India: Water and Sanitation
Data
Access to improved source of water (broad definition)	84%
Access to improved sanitation (broad definition)	62%
Continuity of supply (%)	0%
Average urban water use (liter/capita/day)	135 [1]
Average urban water and sewer bill for 20m3	US$ 0.90 (unmetered) US$ 0.60 (metered)
Share of household metering	50-63%
Share of collected wastewater treated	low
Annual investment in water supply and sanitation	US$ 3 / capita
Share of self-financing by utilities	nil
Share of tax-financing	high
Share of external financing	low
Institutions
Decentralization to municipalities	Partial
National water and sanitation company	No
Water and sanitation regulator	No
Responsibility for policy setting	Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation; Ministry of Rural Development
Sector law	No
Number of urban service providers	3,255 (1991)
Number of rural service providers	about 100,000

Water supply and sanitation in India continue to be inadequate, despite longstanding efforts by the various levels of government and communities at improving coverage. The situation is particularly inadequate for sanitation, since only one of three Inidans has access to improved sanitation facilities (including improved latrines). While the share of those with access to an improved water source is much higher than for sanitation (86%), the quality of service is poor and most users that are counted as having access receive water of dubious quality and only on an intermittent basis. As of 2003, it was estimated that only 30% of India's waste water was being treated, with the remainder flowing into rivers or groundwater.^[2] The lack of toilet facilities in many areas also presents a major health risk; open defecation is widespread even in urban areas of India,^[3][4] and it was estimated in 2002 by the World Health Organisation that around 700,000 Indians die each year from diarrhoea.^[2]

The level of investment in water and sanitation is relatively high, but the institutions in charge of operating and maintaining the infrastructure - municipalities in urban areas and community-based organizations in rural areas - are weak and lack the financial resources to carry out their functions, partly due to very low tariff levels.

In particular in sanitation, innovative approaches have been initiated to increase especially rural sanitation through community-led total sanitation that emphasizes demand for services and community action instead of supply-driven programs of latrine construction by the government. In rural water supply, the focus has also shifted away from supply-driven to demand-driven approaches.

Access

86% of the population in India has access to an improved water source, but only 33% has access to improved sanitation. In rural areas, where 72% of India’s population lives, the respective shares are 83% for water and only 22% for sanitation.^[5]

According to Indian norms, access to improved water supply exists if at least 40 liters/capita/day of safe drinking water are provided within a distance of 1.6km or 100 meter of elevation difference, to be relaxed as per field conditions. There should be at least one pump per 250 persons.

Service quality

Water and sanitation service quality in India is generally poor. None of the 35 Indian cities with a population of more than one million distribute water for more than a few hours per day, despite generally sufficient infrastructure. Owing to inadequate pressure people struggle to collect water even when it is available. According to the World Bank, none have performance indicators that compare with average international standards. ^[6]

For example in Delhi, residents receive water only a few hours per day because of inadequate management of the distribution system. This results in contaminated water and forces households to complement a deficient public water service at prohibitive `coping' costs; the poor suffer most from this situation.

It is estimated that physical and commercial losses in Delhi are about 40% and 15% of the water produced respectively and that Non-revenue water is close to 60%, once water legally supplied free of charge is taken into account. The sewerage network has lacked maintenance over the years and overflow of raw sewage in open drains is common, due to blockage, settlements and inadequate pumping capacities. The capacity of the 17 existing wastewater treatment plants in Delhi is adequate to cater a daily production of wastewater of less than 50% of the drinking water produced.^[7]

Water supply and water resources

Depleting ground water table and deteriorating ground water quality are threatening the sustainability of both urban and rural water supply in many parts of India.

Responsibility for water supply and sanitation

Water supply and sanitation is a State responsibility under the Indian Constitution. States may give the responsibility to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) in rural areas or municipalities in urban areas, called Urban Local Bodies (ULB). At present, states generally plan, design and execute water supply schemes (and often operate them) through their Sate Departments (of Public Health Engineering or Rural Development Engineering) or Water Boards.

The national trend is to decentralize capital investment to engineering departments at the district level and operation and maintenance to district and gram panchayat levels.^[8]

Highly centralized decision-making and approvals, which are characteristic of the Indian civil service, also affect the management of water supply and sanitation services. For example, the current process of design approvals is centralized with even minor technical approvals reaching the office of chief engineers. A majority of decisions are made in a very centralized manner at the headquarters.^[9]

Policy and regulation

The responsibility for water supply and sanitation at the central and state level is shared by various Ministries. The Ministry of Rural Development is responsible for rural water supply through its Department of Drinking Water Supply (DDWS).

