating population’s needs.

Moreover, the lack of sanitary living conditions, such as hygienic homes or latrines, and of the related knowledge required for maintaining this level of cleanliness, has propagated poor practices amongst the lower classes of urban centers. Consequently, activities such as washing clothes near drinking water sources or improper raw sewage disposal have resulted in storm water pollution and drinking water contamination. Thus water-borne and feces-borne diseases perpetually afflict a section of the urban population. Moreover, while the government has made an effort to address the needs of the increased city population by improving the water supply, the rural water supply systems have not evolved at the same rate, thus leaving Indian villages to struggle for a basic component of healthy living.

In addition to this issue of providing basic services in the urban areas, the reduction in the agricultural workforce has generated some concern about the food supply for the growing population. An increase in fertilizer use in an attempt to increase the productivity of agricultural land combined with a reduced labor force has caused environmental problems including water pollution from industrial wastewater and agricultural runoff. In addition, changing life trends and attitudes among the populace have resulted in a wide disparity in water conditions in urban and rural areas. Worsening the problem are some of the natural hazards that the country is susceptible to including droughts, flash floods, severe thunderstorms and flooding from monsoonal rains.