Sustainable Operations OfRural Water Supply.200152436

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SUST IN LE OPER TIONS

OF RUR L W TER SUPPLY

S NIT TION SERVICES -

A

SYSTEM PPRO CH

Dr. Dinesh Chand, Additional Adviser (PHE)

Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Paryauaran

Bhawan, New Delhi-~10003

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Generally, water and sanitation schemes

experience their most serious problems with

operation and maintenance as well as with collection

of user charges. Thousands of schemes around the

world demonstrate how the newly built water and

sanitation infrastructures deteriorate and become

dysfunctional after the- scheme s construction &

commissioning within a few years due to lack of

proper operational arrangements and financial

support. Therefore, it is imperative to plan for

operation and maintenance, with a planned transfer

of ownership to local bodies /PRIs. This paper is

intended to provide insight to the programme

managers / planners and implementers who are

concerned with the challenging problem of how to

make operations of water and sanitation services

sustainable on long term basis. Further, it has been

concluded that there is need to adopt system

approach to achieve it.

R ey

wor s

System Approach, Gram

Panrhuyats, standardization, operations,

community.

Overview

Government of India (Gal) and States have

expended more than $2billion per annum, providing

adequate and potable water. A major

accomplishment has been in making the provision

of rural water supply and sanitation (RWSS)

infrastructure for 1.5million habitations covering

more than 91 percent rural people in the last few

decades. Sanitation coverage has also improved

through making the provision of household toilets

in about 71 per cent rural households(l). However,

this expenditure does not necessarily translate into

reliable, sustainable and affordable water and

sanitation services. Continuing 'quality and

quantity' problems along with poor operations and

maintenance (O&M) standards and recovery of user

charges are formidable constraints in achieving full

coverage, resulting in 30-40% schemes periodically

slipping back to partially covered or not covered

status.

Tne

maIncha(umge SsWl(CrIrrrg-r.f«JT

and-rebuild approach to a build-and-expand app

wherein the Gram Panchayats caps) operate

maintain their facilities and States inves

expanding systems to meet growing population

increasing demand for better and sustaina

serVIces.

Challenges and Strategy

Recently, the Ministry of Drinking W

Supply and Sanitation has prepared its long

strategic plan (2011-2022) for ensuring drin

water security to all rural households. The stra

plan aims to cover 90% of households with

water and of which, at least 80% achievement

household connections during this period.

strategy emphasizes achieving water sec

through decentralized governance with over

and regulation, participatory planning

implementation of improved sources and sch

Establishment of Sustainable service del

mechanisms is a central feature of the prog

with GPs implementing and managing in-villag

intra-Panchayat schemes while State institut

or Zilla Panchayats implementing and mana

large multi-village schemes, delivering bulk

to villages in water stressed areas. The str

highlights source sustain ability measures,

quality safety, monitoring and surveillan

convergence of different development programs

professional capacity building at all levels. The

challenge now would be the effe

implementation and scaling-up of the prop

decentralized systems.

- On the s~nitation front, the Total Sanit

Campaign (TSC) and an incentive program- N

Gram Puraskar award for 'open defecation

villages has been found effective steps by G

promoting sanitation facilities as well as eradic

open defecation practices with information

awareness raising campaigns. However, th

potential of this campaign has yet to be rea

Thus, same would continue further in coming

The majn challenge jn sanjtabon programme

be provision of sustainable sanitation units

development of people's habit to their regular

Sustainable Operations

Presently, 91% of rural people coverin

million habitations have provision of

infrastructures schemes. The operations of

schemes become crucial as far as sustaina

delivery of services is concerned. Genera

operations refer to all of the activities need

run a water supply and sanitation scheme ens

efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability e

Volume2012-13. Number 1. April2012 26



Dr Dinesh hand

the construction of new facilities(2).

