Reaching every doorstep

Water is probably the most essential yet understated among resources. Today, water is not just treated as a commodity; it is a prerequisite for human survival. At the global stage, there has been an acceptance of water as a human right. While these discussions started in the 1950s, in 2002, the adoption of General Comment No. 15 by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights brought a paradigm shift in the debate on access to water. It brought water into the global human rights agenda: "The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses". We have come a long way since then. In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution A/64/292 which "recognised the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights". The United Nations has also specifically dedicated a Sustainable Development Goal — SDG 6 — on water which aims at ensuring universal and equitable access to safe and affordable water by the year 2030.

However, discrepancies in the water supply have the potential to generate conflicts. The access to water (or lack of it) within the umbrella theme of hydro-politics is recurrent among some of the current international and intra-national conflicts. Whether it is a dispute over water in Nile Basin or Euphrates-Tigris dispute between Turkey, Syria and Iraq, water has a propensity to fuel conflict. Closer home, we also see multiple disputes on the water from Krishna, Cauvery, the Godavari to the water dispute between Punjab and Haryana.

One of the primary reasons for these disputes is the state's responsibility to provide access to water to its residents. Indiscriminate use of water, especially in areas where water is readily available, water pollution and climate change have led to water scarcity. Further, many developing countries lack basic water delivery infrastructure.

Relatively, very few developing countries have been able to make progress in overall access to clean and safe water. While the thrust should be on providing a sustainable source of residential water supply, developing countries have relied on the widespread use of common public water standpipes to provide access to water.

India is one of the exceptions which has made strides in providing access to clean and affordable tap water connections to residents of rural India through Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). It is a decentralised, demand-driven and community-managed programme. The mission aims at providing safe and adequate drinking water [55 litres per capita per day (LCPD)] through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in rural India.

Through JJM which was launched on August 15, 2019, access to tap water has improved exponentially. We will talk about the quality of water at a later stage. Within a short span of two years, the mission has provided access to clean and affordable tap water to 4,95,62,178 (25.78 per cent) rural households. Today, 8,19,25,016 i.e., 42.61 per cent of total rural households in the country have functional tap water connections, an increase of over 150 per cent.

Some states have done exceptionally well, while in others, there is a scope of scaling up of the JJM. Goa, Telangana, A & N Islands, Puducherry, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu are some states and UTs having 100 per cent households with tap water connections. Haryana (99.99 per cent), Gujarat (87.40 per cent), Bihar (87.60 per cent) & Punjab (86.59 per cent) have also performed well. In Haryana, 6,789 villages out of 6,803 villages have access to functional tap water connections. The state will soon join Telangana in the club of states with 100 per cent functional tap water connections. In comparison, Uttar Pradesh (12.60 per cent), West Bengal (12.68 per cent), Chhattisgarh (12.82 per cent), Jharkhand (14.79 per cent) & Rajasthan (20.77 per cent) will have to perform exceptionally well for ensuring universal rural access to tap water by 2024. The disparity in tap water connections exists for three primary reasons:

(a) States had a different starting point in their quest for providing access to tap water connections. Telangana had launched Mission Bhagirathi in 2016, and Gujarat had provided access to 70 per cent of rural households even before the launch of JJM.

(b) While the Union government provides financial support and technical assistance to the state governments, the state governments implement the programme. Thus, the level of priority which a state accords to JJM varies. For instance, Puri in Odisha became one of the first cities in the country where drinking water can be accessed 24x7 in every household. While JJM only covers rural areas, Odisha was able to provide tap water connections to even urban areas. Contrary to popular belief, it is a bit difficult to provide tap water connections at the household level in urban areas. Odisha was also able to provide tap water connections to 66,000 slum dwellers.

(c) The topography, size and population of the state are some of the factors which determine the implementation of the programme. More than 80 per cent of rural households in states such as West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh with high population density are yet to make significant progress on this metric.

Nevertheless, providing access to potable water is not the sole achievement of JJM. Access to water tends to have a multiplier effect, especially when it comes to gender equity. Some of these possible outcomes of JJM would be:

(1) Empirical evidence from developing countries suggests that proximity to water leads to a reduction of women's participation in their own agricultural production and other unpaid work. Thus, easy access to water provides an avenue for women to participate in market-based income-generating activities.

(2) Evidence also suggests that in the countries with significant gender gaps in schooling, with the increase in access to water, the enrolment of both boys and girls increases. Thus, JJM may also lead to higher gross enrolment ratios in future.

(3) In 2016, the total number of deaths attributed globally to inadequate drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene behaviours (WASH) was 8,29,000. For the same year, the mortality rate attributed to unsafe water, unsafe sanitation and lack of hygiene (per 1.00,000 population) was 18.6 in India. In contrast, the world average was just 11.6. There is a causal link between inadequate WASH measures and the global disease burden. Complemented by Swachh Bharat Mission, JJM would ensure the burden of diseases such as diarrhoea, respiratory infections, malnutrition, schistosomiasis, malaria, soil-transmitted helminth infections, and trachoma becomes minimal. Today, more than one crore households in 61 districts severely affected by Japanese Encephalitis-Acute Encephalitis Syndrome have access to clean drinking waters through taps due to JJM.

