Governance  |  Rajwant Sandhu

Sustainability for both rural drinking water supply and sanitation can only come about  if the Panchayat is involved in the management  of these sectors at the local level, writes Rajwant Sandhu

Water Woes Demand local Action

Many parts of the country are now facing a shortage-called dark areas-where the water table has really fallen very drastically. So in order to ensure drinking water security,we need to pay more attention to storage, both at the micro and macro level.

Drinking water is a vital need. However, the availability of potable water is rather limited and yet the  responsibility of the state is so huge in this matter that we have to ensure through service providers or otherwise, that every habitation and every family gets access to potable drinking water. Not having potable water is a source of  disease, loss of work days and loss of  GDP. The costs of poor water availability or poor availability of quality water are mindboggling.

The concept of the water ladder implies a progression from access to drinking water from  open dug wells, other water bodies where generally water is not potable to sources such as hand pumps, protected wells and piped water supply and then finally to household level connections. The states are at different levels on this water ladder. The situation is pretty good in states like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, the latter in spite of being a relatively water stressed state. But in the northern region and in the north east, the availability of potable water is not really very satisfactory.

The current water usage pattern is: agriculture 90 per cent; industrial use 6 per cent; domestic use 4 per cent and, only about 0.2 per cent is used to meet our drinking water needs. Drinking water is essentially a state subject. The Constitution says that in fact it should be managed by the Panchayati Raj Institutions, which has not really happened to a large extent though this is the direction in which we should move. The Government of India has been supporting the efforts of the states in this direction. In 1986, the National Drinking Water Mission was established. The latest version of the programme is the National Rural Drinking Water Programme which is operative from April 2009. But we are still in the changeover mode as it takes a lot of time to get the changed guidelines and changed nomenclatures through to the field officers and to the people who have to actually implement the programme.

Infrastructure created is quite impressive: 4.3 million handpumps installed in rural areas; 1.05 lakh piped water supply schemes; and water  testing facilities available at 496 locations  i.e. at the district levels. Of course, we plan to undertake testing at the sub divisional level and even the Panchayats are being involved in  testing  at  least  for  bacteriological contamination so that if  a source is seen to be contaminated, action can be taken. There is also an attempt to link with the National Rural Health Mission that wherever a PHC reports on spread of gastroenteritis, diarrhoea, or other water borne diseases,  this should be a red flag for testing water sources in the area.

Till the 1990s, apart from the progress made, the focus for provision of potable drinking water was the village. Then in the 1990s the reach improved to the habitation level. And now, of course, our focus is that access should be there for  every household. This is our movement up the water ladder. The chemical contaminant survey also took place in 1999 and since the habitation survey was completed in 2005, drinking water supply became a part of the Bharat Nirman initiative. Under Bharat Nirman, it was planned that all habitations that were not covered or that were getting inadequate water  supply and  all those with quality problems should be covered by 2009. It is hoped that by the end of this financial year, we will cover all the habitations targeted as per Bharat Nirman.

"On drinking water we agree that we should promote the conjunctive use of water; different sources of water. You can have ground water sources supplemented by surface water resources, or the other way around. For  surface water sources, the quality is suspect as far as bacteriological contamination is concerned but they are generally not chemically contaminated.

Chemical contaminants are seen more in ground water. So, conjunctive use of water is the preferred option so that if one option fails you are not totally without a source for water. But at the same time surface water has to be treated. Today the water you are getting in the tap from the municipal bodies is also not that good. Most of us feel uncomfortable drinking it unless we use a filter. So treatment is vital. It can be as simple as just a simple cloth filter followed by chlorine tablets. Some treatment is absolutely necessary.

I would also like to comment on the point made about balancing of population. It sounds somewhat dated but it was said at one time that development is the best contraceptive. If the delivery of social  services on various aspects, to our rural population is ensured, surely population growth will also slow down "

The situation is however, a dynamic one.  We have to keep running even to  remain  in the same place. We are also contemplating another habitation survey and already the states are reporting another one and half lakh slipped- back habitations, so our work has to continue particularly for areas that report quality issues like fluoride and arsenic. Systems are being put in place to ensure that potable water is available to these areas at least for meeting their drinking water and cooking needs, which means about 10 litres per day. A bucketful of clean water has therefore to be ensured for every family.

"Rainwater harvesting also holds the key to resting the aquifers during the rainy season so that the rate of withdrawal can be reduced and the aquifer levels can Improve."

It is important to look into why these quality issues have come up. One reason, of course, is that there is more testing now. Earlier, there was very little testing and it was only when the consequences of consuming arsenic affected water or fluoride affected water became obvious, that the issue came to light. But now the attempt is to test all habitations for contaminants, chemical as well as bacteriological, so that wherever a problem comes up this should be addressed timely. So the expansion of the number of quality affected habitations can also be attributed to the expansion of coverage for water testing.