The operations on a scheme have two basic

aspects- Operation and Maintenance (O M). On

one hand, operation refers to the direct access to

the system by the users to the activities of operating

staff and the procedures or by-laws for governance

of accessing the system and other conditions.

Operation requires knowledge of the scheme,

managerial capability and finances. On the other

hand maintenance is put>ely the technical activities

requiring skills, tools and spare parts and needs to

be planned to keep the system working(3). Thus, it

may be classified as preventive, corrective and

reactive maintenances. The key to ensuring

effectrve maintenance of scheme is to define roles

responsibilities clearly and maintenance

personnel are equipped adequately with the

appropriate skills and tools to do their job. Thus, it

is essential to have mandate, men and money along

with well developed operation plan to achieve the

proper 0 M.

Operational activities, which encompass not

only technical issues, but also managerial, social,

financial and institutional issues, must be directed

towards the elimination or minimization of the

major constraints which prevent the achievement

of sustainability4

Operation is a crucial element for

sustainability of a scheqle. A frequent incident of

failure of water supply and of poor sanitation

facilities was experienced in the past by most ofthe

States in the country. It was noticed that most

failures are not technical ones. They may be result

of the poor planning, inadequate recovery of user

chargers or the outreach inadequacies of centralised

agenciesl51.

Further, operation and maintenance has been

neglected in the past and usually introduced only

after completion of the project. This neglect or lack

of proper operation frame work has adversely

affected the credibility ofthe service providers and

investments made as the functioning ofthe services

impacting the well-being of populations, and the

development of further schemes. However, the

importance of O M has gained considerable

visibility over the past few years and it appears that

policy-makers, scheme designers and field

engineers are now more conscious of the direct

links between improved O M practices and the

sustainable delivery of water supply sanitation

services. It further concludes that there is a greater

need to adopt System Approach for the schemes

having a comprehensive way,emphasising not only

the planning, designing and construction of schemes

but also pre post-construction activities including

operational aspects

4).

. OrientationConceptsof Swap

. DemandCreation

. RoleofGPWSCn Project

. Finalizationof Technicaloptions

. Procurementssues

. Framingof ByeLaws

. QualityAspectsTraining

. FinanceandAccountsTraining

. HandsonTrainingto Pump

Operator Technician

. BookKeeping

. Transparency

. WaterConservation

. O Mlan

. RoleofWomen

Fig. 1: System Approach- Comprehensive-Way

Therefore, the ease of operation and

maintenance of a facility should be focal point for

its sustain ability and must be given utmost care in

planning designing of the scheme as some O M

issues are location-specific. However, O M needs

of rural schemes differ fundamentally in the

complexity ofthe technologies involved as compared

to urban schemes. In rural areas, the engineer must

take into account the factors such as the availability

of chemicals for treatment, spare parts, and

equipment, the reliability of power supplies, the

availability oflocal skilled personnel and capacity to

undertake O M. Thus, the ease of O M of a facility

primarily depends upon simplicity of the technology

option adopted.

The standardiztltion of equipment, parts,

designs, construction methods etc., has many

benefits. If the scheme design is simpler, the O M

is better as it requires lower skill levels in the

design process. Choices are made from a limited

range of options. Standardization also reduces the

number of skills required to install and maintain

the piece of equipment, thus increasing the

probability of local craftsmen being able to carry

out the work[51.

Community

Managed Scheme Operations and

Capacity Building

- In rural areas, the concept of Village Level

Operation and Maintenance Management (VLOM)

is a philosophy which ha3 been practiced over the

years within the country and many parts of the

world. The VLOM favours technology choices which

can be operated and maintained within the village

by community. The proper community Operations

requires O M Manual, capacity building, O M

Plans apart from well designed scheme and having

Volume 2012-13. Number 1. April 2012

27



Dr Dinesh ha

sustainable safe water source and adequate revenue

base i.e. affordability and willingness ofthe people

to pay.