(4) JJM also marks a radical shift in governance. Since independence, India has moved from a paternalistic state to a state that appreciates participatory governance. Participatory governance moves beyond the traditional view, which sees citizens merely as voters or 'watchdogs'. It recognises that the citizen can play a critical role in the governance process. In participatory governance, the citizen contributes through direct deliberative engagement with the pressing issues of the time. JJM is a perfect example of participatory governance in play. Under the mission, the water supply system is operated and maintained by the Gram Panchayat or its sub-committee, i.e., Village Water & Sanitation Committee (VWSC) or Pani Samiti. The Samiti comprises 10-15 members, out of which at least 50 per cent are women. The Samiti is tasked to create the village action plan after discussion with all the key stakeholders. This entails the planning of strengthening and augmenting drinking water sources within the village.

(5) The universal nature of the JJM goes beyond spatial, economic and caste segregation in a stratified society. Caste has always mediated access to water in many parts of the country. Even in today's day and age, studies have shown that Dalits' access to public water sources is actively obstructed. JJM has helped in getting rid of social evil. Further, the JJM also recognises the level of stratification in villages and gives proportionate representation to weaker sections of the village in Pani Samiti.

(6) JJM has instilled accountability in public policy through a dashboard that provides real-time information on the number of functional potable water connections in the villages, districts, and states. It has details of all the schools and anganwadis in the village and whether they have access to functional water connections or not. By using sensor-based IoT devices, JJM constantly monitors the supply of drinking water to every village and which gets displayed on the dashboard. Further, the dashboard has details of Pani Samiti members as well as the pump operator. To test the quality of water and whether it is fit for drinking, field testing kits are provided to at least five women of every village.

Despite all its achievements in short-term and expected policy outcomes, the JJM should ensure that the habitations and villages which have already been covered do not slip back. Before JJM, the National Drinking Water Program (NDWP), launched in 2009, tried to provide safe and adequate water for drinking, cooking and other domestic needs to every rural person on a sustainable basis. However, only 14.83 per cent of the rural household had functional tap water connections after 10 years of the launch of NDWP.

One should quote the 2018 CAG report on performance audit of NDWP: "Coverage of rural habitations increased by only eight per cent at 40 LPCD and 5.5 per cent on the basis of 55 LPCD during 2012-17 despite the expenditure of ` 81,168 crores". The report further states the problem of slippages and how 4.76 lakh habitations had slipped back during the period 2012-2017. The reasons which the report gives for slipping back from universal access to water to partially covered are "excessive extraction of groundwater, the inadequacy of efforts to address, quality-related aspects, lack of sustainability of water sources, and inadequate/non-maintenance of water supply schemes".

This brings us to the issue of ensuring that there are sustainable sources of water. After all, JJM primarily deals with the retail end, i.e., water delivery. According to the Composite Water Management Index (2019), the per capita water availability is close to or lower than 1,000 m3 for 820 million people in India, which is also the official threshold for water scarcity as per the Falkenmark Index. JJM would have undoubtedly increased the access to water for a significant portion of the population, but still, the cloud of water scarcity looms large. Further, indiscriminate groundwater use, be it for domestic or agricultural use, has created severe water stress, especially in green revolution states. On average, 2,500 to 3,000 litres of water is used to grow 1 Kg of paddy. Cultivation of paddy in the states which are already reeling from the freshwater crisis further exacerbates the problem.

Cues could be taken from innovative water conservation schemes and practices of various state governments. Haryana gives an incentive of Rs 7,000/acre to farmers for non-paddy crops. It promotes crop diversification and helps in checking the depletion of the groundwater table. Mission Kakatiya in Telangana, which broadly aims at developing minor irrigation and renovating and restoring water tanks and ponds in villages, has contributed to up to four meters rise in the groundwater level. The Mukhya Mantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan in Rajasthan has adopted a participatory approach to making villages self-sufficient in water by reviving water bodies, water conservation, rainwater harvesting and building check dams. The Jal Shakti Ministry's "Catch the Rain" programme under National Water Mission, by acknowledging the contextual and geospatial realities, nudges all the stakeholders and state governments to create appropriate Rainwater Harvesting Structures (RWHS).

The common thread in all the successful water conservation, harvesting and delivery programmes across the world and India is the adoption of a participatory approach. Without involving the stakeholders, it is difficult to create sustainable water solutions. The use of participatory approaches to water management has been a watershed moment for water governance in India. In all likelihood, before the 75th year of adoption of the Constitution, 100 per cent of rural households in India will get access to potable tap water. Now the focus should be on water harvesting and conservation.

Views expressed are personal