In the 1980s we wanted to eliminate guinea worm infection and it was felt that the best water was available from ground water sources. So the focus during those years was that ground water should be tapped for providing potable water to the population. But now we find that because of the depletion of the aquifers and also greater use of chemical fertilisers, which then leach into the aquifers, ground water  drawal is an important causal factor for the current quality issues. Now, we are trying to shift our dependence from ground water, which is to the extent of 85 per cent, to surface water so that we are able to avoid quality problems in potable water supply.

In addition, there is a huge shortfall in water availability coming up. There is a lot of withdrawal of water for irrigation purposes. Since it is a livelihood issue, controlling drawal of ground water  is difficult. Many parts of the country are now facing a shortage—called dark areas—where the water table has fallen drastically. So in order to ensure drinking water security, we need to pay more attention to storage, both at the micro and macro level.  Ponds, lakes and other bodies need to be revived. Moreover, many tanks have silted up or been encroached upon, so local sources of water are not available to people. Fortunately, through NREGA a lot of work is being done on desilting of tanks.

Other sources of surface water supply could be storage dams, supply from canals, from rivers, etc. But, of course, these require treatment and so it costs more to tap surface water supply. Advantages, of course, are that surface water sources are generally not affected by chemical contaminants except for industrial belts where effluents are not being treated properly. Another practical solution for addressing water quality issues relating to ground water is the dilution of aquifers, also called the recharging of aquifers, because high fluoride and arsenic levels are dangerous. Dilution of aquifers especially helps in the years when we have good rain. If the recharging of aquifers can take place, then fewer quality problems will emerge as time goes by. This is another area in which the central government is collaborating with the Central Ground Water Board and under our own programme, we are encouraging the states to do so in a big way.

Another option that needs to be seriously adopted is rooftop rainwater harvesting into storage tanks connected with institutional buildings such as schools, health institutions, industrial units, etc. In areas of scattered population, such tanks can be an excellent solution for ensuring potable water for the household for meeting cooking and drinking water needs. In the north east, particularly in Mizoram, this is done in a big way because they do have good rains and they are able to make do round the year with the water collected from the roof top. Rainwater harvesting also holds the key to resting the aquifers during the rainy season so that the rate of withdrawal can be reduced and the aquifers are recharged and water level risen.

So, overall, the problem of managing the water sector is indeed very complex. We have to develop a common strategy on the cautious use of ground water in critical areas, exploring the untapped water in the eastern region, then creating storage capacity, rainwater harvesting, ground water recharge, promotion of tank irrigation and participatory water management. We have to work in an integrated manner and there are several schemes, both at the central and state level, through which these objectives can be achieved. However, we do require more efforts and better co-ordination in this direction.

A related aspect is that of sanitation. Slowly, there has been an increase in toilet coverage, even in the rural areas. In fact, one of our programmes is aimed at total sanitation. But just imagine if everybody in urban areas and rural areas goes for flush toilets where we waste about 10 litres of water at a time, can we really manage this? How will we meet the water requirements in the future given this scale of usage?

In my opinion, water is too precious a resource to be wasted in this manner and at least in urban areas, we really need to pay attention to recycling of water. After all in urban areas, we are drawing water basically from the rural areas. We are depleting those areas and using water at a level which is clearly unsustainable. So recycling has to be an option, whether through municipal bodies, even hotels and all institutions that consume a lot of water should be looking at recycling options. Some states have even enacted legislation in this regard but perhaps the implementation is a little slow and needs more emphasis. Also we have to look at models of toilets that are less water consuming, like the Ecosan models, and promote these both in urban and rural areas. This will minimise the consumption of water while ensuring that the human waste is converted into usable manure.

Another important area is effluent treatment from industrial units. This needs monitoring at the local level where industrial estates are located. Lack of implementation of the laws has resulted in large-scale contamination of water bodies in the vicinity of industrial areas and downstream areas often pay a price for the industrial development   of upstream areas. This issue requires greater attention, and the Central and State Pollution Control Boards need to pay more attention to this.

Essentially, sustainability for both these sectors i.e. rural drinking water supply and sanitation, is a local issue. This has to be dealt with at the local level. The people are concerned about their own problems and water and cleanliness are very basic issues. Involving the panchayat in the management of these sectors at the local level is really the direction that we need to push for,  more and more, and we need to get away from the mindset that the panchayats have a very limited capability and assigning anything to them means it will not get done.  In many  of  the  states,  the panchayats have done very well and their example needs to be emulated particularly in the northern region, where panchayats present rather a sad and distressed picture.

Rajwant Sandhu is Secretary, Department of Drinking Water Supply
Ministry of Rural Development