Rural Water Supply Case:

District Collector
By Group 15
Metrics for measuring success of a rural water
supply system
Service:
1) Accessibility: Time to
nearest water source
2) Availability: Proportion of
households getting water
when needed
3) Quality: Frequency and
percentage of water
supplied that is acceptable
by national standards
4) Affordability: Proportion
of families capable to pay
for supplied water
Functionality:
1) Infrastructure: Number of
breakdowns or maintenance
events in a year per sq km
2) Provider: Presence of
legal body providing service
3) Complaints System:
Number of complaints
registered against water
supply in a year per sq km
4) Support: Number of
service personnel available
per 1000 people
Operations:
1) Coverage: Percentage of
population served by the
current service providers
2) Supply times: Percentage
of time in day when water is
present in the system
3) Maintenance: Proportion
of breakdowns repaired
within 24 hours
4) Chlorination: Frequency
of chlorination of various
water channels
Challenges in the current approach to solving Rani’s water
supply problem:

● No clarity on the accountability part for the last mile delivery of water
● Clash of interests and probability of dissensions between the government representatives of KWA and
Jalnidhi schemes
● Shifting the liability and operational cost to citizen for getting access to water might not go well with
them since in India it is inherently assumed that water-supply is a part of social infrastructure
● The scheme is prone to faltering with a change in local government representative in the election
● No expertise lie with the public to construct and handle the operations and its recurring
cost;Contractors would play a larger role and thus the entire scheme is susceptible to change of
motivation and incentives of the contractor
● It does not address the problem of bacterial contamination
● It focuses on the household distribution of water however does not address the problem of depleting
underground water level.
● Can lead to a blame game among the government and public stakeholders in case of any mishap