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation is indirectly responsible for water supply and sanitation in the National Capital Territory of Delhi and other Union Territories. Concerning cities in the Indian states where most of the population of India lives, the Ministry only has an advisory capacity and a very limited role in funding.

Unlike in many other countries, there are no autonomous regulatory agencies for water supply and sanitation in India at the state or national level.

Service provision

Urban areas

In urban areas municipalities, called Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) are in charge of operation and maintenance. Some of the largest cities have created municipal water and sanitation utilities. However, these utilities remain weak in terms of financial capacity.

However, in practice decentralization, initiated with a constitutional amendment in 1992, remains far from complete. ULBs remain dependent on capital subsidies from state governments and tariffs are also set by state governments, which often even subsidize operating costs.^[10] Furthermore, there is no separation of accounts for different activities within a municipality, which can lead to the limited tariff revenues to be diverted for uses other than the operation and maintenance of the water and sewer system.

Rural water supply

There are about a 100,000 rural water supply systems in India. Responsibility for service provision is in the process of being transferred from district governments to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI).

Cost recovery is low and a majority of the rural water systems are defunct for lack of maintenance. Some state governments subsidize rural water systems, but funds are scarce and insufficient.^[11]

Despite their professed role Panchayati Raj Institutions currently play only a limited role in provision of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation. There has been limited success in implementing Swajaldhara with low priority by some state governments to support decentralization.^[12]

Rural sanitation

Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) is an innovative methodology for mobilising communities to completely eliminate open defecation. CLTS is characterised by participatory facilitation, community analysis and action, and no hardware subsidy. Communities mobilise themselves to construct latrines and achieve total sanitation. CLTS is an entry point for other livelihoods activities as it mobilises community members towards collective action and empowers them to take further action in the future. Sanitation improvements have immediate health benefits which quickly demonstrate the success of collective action in improving personal and community wide wellbeing. CLTS outcomes illustrate what communities can achieve by undertaking further initiatives for their own development. CLTS was first pioneered in Bangladesh in 1999 and has been widely adopted within that country and beyond, particularly within South and Southeast Asia. CLTS is said to have great potential for contributing towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals, both directly in water and sanitation, and indirectly through the knock-on impacts on combating major diseases and improving maternal health. However, rapid institutional take-up of CLTS is raising some dilemmas and challenges. Not least of these is the need to shift donor mindsets away from a focus on subsidy.^[13]

History and recent developments

Decentralization since 1993

In 1993 the Indian constitution and relevant state legislations were amended in order to decentralize certain responsibilities, including water supply and sanitation, to municipalities. Since the assignment of responsibilities to municipalities is a state responsibility, different states have followed different approaches.

Total Sanitation Campaign since 1999

In 1986, the first structured programme for rural sanitation, the Central Rural Sanitation Programme, but it had minimal community participation. In 1999, the scheme was restructured. It was made more demand-driven and people-centered under the name Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) or Community-led total sanitation (see above). ^[14]

Swajaldhara since 2002

Sin 2002 the Government of India has rolled out at the national level a program to change the way in which water and sanitation services are supported in rural areas. The program, called Swajaldhara, includes the phasing out of supply driven programs; decentralizing service delivery responsibility to rural local governments and user groups; adopting an integrated approach to water supply and sanitation and improving hygiene behavior; generating sanitation demand through awareness campaigns. It follows a pilot program launched in 1999. ^[15]

Efficiency

There are only limited data on the operating efficiency of utilities in India, and even fewer data on the efficiency of investments. Based on anecdotal evidence, it seems that levels of non-revenue water are high and labor productivity is low.

For example in Delhi, non-revenue water stood at 53% and there were about 20 employees per 1000 connections. Furthermore, only 70% of revenue billed was actually collected. ^[16]

Tariffs and cost recovery

Water and sewer tariffs in India are generally low and do not recover operating and maintenance costs.

