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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The water challenge in the past half-century has been mainly driven by development needs, most
importantly concerned with the most immediate human health crisis related to reasonable and
affordable access to drinking water. The State Governments responsible for water supply, supported
by the Government of India through a number of programmes delivering both funding and
management approaches for sustainability, particularly decentralized community management, have
delivered impressive levels of access. However, the need to access the most immediately available
water, usually groundwater accessed for ‘single- village schemes’, has led to the supply being
vulnerable to chemical and biological contaminants. The need for safe drinking water in rural areas
of India, stemming from insufficient quality and quantity of safe drinking water, and the associated
economic impact of unsafe water on communities, provides a strong rationale for the role of
village level water treatment plants, usually with some form of Reverse Osmosis (RO) package
treatment facility.
There is a need to manage the continuing, consumer-tariff supported, piped water supply to each
home to meet the 25-50 litres per person per day bathing and cleaning and other household needs,
along with the delivery of small volumes, 4-
5 litre per person per day, of potable drinking water. The latter also requiring to be paid for from
a separate, additional, perhaps combined overall, water tariff. And requiring a level of technical
skill to ensure ongoing effective and efficient
treatment of that drinking water, the source being either the existing water supply or an additional
borewell.
Various players have emerged in the last two decades to facilitate, or deliver directly, potable
drinking water in village. The actual count on the number of players currently operating in India is
unknown, but it is estimated that there are already between 7,000–12,000 village-located Reverse
Osmosis (RO) units across India, with tens of thousands more plants envisaged. The last decade has
seen various established organizations moving into this village level treatment and supply sector,
such as the Naandi Foundation and Water Health International (WHI). Most of the players focus on
a range of water-quality challenges using various treatment technologies. Although the
implementers have been present in India for quite some time, the challenges associated with
providing sustainable services and with scale-up of operations have also persisted. In Telangana and
Andhra Pradesh, the community ‘safe water solutions’ based organizations in these regions
have been selected for this case study to understand the magnitude of the gap in supplying potable
drinking water and at the same time to establish the pros and cons of a professionalized

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management of water service delivery. For the purpose of the case study it is proposed to study the
following organizations. (i) Bala Vikasa (ii) Naandi Foundation and (iii) Safe Water Network.
These organizations have been chosen for documentation because of their pre-dominance of
community involvement in managing the village based potable drinking water plants.

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CHAPTER 2
Present Situation in Karnataka:

Ground water is the major source of drinking water in Karnataka. Due to the depletion of ground
water and draining of rivers, the population is now struggling to meet its drinking water needs. The
total replenishable ground water potential of the state is estimated at 17.03 Billion Cubic
Meters (BCM), received during monsoon and non-monsoon seasons. The state has already over-
drafted ground water by 64% and only 6.53 BCM is available for future use. Dedicated towards
fulfilling the drinking water needs of rural areas, the Government of Karnataka has implemented
water projects like Jaladhare, Multi Village schemes and installed Water Purification Plants across
the state.

Jal Jeevan Mission Karnataka (JJM)

JJM has been implemented with a larger objective of providing safe drinking water to all
households in Rural India by 2024 through Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs). In
addition to maintaining sustainability of water sources, gray water management, water conservation,
rain water harvesting & rejuvenation, and recharging of water bodies are also part of the mission.
Jal Jeevan Mission includes a community-based approach which includes effective Information,
Education and Communication. Jal Jeevan Mission will create a nationwide movement for water
which is also the priority of everyone. JJM is implemented in Karnataka as Mane Manege Gange
Scheme.

TYPE OF SCHEMES
Single Village Scheme (SVS)
In this scheme, a small tank (RCC Hume Pipe Cistern) installed with 3-4 taps is filled with water
with the help of an electric pump from the well, to facilitate drinking water for the rural population.
A total of 51,120 SVSs have been completed by 2018-19. Single Village Schemes are managed by
Gram Panchayats.
Multi Village Scheme (MVS)
The surface water source based schemes are being taken up under Multi village drinking
water program under NRDWP. Measures are being taken up to provide clean and safe water, by
purifying the surface water from various water sources, to the habitats where the water is affected
with high nitrate, iron, TDS, fluoride elements, etc. Under this scheme, initiatives have been

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taken to find a permanent solution to the drinking water issues based on surface water sources
such as rivers, lakes and canals.
The NRDWP project, under the 13th finance commission, and after the implementation of the Jal
Nirmal Scheme Guidelines, administrative approval has been given to 548 (at the end of 2019)
MVS, of worth around Rs.12875.51 crores including KUWSB. Of these, 474 projects have been
completed at a cost of Rs.5663.85 crores and 64 projects with an estimated cost of Rs.6116.24

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CHAPTER 3
Water Purification Plants (WPP)
According to the standards defined by IS-10500: 2012, water purification plants have been installed
in those habitats which are affected by health harming microbial infections and water sources with
quality issues. More than 18,000 water purification plants have already been installed so far.
Water Conservation
Due to lack of awareness towards water conservation, we are now facing acute scarcity of
water. Several taluks of Karnataka have been affected by severe drought year after year and the state
is water stressed due to the lack of water literacy and community management. Rapid increase in
need of fresh water for farming, drinking, industry and environmental requirements has also caused
issues.
With the aim of finding a long-term solution for the water crisis, the government has declared 2019
as the Year of Water and launched Jalamrutha, the biggest community driven water conservation
movement. This involves all sectors of the society like government, non-governmental
organizations, institutions and the general public.
Pillars of Jalamrutha are:
Water Literacy: This encourages people to realize the value of every drop of water, through
various behavioral change programs which are launched in all GPs, TPs, ZPs, Schools, Colleges,
Government departments and other stakeholder institutions.
Water Conservation: It is done through rejuvenation of existing water bodies and creation of
new ones, which also includes recharging receding water tables, reviving depleting water sources
and creating new water bodies.
Smart Water Usage: This promotes conscious and efficient water usage. It creates a water
conservation culture among the people of Karnataka through rainwater harvesting, use of technology
and innovative applications.
Afforestation:
To sustain water resources through community involvement, programs like planting 500 saplings in
each Gram Panchayat has been undertaken.
Jalamrutha is the largest initiative towards water conservation and is a major step towards solving
the water crisis in Karnataka.

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PHOTO

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CONCLUSION
The need to access the most immediately available water, usually groundwater accessed for ‘single
village schemes’, has led to the supply being vulnerable to chemical and biological contaminants. In
Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the widespread prevalence of fluoride is adversely affecting
human health by causing dental and skeletal fluorosis. With a rapidly growing population and
increasing demand for quality potable drinking water innovative solutions have been emerging to
support to this new drinking water crisis This situation provides a strong rationale for the role of
professionally-managed community owned/influenced decentralized drinking water delivery.
Various players have emerged in the last two decades in both rural and urban areas. The water
committees though informal in their establishment in this context, have been trained capacitated
to the extent where they can handle the administration, management, operation and maintenance.
There are various tools that have been developed by the support entities to guide the water
committees such as separate bank account, registry of operational information, book-keeping,
addressing minor issues etc.

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