In order to ensure the sustain ability of the

improved water and sanitation facilities, it is

necessary to have a community ownership and

management approach, making the end-users

directly responsible

for

operations of the installed

facilities. Successful 0 & M requires following an

Owner's O&M Manaal prepared by the contractor

and engineer at the onset of the planning process

in user friendly manner. Such Manual should spell

out a schedule and procedures

for

maintenance and

should also include methods to carry out tasks such

as' bookkeeping, paying employees, collecting bills

(facility management), inspection, refurbishments,

replacement of parts etc., giving an integral

framework

for

operation and maintenance(6).

The members of the community need to be

informed about the system that has been put in place

for

a proper operation. When new user-interfaces

or management approaches have been introduced,

such as household or community treatment

systems, toilets or a new system

for

compo sting of

kitchen waste, which heavily rely on the correct

operation from the user's side, the end-users have

to be properly trained to ensure that they will

operate the systems correctly. In a district/ block

village levels, comm,.unities and their organisations

(Community-Based Organisations) that will

undertake O&M management oflocal iilfrastructure

will need training on technical matters, accounting

and simple financial management, basic contract

procedures, and monitoring & reporting. The

Organisationsl

NGOs

participating in the

programme need similar training, but at a more

advanced level, as they are probably going to impart

training to the participating communities(7).

Similarly, local technicians and caretakers need to

be oriented and trained

for

the proper operation of

the new infrastructure having on-hands training to

ensure their full understanding of the implications

of the new system. Even the private operators or

' ,

Sustainabil ty

'.

Cost sharing

Principles

Decentralising service delivery

DemandResponsiyep.~&~:'

local engineering companies responsible

for

t

management of the systems, should also ha

periodical trainings

for

O&M activities related

the system.

Organising O&M does not represent a hu

task, but it does require certain level of intelligen

planning, commitment and monitoring and t

aspects to be organised are as follows:

.

What: identification of the activity to

carried out

When: the frequency of this activity

Who: identification of the human resource

required

for

the task

With what: requirement of the materials

spare parts, tools and equipments.

Operation and Maintenance is required

ensure the functional sustainability of any schem

including a new schemel infrastructure put in

place. This has the following advantages:-

.

it ensures that the project is sustainable i

long-term

it allows for the correct provision of servic

and benefit ofend-users

it prevents the systems to collapse creati

environmental and health hazards

it ensures that the community is involved

O&M

.

.

.

.

.

.

However, the O&M activities cost and is tim

concurring and therefore warrant planning

for

provision

for

financing O&M before the schem

starts.

Further, rural water supply should not

treated as a mere service delivery process but a

step towards household water security. Wat

security requires household, community a

pational actions to protect and preserve wat

sources, to use water as a scarce resource and

ensure its equitable supply. It is one of the p

conditions

for

sustain ability of any water supp

scheme. Thus, investment in the capacity buildin

of the community in planning, development,

implementation, operation and maintenance ofth

~

; '1' ,; ,, ',, ,

,

Fig 2 : Sustainability Pyramid and Typical Implementation Time line

Volume2012-13. Number 1. April2012



Dr Dinesh Chand

water supply project is one ofthe first steps toward

sustaina.ble development(S).

Experiences in World Bank Projects

Over last twenty years, the World Bank has

partnered with Gal for implementing nine RWSS

projects in seven statesviz. first generation projects

in Maharashtra (1991-98), Karnataka RWSS (1993-

2000), Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand RWSS (1996-

2002), Kerala RWSS (2001-08); second generation

projects in Karnataka RWSS (2002- ongoing with

additional financing till 2013), Maharashtra RWSS

(2003-09) and third generation projects in

Uttarakhand RWSS

Project

(2006-12), Punjab RWSS

project (2007-12) and Andhra Pradesh RWSS (2009-

14). These nine projects have contributed more than

US$ 1.4 billion to benefit about 24 million rural

populations in more than 15,000 villages. In these

three generations of

projects

each one building on

the lessons learnt from earlier generation and

continuing to push the frontier of sector practicesl9).

