Solution Exchange discussion: Best Practices on Water Demand Management in Cities – Experiences

Compiled by Pankaj Kumar S., Resource Person and Ramya Gopalan, Research Associate

From Aniruddhe Mukerjee, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Bhopal

Dear Members,

I work for the UN-Habitat on the Water for Asian Cities Programme, which aims to support developing countries in Asia and Pacific to achieve sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation for the poor, particularly in urban areas. In Madhya Pradesh, the programme is working in four cities of the state, viz. Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore and Jabalpur for improvement and expansion of urban water supply, sewerage and sanitation, water drainage and solid waste management.

Traditionally, augmenting supplies has been a strategy for meeting the demand for water requiring huge capital investments, search for new water sources, laying new transmission network, construction of treatment systems, and so on. However, this approach is exerting more and more pressure on available water resources and is also leading to over-exploitation of groundwater in some cases. Consequently, the approach being followed by our programme consists of influencing water usage practices, minimising losses and leakages and thereby managing the demand to meet the supply of water.

The programme intends to influence water usages practices, policies and measures for optimisation of available water in the municipal water supply system. Specific steps proposed in the “Water Demand Management” strategy are:

• Formulation of strategy and implementation plan for water demand management.
• Assessment of current water supply situation and estimation of Unaccounted for Water (UFW) in the entire water supply system from intake to final distribution to the consumer; preparation of a proper water balance.
• Taking up water auditing, flow metering, extensive leak detection and the establishment of district-metered areas.
• Appropriate technical, financial and institutional interventions for water demand management.

The Water Community members are requested to please share experiences, suggestions and best practices in other parts of India on the above steps. Your inputs will help us enhance the design and implementation of this programme, and will be deeply appreciated.

Responses were received with thanks from:

1. Sacchidananda Mukherjee

   , Madras School of Economics, Chennai

2. Ramakrishna Nallathiga

   , Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad (Response 1; Response 2)

3. S. Vishwanath

   , Rainwater Club and Arghyam Trust, Bangalore 

4. Irene Stephen

   , UNDP, New Delhi

5. Surendra Kumar Yadav

   , National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi

6. Debadutta K. Panda

   , MP Associates, Bhubaneswar

7. Rahul Banerjee

   , Aarohini Trust, Indore  

8. G. Misra

   , Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Port Blair 

9. Shashidharan

   Enarth, University of British Columbia, Canada

10. Jyotsna Bapat

    , Independent Consultant, New Delhi

11. Nandini Gopalamenon

    , Health and Family Welfare Training Centre, Kozhikode

12. A. Prabaharan

    , Public Action, New Delhi

13. Ajit Seshadri

    , The Vigyan Vijay Foundation, New Delhi

14. R.C. Chhipa

    , Centre for Air and Water Modelling, Gyan Vihar, Jaipur

15. R. Jagannathan

    , FABCON Engineers (P) Ltd., Chennai

16. N. K. Agarwal

    , Geological Survey of India (GSI), Dehradun (Response 1; Response 2)

17. D. K. Paul

    , KAB-II, PUSA, ICAR, New Delhi

18. Mrinalinee Vanarase

    , IORA for Environmental Solutions, Pune

Summary of Responses

In the context of a program in four cities of Madhya Pradesh for enhancing water availability for the poor, the query sought inputs from members in designing and implementing water demand management interventions. Members responded by providing general principles for designing such a system and outlined technical, economic and institutional issues related to the same.

Respondents agreed that there was an urgent need to take up demand management in the face of increasing water scarcity. They also stressed that judicious and non-wasteful use of water was immediately required to ensure that water could be made available to a large chunk of the poorest sections in India, and cited an ADB study endorsing this. Additionally, the sustainability of water sources has been falling due to degrading ecological conditions, and as water is brought from long distances, the costs of treatment and transportation have increased drastically. Members also pointed out that the current structure of subsidies does not induce conservative water use. In this context, they recommended collective action for the protection of local sources and for enhancing groundwater recharge both in urban and rural areas as the only way to ensure the sustainability of water resources.

Discussing the process of formulating the strategy for such a programme, participants stressed that often, lack of adequate, reliable and realistic data led to poor planning and delivery of water supply schemes. Such data should include the exact and projected data on population, actual demand of water both for resident populations from all sections of society as well as from tourists, the types of sources which were currently being used by this population, the difference in the quality of water between various sources, etc. Some respondents disagreed with the paradigm that 24 X 7 piped water supply was the only way to provide water supply, and stressed that current use of other water sources should be studied, and if possible, incorporated in the planning process. This would ensure that while low-quality water could be used for needs such as flushing, drinking water requirement could be met through safe piped water, thereby reducing the pressure on the piped system. Members also added that during planning, the Unaccounted For Water should not be always seen as a loss to society, as many a time, leakages in large pipelines served the need of the poorest populations who did not have access to regular water supply in urban and peri-urban areas.

