Water Pricing

This seminar paper submitted for the UGC Summer Programme at the Jamia Millia Islamia University describes the findings of a study that explored the quantity of water used in domestic households vis-à-vis the recommended quantity of water consumption in seven major Indian cities, namely, Delhi, Kanpur, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Madurai. The study also attempted to find out equity in consumption of water across various socio-economic groups, sources of water supply, perception of households about quality of municipal water, and duration of municipal water supplyRead More

This paper by Montek Singh Ahluwalia in Economic and Political Weekly attempts to review the recent performance of the economy and lists the priorities and challenges for the Twelfth Plan. The year 2011-12 is the last year of the Eleventh Plan and this is therefore an appropriate time to review what has been achieved with a view to identify weaknesses in the strategy that need to be corrected, and also identify new challenges that may require new initiatives. The paper is presented in the hope of spurring a broader discussion on these issues.

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This report is based on the experience of women’s collectives promoted by Sahjeevan and of several member organizations of Abhiyan on local water governance, in particular on the demonstrated models of decentralized drinking water that they have taken up in several villages. Based on these experiences, Sahjeevan has formulated water governance guidelines for practitioners, which has been presented in this report.

Water has been the central theme for development in Kutch. In the last two decades, a scaling up process of decentralized drinking water, popularly known as Pani Thiye Panjo, has been initiated in around hundred villages of Abdasa taluka in Kutch district of Gujarat focusing on development of local drinking water sources, their strengthening and building capacities of communities for maintenance and management of the systems to develop drinking water security at the village level.

The concept of Pani Thiye Panjo, has been well accepted as Abdasa model, which besides providing drinking water security, initiated policy dialogues at the local level on issues such as protection of groundwater, pricing mechanism of water (local vis-à-vis external sources), role of Panchayati Raj Institutions in water governance, role of local youth in developing their technical capacities and development of social capital in management of drinking water systems.

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This study on “Urban Water Pricing” by the National Institute of Public Finance Policy grew out of the need to continue and deepen the process of urban sector reforms. It underlines, in this regard, the importance of a responsible municipal fiscal and financial system, simplification of existing water pricing and tariff structures, and regulatory mechanisms which are able to balance the interests of the producers and consumers of urban services.

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