INNOVATIONS IN DEVELOPMENT 24x7 SUSTAINABLE WATER SUPPLY to Villages of Punjab Punjab Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project

Drinking

Water Supply in Rural Areas of Punjab remained a major

challenge despite the fact that surface and ground water is abundantly available in Punjab. Historically, even the state Punjab has derived its name from the word "Punj Aab" meaning Five Waters referring to the five rivers namely the Beas, the Ravi, the Sutlej, the Chenab and the Jhelum traversing the undivided Punjab (prior to 1947).

Map of Five Rivers flowing in Punjab before Independence (1947)

After Independence the state of Punjab has left with only three rivers namely The Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej.

These rivers have bestowed Punjab with fertile land and abundant supply of surface and ground water. However, easy availability of water resulted in its reckless use, over exploitation of aquifers and indiscriminate pollution of water bodies. This 'Problem of Plenty' has entailed to serious Quality Problems and depleting water table. As per Central Ground Water Board, India, out of 138 blocks of Punjab State, 112 Blocks are stated to be over exploited. Apart from above water pollution has engulfed the entire state thereby rising water quality issue. In addition to heavy metal pollution the following are the common chemical pollutant occurring in the ground water of the Punjab.

Ground Water Quality Problems Contaminants Salinity (EC > 3000 S/cm at 25 C) Fluoride (>1.5 mg/l)

Chloride (> 1000 mg/l) Iron (>1.0 mg/l)

Nitrate (>45 mg/l)

Districts affected (in part) Firozepur, Faridkot, Bathinda, Mansa, Muktsar, Sangrur Amritsar, Bhatinda, Faridkot, fatehgarh Sahib, Firozepur, Gurdaspur, Mansa, Moga, Muktsar, Patiala, Sangrur Firozepur, Muktsar Bhathinda, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib, Firozepur, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Mansa, Rupnagar, Sangrur Bhathinda, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib, Firozepur, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Mansa, Moga, Muktsar, Nawan Shaher, Patiala, Rupnagar, Sangrur

Hence potable drinking water supply becomes a major challenge and matter of concern in Punjab. Both GoI and GoP remained sensitive to above issue and accorded highest priority to drinking water supplies particularly in the rural areas of Punjab through its flagship NRDWP and PRWSS Projects respectively.

Paradigm Shift: GoPs vision and long term strategy aims at covering all the villages of Punjab with piped water supply called "Medium Term Program". DWSS Punjab in year 2006 with financial assistance from the World Bank, has developed Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (PRWSS), with main objective (i) to cover all Not Covered (NC) and Partially Covered (PC) villages so as to achieve Fully Covered (FC) status (ii) ensuring sustainability of water supply schemes, and (iii) initiating measures to improve sanitation condition of villages. Prior to PRWSS project water supply systems were being constructed and operated entirely by DWSS with little or no participation of community (end user) and designed service level was 40 lpcd, consequently individual water connections were very less and performance of O&M was poor. However PRWSS has proved to be a paradigm shift. Active participation Community (end user) has been ensured right from pre-planning stage to post-implementations stage. Service level has been raised from 40 lpcd to 70 lpcd. Now, the O&M of water supply systems are being taken care of by community without financial assistance from government agencies. Sustainability: Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations. Sustainability is important to making sure that we have and will continue to have the water, materials, and resources to protect human health and our environment. According to American Water Works Association (AWWA), Sustainability means providing adequate and reliable water supply of desired quality now and for future generations in a manner that integrates economic growth, environmental protection and social development.

SUATAINABILTY THROUGH INNOVATION: While implementing PRWSS Project it has been observed that on transferring control of O&M of water supply schemes to respective GPWSCs, sustainability of water supply schemes remained a major challenge for DWSS to address to. It has been observed in rural water supply systems that due to intermittent water supply, consumers store more water than actual requirement; whenever water is again supplied; they tend to discard original stored water and start filling it again. Due to intermittent supply consumers are also left their taps open so that they could know that when the water supply is resumed. This practice is resulting in water wastage that needs to be minimized.

Water Works of Village Majara in sprawling lawn

It has also been noticed that when water supply is started all the consumers start drawing water simultaneously; resulting in reduction in supply of water and its pressure in higher and tail-end areas. Hence, complaints of non-availability of water starts pouring in, consequently many a time consumers are unwilling to pay (their water charges) in such situations thereby posing a threat to sustainability of the scheme. IEC and HRD efforts undertaken to resolve the issue generally bear little success. Hence an innovative, bold, pro-active and technical initiative was undertaken by DWSS in collaboration with GPWSC Majara to address this issue.

Storage Tank placed on Roof Top

Srinivasa Rao Podipireddy, TTL, WB, accompanied by DWSS officers during visit to Village Majara

Er. J S Chahal, Executive Engineer, DWSS motivated the village community, GPWSC Members and GP Members of Village Majara of district Ludhiana, Punjab to release water supply connections to consumers through the individual storage tanks ( 500 Ltrs -1000 Ltrs capacity) fitted with stop valves placed on the roof tops. When the storage tank of a consumer gets filled, stop-valve automatically shuts the incoming supply, thereby reducing water wastage through overflow. The cost of storage tank was borne by the consumers.

Srinivasa Rao Podipireddy, TTL,WB, DWSS officers and residents inspecting the Village Majra.

This solution resulted in assured water supply to consumers, as he/she is confident that his/her storage tank is FULL of water, and also resulted in equitable distribution of water and pressure to all the consumers.

Results of this solution were found to be amazing as it not only assured water supply to all consumers but maintained sufficient pressure in the pipeline network to deliver water even at the roof top of two-storey houses.

Villagers Pointing to Rising Connecting Pipe to Storage Tank placed on Roof Top of a Two-Storey House.

Srinivasa Rao Podipireddy, TTL,WB, interacting with resident of Village.

It is pertinent to mention here, success of solution can also be attributed to large scale mobilization of women folk of the village through sustained IEC/HRD activities of DWSS.

Women Participation in the meeting

Women member of GPWSC actively participating in meetings and discussions.

Storage Tank placed on Roof Top

Individual Storage Tanks placed on roof tops is common scene in village Majara.

Thanks to Innovative solution of Issuing water Connections through Individual Storage Tanks, residents of Village Majara are now getting 24 hour assured drinking water supply. GPWSC Village Majara not only met all its expenditures incurred on O&M of Water Supply Scheme but also generated surplus revenue. GPWSC Village Majara is operating and maintaining the water supply scheme since 2009, successfully and sustainably without any breakdown

CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED Through sustained IEC/HRD effort, motivation of DWSS and cooperation of GPWSC, most of the consumers had readily agreed to install individual storage tanks fitted with stop-valves. However, there were few left over, who could not afford the cost of individual storage tanks, they were given individual storage tanks by GPWSC on credit and these consumers have paid back the cost in installments as little as Rs.100/- deposited with their water charges bill.

Future Vision After studying the successful, sustainable and trouble free operation in village Majara, district Ludhiana for many years; Majara model is suggested to adopted at other villages of the Punjab state.

Contributed by: Er. J S Chahal EE, DPMC, Ludhiana.