The group also pointed out that demand calculations must look at the impact on groundwater resources which meets water need in a large number of settlements. In this connection, they also explored the linkages of urban water demand with spiralling water demand in agriculture. Since irrigation is one of the major consumers of water, participants stressed the urgent need to improve water use efficiency in agriculture, thus freeing up water for drinking. They suggested a number of measures that could be taken up to enhance water use efficiency in agriculture such as crop breeding for efficient water utilization and drought tolerance; improved cultural, agronomic and field practices; low-cost supplemental irrigation technologies for rainfed/water scarce areas (especially in watershed management projects); improved irrigation management practices and precision irrigation; integrating recycling and reuse of wastewater into basin and irrigation management and resource management to ensure sustainability of water resources within basins.

Discussants emphasised that any programme for demand management of water must start with building awareness of water users towards conservation of water. They proposed a number of methods for reuse, recycling and reducing wasteful use of water. For example, quoting a case study from Orissa, they mentioned that underground leakage in water distribution pipeline was often not detected for days, leading to a loss of pressure, reduction in time of availability and loss of water due to leakage. Respondents also pointed out that water infrastructure had a tendency of being distributed in an uneven manner – in some colonies, multiple modes of water supply were available (such as handpumps, pipelines, etc.), in other colonies (especially of the marginalised sections), not even one mode of water supply was available. They also described an instance from the Andaman & Nicobar Islands where water supply had no correlation to water needs and stressed for the need to collect data for ensuring better matching the demand and supply.

Discussants also emphasised that while demand management is an important issue, it is also necessary to look at the supply of water, which can be enhanced through ensuring that every source is protected, and through measures such as watershed development and roof water harvesting. Another reason for poor availability of water supply discussants mentioned was the sectoral nature of various line departments associated with water supply such as lack of clarity between functions and responsibilities, unfavourable cost-benefit analysis, inadequate demand assessment, insufficient allocation of funds, inter-state disputes, etc.

The centralised system of collecting and transporting water has proved itself unsustainable due to the extremely high energy, water and capital investments it requires, felt members. They proposed that instead of investing in wasteful centralised systems, subsidised loans should be provided to collectives to install decentralised waste management systems. In this regard, they described a system being used in Indore for such treatment.

Economic measures suggested by respondents included proper metering of water supply, block tariffs to ensure that consumption above a slab was charged at an extra rate and tariff structures to induce conservation in domestic water use. Use of pro-poor measures such as tariff structures based on house or plot area as being done in Bangalore in this regard could also be used. Additionally, the group stressed the primary need to involve local users and communities in planning and to create and support proper institutional mechanisms for the management of water. Suggestions from members ranged from supporting multi-stakeholder (government-community-CBOs) institutions, self-help groups, to empowering water user associations and decentralised community-based organisations. Among technical measures related to demand management, members gave a number of suggestions for treatment, reuse and recycling of water and mentioned biological measures such as reeds for leaching away contaminants.

In conclusion, members agreed that demand management was crucial, and stressed the importance of collecting the right data for proper planning and enhancing awareness of water users. Sustainability of water resources and interlinkages with agricultural water use are other areas that need to be looked at. In the long run, members reiterated, effective water demand management will depend on crafting appropriate economic, technical and institutional interventions with an aware user population.

Comparative Experiences

Madhya Pradesh

From

Rahul Banerjee

Urban Water Supply and Environmental Improvement

This Asian Development Bank (ADB) study indicates that the no-revenue component in all the state’s cities is over 50% with transmission and distribution losses over 20%. Substandard services led to declining water availability, now only 30 litres/capita/day and with no wastewater/sewage treatment. ADB acknowledged the cost ineffectiveness of water supply and wastewater disposal services and initiated better cost recovery systems.

Soak Pit System in Indore

In the Aarohini Trust, office-cum-residence, installed a soak pit system and planted near the soak pit big leafy creepers. This system treats wastewater before it goes into the subsoil. The creepers have grown to cover walls and roof of the building, absorbing and evapotranspirating the wastewater, which along with the leaves keep the building cool. Thus, even at the peak of summer when the temperature hits 45 degrees C there is no need for fans.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Need and Availability of Water Supply in Port Blair

In the Port Blair Municipality, residences receive water once every three days. Irrespective of the family size, tanks are installed on roofs and filled with water (500 litres/1,000 litres according to the type of quarter i.e. Type III or Type IV). No studies have been to understand the correlation between water needs and availability of water resources, thus the Municipality cannot effectively plan for the future.

Orissa

Design of Water Supply System in Berhampur and Chhatrapur

A study found, that in most towns, the supply of drinking water is much less than the demand. Households receive water for 2-3 hours/day and sometimes less, which is insufficient for their needs. Additionally, the faulty design of the water transportation and water supply system contributes to the leak. The situation is so bad several roads are submerged due to continuous water line leakage. Registered complaints on the situation are only attended to after 2-3 days.

Karnataka

City Level Efforts to Reduce Water Consumption in Bangalore

To address their water supply problems, Bangalore instituted several measures. It monitors, via a metre system, all legal water connections, so losses can be reduced. It increased block tariffs for industries resulting in demand reduction; however, there was no reduction in household level demand since they still receive water at subsidised rates. The city also adopted a policy of treating and reusing wastewater, especially for flats and apartments.

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