“AWARENESS PROGRAM” | 2022

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 decentralised 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

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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 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.

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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 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:

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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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CHAPTER 4
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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