India’s Water Supplies: Drops in a Drying Ocean (Part I)

By Lalitha Sridhar**

Dec. 27, 2005

Indian cities rate as having among the lowest quality of life in the world (Urban Water Supply and Sanitation sector review (UWSS) 1997). This is closely linked to the poor water services and sanitation infrastructure. The Asian Development Bank said as far back as 1993 that something as basic as the availability of water 24 hours a day has been unheard of in most Indian towns for decades.

A large number of households depend on their own private tube wells and pumps for their daily needs. Water tables are falling at dramatic rates and areas with limited groundwater, or where heavy metal composition is high, impose large costs on households, even those who are capable of pumping the groundwater.

Approximately 70 percent of urban Indian households depend on tap water, and a relatively insignificant number on tankers (Urban Infrastructure Report (UIR) 2004). About 27 percent of households rely upon underground sources of water via wells, tube wells, and hand pumps. Almost 59 percent of urban households share water with their neighbors or the community receives its supply as a whole and what is received commonly is shared. The residents or the co-operative housing society office or the urban authority’s local division office ensures all houses in the community get water in a fair way, sometimes by ensuring supply during particular hours of the day when everybody fills up in their individual tanks, which will keep them going till the following morning, a critical issue in levying water charges. Nearly 61 percent have to transport water from the main source. The UIR points out that not only is the penetration of municipal water supply low, it is also quite poor in terms of access.

Even though a government study estimates that 85 percent of India’s urban population have access to water supplies, the UWSS 1997 points to the fact that consumers experience regular shortages on a daily basis. In the nation’s capital, for example, only 20 percent of the population receives 24 hours water supply, 60 percent gets it for up to 4-12 hours and the rest are connected for less than 4 hours. An ADB study of 1993 indicated that the majority of consumers would, in fact, be satisfied with a supply of less than 5-6 hours per day.

The National Census 2001 puts India’s total population in March 2001 at 1027.02 million. The percentage of urban population to total population of the country in 2001 stood at 27.8 percent. At the aggregate level, 21 percent of the urban population is living in squatter settlements, where access to basic services is extremely poor. Further surveys have revealed that 61 percent of the surface water supply sources for cities of population greater than 0.1 million are highly contaminated.

In India, studies indicate that up to 50-60 percent of the water being treated and pumped is “lost,” or unaccounted for. The traditional approach to meeting increased water requirements in India has been augmenting capacity. Existing assets, created at considerable cost, are allowed to deteriorate even as new investments are made (Project Notes from the Indo-US Financial Institutions Reform and Expansion Project—Debt Market Component FIRE(D), Funded by United States Agency for International Development Note No. 23, November 2000).

Besides the loss in economic terms, water leakages are a potential health hazard (for example the outbreak of hepatitis in West Delhi in August 1999 that was attributed to water contamination at a leaking point on the distribution pipeline). Unaccounted for Water (UFW) is defined as the difference between the water produced and supplied to the distribution system, including the water sold. This difference may be attributable to physical losses due to leakages and to administrative or non-physical losses due to unrecorded supply.

Physical losses occur due to leakage or overflow of water in the system. Reasons for leaks include neglect, poor quality of material or workmanship, age and corrosion of the network, leaking joints, lack of suitable appurtenances (e.g. pressure vessels, air valves), uneven ground settlement, and vehicular or other pressure on the network. Evaporation, excessive washing (backwashing of filters), leaks in mains, reservoirs and pipes also contribute to UFW.

Administrative losses include municipal and illegal users, stand posts, charitable and religious institutions, and other un-metered connections, theft, accounting errors arising from faulty meters, poor records, and wrong reading. The ability of most cities to identify sources of the losses is constrained because their water distribution systems are not zoned and lack metering, and their network maps and consumer databases are inadequate. Almost half the water supplied to Indian cities is thus lost.

The FIRE(D) project report recommends that UFW can be addressed by local officials in many ways. The first step is to set up systems to isolate its specific sources of water. This can be done by measuring water production and consumption accurately, conducting a consumer census to identify legal, illegal, and potential connections. This census must also categorize connections as domestic/non-domestic.

Also, a network census has to be undertaken by mapping the network and taking inventory of pipes, valves, and other components that include their age, material, diameter, and condition. Macro-metering of all major supply zones and micro-metering of all consumers is also recommended. Surveys are required to measure normal velocity and flow pressure in the distribution network; abnormal flows could indicate leaks.

