QUESTION
Solution Exchange discussion - Decentralised Water Service Delivery by Panchayats

Background

While I was working with the Indo-German bilateral project on Capacity Building of Panchayati Raj Institutions in Himachal Pradesh with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), I posed a query on the Water Community seeking experiences of water service delivery by panchayats. The Panchayati Raj and Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Departments of the Government of Himachal Pradesh had signed a bilateral cooperation project with GIZ with the objective that "the legal, institutional, human resources and fiscal framework conditions are adjusted to the needs of effective decentralization".

When I had posed the query to the Water Community of Solution Exchange, we were in the process of Activity Mapping (identification of activities related to functions devolved to panchayats). We were doing this in collaboration with some key departments including IPH which is responsible for delivery of rural water supply under the project.

Many states are decentralizing rural water supply. Thus, I felt a discussion on this issue will be useful for identifying appropriate ways of water service delivery by panchayats. In this context, I requested members of the Water Community to share their experiences on current experiences of decentralized rural water supply service delivery by panchayats (including the phases of planning, implementation, operation and maintenance) across rural water supply schemes.  I also requested members to share successful examples of social audit systems in the delivery of rural water supply. I requested them to suggest appropriate institutional arrangements for the delivery of rural water supply within the three-tier Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) framework, considering financial viability and public accountability.  

Specific Inputs

The discussion and related interactions with members gave me a good insight into the role of panchayats in water service delivery. I shared the information with the IPH and the Panchayati Raj Department, Government of Himachal Pradesh, for conducting the Activity Mapping for rural water supply in Himachal Pradesh. I used the following suggestions from the Water Community and incorporated them in the process of activity mapping:

  • I found the suggestions given by Mr. Dipak Roy, formerly with UNICEF, New Delhi, useful in my work. He shared the best practices of different community-managed water supply schemes. He cited the example of implementation of Aapni Yojana project in Rajasthan. Mr Roy suggested the state Communications and Capacity Development Unit (CCDU) should prepare a comprehensive capacity building needs assessment and plan for the functionaries who would work with Gram Panchayats. He recommended skills-based training in partnership with local divisions/sub-divisions of IPH, training for sensitizing and building awareness of panchayat members about their roles and responsibilities. These could be integrated within ongoing capacity building programmes of the PRI department
  • We also took into consideration the suggestion for transfer of responsibility for project planning, implementation and service delivery related functions to the Village Water and Sanitation Committee (VWSC) and Water User Groups for service delivery within habitations/gram panchayats.  This could also include the transfer of responsibility for monitoring and decentralised water governance e.g., formation/dissolution and monitoring of VWSCs, audit of VWSC accounts, approval of VWSC bye-laws, etc., to the respective panchayats
  • We also took on board a suggestion that the IPH department should be responsible for setting standards and technical facilitation in formulating projects. It should also be tasked with planning and implementation of multi-panchayat schemes and ensuring bulk supplies to gram panchayats at mutually agreed bulk water charges, technical facilitation to gram panchayats and building awareness of user communities on water quality, source conservation and rain water harvesting, etc.
  • Mr. Arun Jindal, Society for Sustainable Development, Karauli, shared his challenges in empowering panchayats. He listed the laws that empower gram panchayats to perform various functions. Mr. Jindal suggested the capacity development of elected representatives of local self-government has to be considered.

Analysis of Impact

The community has a large number of individuals who have worked on decentralized governance in general, and water in particular. The purpose was to distil the national-level lessons and experiences of the members on key aspects of decentralized water governance. These include current experiences on decentralised rural water supply service delivery, social audit systems and appropriate institutional arrangements. 

The discussion and experiences shared by members helped me think further on the topic. It provided new perspectives and insights on the issues being discussed. It also helped me to objectively analyse the situation, and this was reflected through the quality of work in the field. 

To conclude, the discussion was very useful for the Activity Mapping of rural water supply in Himachal Pradesh. The Activity Mapping done under this project with the IPH Department has been highly appreciated by the key functionaries of the Department, national and international experts on functional assignment and decentralization, and is being earnestly considered for influencing the public policy on Rural Water Supply sector in Himachal Pradesh. 

This experience was shared by on the basis of a discussions on the Water and Decentralization Communities, through a cross-posted query, Water Service Delivery by Panchayats – Experiences

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by
16 August 2011