Following were the main interventions and

expenences:

S.No. Interventions

1.

Implementing

New Institutional

Models at Scale

2.

Demonstrating

Inclusive

Community-based,

Partici patory,

Demand-

responsive

Approaches

3.

Building Capacity

of State Depar-

tments, Sector

Institutions, Local

Governments and

Communities

Integrating Gover-

nance and Account-

ability Aspects into

Proj ect Designs

4.

5.

Improving Sustain-

abili ty - Financially,

Source-wise, Service

Delivery and Commu-

nity Satisfaction

.

Experiences

These projects have demonstrated a number of models, starting with

community driven approaches in the early 1990s (Karnataka I and UP/

Uttarakhand 1), moving on to PRI centric projects in the early 2000

(Karnataka II, Maharashtra II, Kerala) and finally to Sector-wide

Approaches (SWAPs) in Uttarakhand & Punjab and district-wide SWAP in

Andhra Pradesh in 2007-09. These models, particularly in the second and

third generation projects, introduced important linkages between the GP

Village Water Supply & Sanitation Committee (GP-VWSC) and local

government (Zila Panchayat, GramPanchayat, and Gram Sabha) for long

term technical, financial and political back up support to sustainable scheme

operations. Most projects, especially the SWAPs, showcase how the State

Departments are gradually taking on a facilitating role promoting the

adoption of reforms, building capacity and providing technical guidance,

while service delivery responsibilities are being decentralized to district

and village levels.

These projects have facilitated the development and implementation of

decentralized service delivery responsibilities to the PRIs. At the scheme

level these included community mobilization and awareness generation,

women's empowerment, hygiene and sanitation promotion, community-

based planning, construction, oversight and op-eration, water resources

management, and monitoring and evaluation. The projects have al O

designed special programs targeting tribal areas and SC/ST population.

.

These projects include specially identified capacity building .and lEC

activities targeting stakeholders at all levels. The projects have identified

local institutions for developing training modules for planning, designing

and implementing the schemes, including technical, managerial aspects,

procurement and financial management of schemes.

Governance and accountability measures have been introduced in the

planning, implementation and O&M phases for independent monitoring,

technical, financial and social audits. Specially designed grievance redressal

measures are included for addressing complaints by the. villagers. In

addition, comprehensive monitoring and evaluation programs have captured

inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes under these projects.

Communities are involved right from the planning stage to ensure schemes

are designed and implemented as per their needs and affordability. The

token community contribution towards capital cost (in cash and/or kind)

promotes ownership ofthe design of scheme, and agreement for affordable

O&M cost which is later recovered through user charges except in the

29

olume2012-13eNumber leApril2012



Dr. Dinesh C

Government ofIndia has also initiated sector

reform in late 90 s on the similar lines wherein the

experiences were of mixed type indicating that such

jnterventjons should be tailor made to State, area

and scheme specific as per their institutional

arrangements and ~revailing conditions as well as

economic status. However, this has not ended up

in evolving of suitable sustainable frame works of a

sector reform initiated and scaling up the same.

onclusion

In nutshell, it may be concluded that the

following interventions need to be considered with

System Approach depending upon the prevailing

conditions for successful and sustainable operations

of water supply sanitation services:

0 Decentralizing service delivery

responsibilities, placing GPs and communities

in the central role supported

by

higher levels

ofPanchayati Raj Institutions (PRls), the State

government and the local private sector

partners for facilitating, planning, monitoring

and providing a range of O M back-up

services.

Implementing sustainable local bodies.

managed models

for

intra-GP RWSS schemes

and using State-PRI partnership models

for

multi-GP schemes, whilst defining roles and

responsibilities at all levels. However, the

state line department may playa role of

facilitator and technical support agency.

J\:Joving the RWSS sector to recover O M cost,

preferably, in full and an increasing

.

0

.

contribution towards capital costs over

through active participation of PRls.