Urban areas

A typical water tariff charged to urban residential customers with meters in India was around 1.5 Rupees per cubic meter (US$ 0.03) in 2002, only about one tenth of operating and maintenance costs.^[17] Urban residential customers without meters paid on average around 45 Rupees (US$ 0.90) per month in 2002, only about one seventh of operating and maintenance costs. Industrial customers pay much more than residential customers, but still less than the economic cost of water supply. About 62% of urban water customers in metropolitan areas and 50% in smaller cities are metered.^[18] Users of standposts receive water free of charge.

Urban water tariffs are highly affordable. A family of five living on the poverty line (US$9 per capita per month in 2000) which uses 20 cubic meter of water per month would spend 1.2% of its budget if it has a water meter and 2.0% of its budget if it does not have a water meter on its water bill. This percentage lies well below the widely used affordability threshold of 5%.^[19]

There is little targeting of subsidies in Indian water tariffs given that all consumers pay less than full costs. According to the World Bank, 70% of those benefiting from subsidies channeled towards private connections are not poor, while 40% of the poor who do not use any public water services are excluded altogether.^[20]

Delhi example

In Delhi revenues were just sufficient to cover about 60% of operating costs of the city’s utility in 2004; maintenance has, as a result, been minimal. In the past, the Delhi utility has relied heavily on government financial support for recurrent and capital expenditures in the magnitude of Rupees 3 billion/year (US$65 million/year) and Rupees 7 billion/year (US$155 million/year) respectively. As financial support for both capital and recurrent expenditures has been passed on as loans by the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, the utility’s balance sheet is loaded with a huge debt totaling about Rupees 50 billion (US$1.1 billion) that it is unlikely to be able to service. Accounts receivable represent more than 12 months of billing, part of it being non recoverable. ^[21]

The average tariff was estimated at US$ 0.074/m3 in 2001, compared to production costs of US$ 0.085/m3, the latter probably being a very conservative estimate that does not take into account capital costs.^[22]

Rural areas

In Karnataka tariffs in rural areas cover only one third or less of operation and maintenance costs, leading to deficient maintenance and poor services.^[23]

In rural areas in Punjab, operation and maintenance cost recovery is only about 20%. On one side the O&M expenditures are high due to high salary levels, high power tariff and high number of operating staff. On the other side, revenue is paid only by the 10% of the households who have private connections, while those drawing water from public stand posts do not pay any water charges at all (though the official tariff for public stand post users is Rs.15 / month per household).^[24]

Subsidies

There are no accurate recent estimates of the level of subsidies for water and sanitation in India. It has been estimated that transfers to the water sector in India amounted to 5.470.8 crore (US$ 1.1 billion) per year in the mid-1990s, accounting for 4% of all government subsidies in India. About 98% of this subsidy is said to come from State rather than Central budgets.^[25] This figure may only cover recurrent cost subsidies and not investment subsidies, which are even higher (see below). Given the low level of cost recovery (see above) the actual level of recurrent subsidies may be even higher than the estimate above.

Investment and financing

Amounts

During the 9th Plan (1997-2000) 395bn Rupees (in current prices) were invested by the central government and state governments in water supply and sanitation. ^[26] This corresponds to about US$ 9.2bn using the 1999 exchange rate, or US$ 3.1bn annually assuming that the 9th Plan covered three years. This corresponds to about US$ 3 per capita. This investment level is low compared to countries with a similar level of development.

The share of water and sanitation investments in total plan investments was 4.6%, which was the highest share of water and sanitation investments in total investments in the history of India. About 94bn Rupees (24%) are financed by the central government and 301bn Rupees by state governments (76%). Central government-financed investments are heavily focused on rural areas, with a total of 88bn Rupies or 93% of centrally financed investments. There was an equally strong focus on water, accounting for 93% of centrally financed investments, as opposed to only 7% for sanitation. ^[27]

Institutions

State Financing Corporations (SFC) play an important role in making recommendations regarding the allocation of state tax revenues between states and municipalities, criteria for grants, and measures to improve the financial position of municipalities. SFCs are in some cases not sufficiently transparent and/or competent, have high transactions costs, and their recommendations are sometimes not being implemented. ^[28]

The current system of financing water supply and sanitation is fragmented through a number of different national and state programs. This results in simultaneous implementation with different and conflicting rules in neighboring areas. In rural areas different programs undermine each other, adversely affecting demand driven approaches requiring cost sharing by users as in Swajaldhara Schemes.

References