The poverty pockets in the cities usually do not have sustainable water supply, and augmentation of the water services to the poor does not figure in the priority list of urban civic bodies. Indore is no exception to this phenomenon. To overcome the challenge, District Urban Development Agency (DUDA), Indore, United Nations Human Settlement Program (UN-HABITAT) and Community Water and Sanitation Committee (CWSC, specially constituted for the implementation of the scheme), in partnership, has initiated a Community Managed Water Supply Scheme (CMWSS).

CMWSS has been initiated with the objective of improvement in the quality of life of the urban poor and economically disadvantaged people by providing them safe drinking water. The scheme involved the construction of an elevated Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) reservoir and laying of a distribution pipeline for 1,200 households (HHs) to provide 70 liters per capita per day (lpcd) for at least 4 hours a day.

The scheme has targeted 1,200 below poverty line (BPL) HHs in the identified slums of Indore, i.e., Shiv Nagar, Shahin Nagar, Pawan Putra Nagar, Kamal Nagar and Chowadhary Colony. These are all notified slums and the residents of these slums do not have any reliable source of potable water and have to depend on private borewell owners for their requirements or have to fetch the water from long distance.
DUDA has conducted a comprehensive survey to assess the current resources and demand for the water supply project. A technical team of engineers has also conducted a survey to identify the scheme location and site for the construction of the elevated reservoir. The CWSC was converted into a legal entity to carry out the responsibilities of planning, designing, implementation, Operation and Maintenance (O&M) and overall management of CMWSS, which includes the periodic checks of supplied water, with the technical support of Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) and DUDA. Adequate women participation has been ensured in CWSC.

A Revolving Water Fund (RWF) has been constituted with the fund provided by UN-HABITAT, which is being managed by DUDA. The community was provided a loan equal to the capital cost of the scheme from the RWF to meet the infrastructure development cost, which is being paid back by the community to the DUDA in installments.

Based on the calculated water demand, DUDA will provide the water to CWSC at bulk water charges. CWSC was made responsible for the collection of water charges from HHs and would repay the amount to DUDA. After a number of consultations with key stakeholders, it has been decided that the connection charges will be paid in 5 monthly installments with user charges, and beneficiaries have been given flexibility of weekly and fortnightly payments.
As one of the outputs, around 1,200 BPL HHs, approximately 6000 people, have got access to safe drinking water on a sustainable basis. A technically sound infrastructure has been built.

As intended, now beneficiaries do not have to travel long distances or waste their productive time for their requirement of drinking water. The supply of quality water has improved public health, specially of women and children. IMC did not have to spare its human resource, as the community was involved in the O&M. The scheme enhanced the capacity of local administration in taking up schemes/projects based on community participation. The participatory implementation process demonstrated a successful workable partnership between the local government and the community, and set the ground for scaling up/provision of other civic services.
Tariff structure and connection charges have been decided by considering the monthly O&M cost and water charges and recovery of capital cost to repay the loan to UN-HABITAT. The rational tariff structure assures the recovery of the entire capital cost with a payback period of 46 months. It is proposed that on the completion of the payback period, the CWSC would be resolved and the entire scheme would be handed over to IMC for integration with the municipal water supply.

CMWSS has proven prospects for community-managed sustainable drinking water supply at affordable costs through empowerment of communities and their capacity building. To replicate the scheme in urban areas with the partnership of the community, community-based organizations and the local administration, the Government of Madhya Pradesh has issued guidelines for its effective implementation.

For further details, contact:

Mr. Vivek Agarwal, IAS
Collector
Indore District