Scaling up the reform Programme, tow

uniform sector financing, institutional

implementation policies, across the State.

Integrating water supply and sanitation u

effective water sanitation education

promotion programme tools (i.e. IEC)

achieving drinking water security and o

defecation free clean villages.

Addressing issues of declining groundwa

and its quaEty through community capa

building and management of scarce resourc

adopting appropriate recharge techniques

well as regulatory mechanism.

Establishing Monitoring Evaluation syst

with independent reviews and social audi

.

.

.

eferences

1. The Strategic Plan (2011-2022) for ensur

drinking water security to all rural househol

Ministry of Drinking Water Supply

Sanitation (2011).

Castro, Vet. al. (Editor) (2009): Sustainab

Community Management of Urban Water

Sanitation Schemes (A Training Manua

Nairobi: Water and Sanitation Program-Afri

WorId Bank.

Carter, R. C. (2009):

Operation

Maintenance of Rural Water Supplies.

Perspectives N° 2. St. Gallen: Rural W

Supply Network (RWSN).

BRIKKE, F. (2000): Operation

2.

3.

Volume2012 1SeNurnber

eApri12012

4

30

se

of high

cost

schemes which need

to

be subsidized. The projects

fo

on integrating approaches for scheme and source sustainability, wa

supply and sanitation, for maximizing sustainable water supply servi

with health and hygiene benefits to the communities.

6.

Designing

and

One of the most challenging issues in the sector today is how to scale

Implementing reforms demonstrated under earlier projects and to replace the multiplic

..

Sector-wide Prog- of parallel programs. The latest World-Bank assisted RWSS project

rams (SWAPs) to supporting State and District RWSS SWAPs, moving away from a pro

Scale-up RefoWls

driven mode to a more programmatic approach for implementing unifo

policies and institutions across the sector. The Uttarakhand and Pun

RWSS projects are supporting uniform policies and institutional

arrangements across the state and sector, while the Andhra Pradesh RW

project is supporting uniform policies and institutions across six distric

7.

Enabling Achieve-

Similarly sanitation and environmental sanitation programs, follow

ment of Open Defe-

Community Led Total Sanitation principles, are integrated to impro

cation Free Clean

household and village sanitation. Specially designed IEC and capac

Villages through

building programs are implemented for raising health and hygie

Effective Sanitation

awareness at the household and village levels. Safe sanitation technolog

Programs

are promoted through sector institutions and support organizations.



Dr. Dinesh Chand

5.

Maintenance of rural water supply and

sanitation systems. A training package for

managers and planners. Malta: IRC WHO.

DFID (Editor) (1998): Guidance Manual on

Water Supply and Sanitation Programmes.

London: Water, Engineering and

Development Centre (WEDC) for DFID.

Barr~to Dillon et. al. (Editor)

(2008): Introduction to the N TSS F

Participatory Planning Approach, a tutorial

and guideline for su tainable sanitation

planning. Ouagadougou: NETSSAF.

Eawag (Editor) (2005): Household-Centred

Environmental Sanitation, Implementing the

6.

7.

8.

Bellagio Principles in Urban Environmental

Sanitation

-

Provisional Guideline for Decision

Makers. Geneva, Switzerland. Swiss Federal

Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology.

Excerpted from the outline ofthe presentation

Community-Based Management of the Water

Environment to the World Bank, by

Gourisankar Ghosh, Chief, Water Sanitation

and Environment Cluster, UNICEF.

December 1996.

Review Report on World Bank assisted

Projects in India, World Bank, December,

2011.

9.

IlllII 1{ll IJll

SI tJN

I)IPI~

INI)tJSrl IIII~S

NP2 NP3,NP4Spigot

Socket Pipe Mnf. Unit

BAIDYAPUR, BURDWAN, WEST BENGAL, PIN -713122

Ph. Fax: 03454245504 Mobile: 9434671188

e-mail: [email protected]

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