Some water supply management recommendations of the FIRE(D) project include: increasing consumer awareness, regulating supplies to consumers, preventive maintenance, better quality control of infrastructure, training personnel, addressing water theft, and controlling unrecorded supply to stand posts. Also municipal uses, religious and charitable institutions, and others, regularizing illegal connections, and installing and repairing meters are others.

It is pointed out that Macao (a special administrative region of China in Eastern Asia) decreased its UFW from 40 to 11 percent through targeted initiatives. Singapore’s success in reducing UFW from 10.6 percent in 1989 to 6.2 percent in 1995 is attributed primarily to the sustained efforts adopted by its public utility.

In an Indian example, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB), with funding from the World Bank, repaired 474 of 615 leaks identified on 408 kilometers of transmission main, between 1996 and 1998. A study had also found that 82 percent of domestic meters and 92 percent of bulk consumer meters were not working. So, the Board installed 60,000 new domestic meters, 590 non-domestic and 126 bulk consumer meters between 1996 and 1998. In addition, the Board announced a general amnesty in 1996 and regularized more than 6,000 illegal connections by levying a small penalty. As a result of these measures, the Board estimated that UFW in the entire system has been reduced by approximately 8 percent.

The Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) undertook a pilot leak detection study in 1999. A stretch of 6.2 kilometers of the main trunk line was selected because of its history of leaks and high number of service joints. Conducted with a local academic institution, and using leak-sounding instruments, the study located 17 leaks. The KMC repaired the first leak in early 2000, but lacks funds to repair the others.

To deal with administrative losses, the corporation aimed to improve collection of water charges. First, it identified major defaulters and sent notices to 461 customers who had not paid water bills since 1992. It also identified and regularized, upon payment of a fine, 200 illegal connections. The corporation periodically issues press releases to increase public awareness and support these measures. (Information based on presentations at a workshop on Improved Management Systems for Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Services in Maharashtra, organized jointly by the Government of Maharashtra, Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran, and Indo-US FIRE project at Nashik in December 1998).

Intermittent supply and poor maintenance affects mainly the household distributory mains. About 82 percent of the leakage takes place in the household connections, the rest through deliberate puncturing of the distributory mains. Irregular supplies lead to considerable additional wastage through water hoarding and disposal. The UIR 2004 recommends service contracts given in various localities at a pipe width of 150 mm (to the power of 4). Contractors can then be made responsible for maintenance of distributory pipes, attending to complaints, 24 hour water supply, metering, billing, and collecting.

Uninterrupted water supply would also reduce corrosion, leakage, contamination, and, metering would reduce the demand for water and wastage at the household level, enabling demand to be kept below the available supply. The UIR report recommends that slum households be given one tap each, and the number of stand posts reduced. Another feasible option would be to give households a choice of a high fixed cost and low unit charge compared to a low fixed cost and a water charge that increases with consumption slabs.

“As a general rule, they’re heavily overstaffed, provide poor quality, are unwilling or unable to invest, with not enough money to serve everybody.” John Briscoe, author of the World Bank’s Water Resource Sector Strategy, on the public sector.

“…..the private sector does have a valid role to play—not as the owner of water resources but in providing the much-needed expertise, technology and financing for the delivery of efficient water services.” Improving urban water supply through partnership, Alfredo Pascual, Asian Development Bank, in The Hindu, 21 Jan 2003.

“Private sector participation may help in introducing innovative ideas, generating financial resources and introducing corporate management and improving service efficiency and accountability to users.” Water Policy of the Government of India, April 1, 2002.

Privatization of urban water supplies is viewed as an uncertain, even dangerous answer by some. Activists against privatization demand greater participation, transparency and dialogue before an unprepared country is faced with another harsh reality.

Health & Science Please feel free to contact the Health & Science editor at: ScienceTech@islam-online.net Science News | Health and Alternative Medicine   Faith and Science/Medicine | Institutions and Scientists Environment | Computers and Communications | Genetics| Technology Natural Sciences | Muslim Heritage back

Read Also:

• Water Is a Necessity but Safety First!

• Sanitation as a Way of Life

• Water for People, Water for Life, For the Right Price