This paper was done by WaterAid to assess and understand the context of Rural Water and Sanitation programme in the state of Madhya Pradesh. This is a follow up of a desk review and explores the issue of water and sanitation in various dimensions and finds out that the current state of water and sanitation in Madhya Pradesh falls short on equity, inclusion, ensuring water security and sustainability of water sources.

The study observes that the state of social and economic inequity prevailing in the rural areas is creating differentiation in access, availability and affordability of services related to water and sanitation and concludes that the delivery machinery does not seem to be equipped to handle these inequities. It also finds that water quality has been deteriorating and that this will have a significant impact on health and well being of the community in the future.

The study recommends that a human rights framework be adopted to develop programmes and a rights based approach for designing interventions in the sector of water and sanitation while ensuring that issues of governance are integrated into the programme design. The state of social and economic inequity prevailing in the rural areas are creating differentiations in access, availability and affordability of services related to water and sanitation and the delivery machinery does not seem to be equipped to handle these inequities.

It also sends a warning signal on the deteriorating water quality and its impact on health and well being of the community. Issues of governance need to be closely integrated in any water and sanitation programme approach with a sharper focus on entitlements and the quality and efficiency of delivery mechanism.

The present study assumes that each context presents its own array of related issues that have to be addressed through a matrix of programmes that strategise interventions in terms of geographical and thematic targeting to maximise impact on vulnerable groups.

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