Water supply and sanitation in India
[citation needed] In the early 21st century, India began heavily investing in rainwater harvesting infrastructure and policy as an urgent response to water scarcity.
A specific Indian problem is also the (officially prohibited) "manual scavenging" which is connected to the officially banned caste system,[40][41] and relates to unsafe and undignified emptying of toilets and pits, as well as handling of raw, untreated human excreta.As of 2003, it was estimated, that only 27% of India's wastewater was being treated, with the remainder flowing into rivers, canals, groundwater or the sea.
"[38] In 2008, NewsWeek described Delhi's sacred Yamuna River as "a putrid ribbon of black sludge" where the concentration of fecal bacteria is 10,000 times the recommended safe maximum despite a 15-year program to address the problem.
[46] Under the heat of the tropical sun, algae proliferated in these bheris, converting the sewage into clean water, which in turn was used by villagers to grow paddy and vegetables.
A survey of the working conditions of sewage workers in Delhi showed that most of them suffer from chronic diseases, respiratory problems, skin disorders, allergies, headaches and eye infections.
[52] In 1993 the Indian constitution and relevant state legislations were amended in order to decentralise certain responsibilities, including water supply and sanitation, to municipalities.
Furthermore, 436 cities rated themselves in terms of their achievements and processes concerning sanitation in an effort supported by the Ministry of Urban Development with the assistance of several donors.
[54] In India, wastewater treatment regulations come under three central institutions, the ministries of forest, climate change housing, urban affairs and water.
Through the Ministry of Environment and Forest, India's government also has set up incentives that encourage industries to establish "common facilities" to undertake the treatment of wastewater.
The private sector plays a limited, albeit recently increasing role in operating and maintaining urban water systems on behalf of ULBs.
[65] In 2023, NeeRain a government supported start-up was able to save 60,000 liters of water each year through innovation by installing their patented technologies across multiple location in India.
Under the new approach communities are being consulted and trained, and users agree up-front to pay a tariff that is set at a level sufficiently high to cover operation and maintenance costs.
This was achieved by carefully selecting and ring-fencing demonstration zones (one in each city), renovating the distribution network, installing meters, introducing a well-functioning commercial system, and effective grass-roots social intermediation by an NGO, all without increasing the amount of bulk water supplied.
[74] In Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, the NGO Gramalaya, established in 1987, and women self-help groups promote access to water supply and sanitation by the poor through microcredit.
[15] To improve this situation and to establish good practices that could be replicated in other Indian cities, JUSCO was set up as a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Steel in 2004.
[15] Many small and medium towns in India have started deploying fecal sludge management (FSM) for dealing with human excreta instead of waiting for sewerage systems.
[citation needed] In deploying FSM, the waste is conveyed through vacuum emptier trucks or other vehicles using existing road network, thereby drastically reducing the capital expenditure.
[4] Another study of 20 cities by the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission with the support of the Asian Development Bank showed an average level of non-revenue water (NRW) of 32%.
Also, three utilities in the sample show NRW levels of less than 20%, two of which have practically no metering, which indicates that the numbers are not reliable and actual values are likely to be higher.
In urban areas they were set at the equivalent of about US$0.10 per cubic meter in 2007 and recovered about 60% of operating and maintenance costs, with large differences between cities.
According to the results of a Service Level Benchmarking (SLB) Program carried out by the Ministry of Urban Development in 2006 in 28 cities, the share of metering was 50 percent.
A 2007 study of 20 cities by the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission with the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) showed that only 25% of customers of these utilities were metered.
[9] According to the results of a Service Level Benchmarking (SLB) Program carried out by the Ministry of Urban Development in 2006 in 28 cities, cost recovery was 67% on average.
For example, in rural areas different programs undermine each other, adversely affecting demand driven approaches requiring cost sharing by users.
In addition, in 2014 the new government announced its high-profile Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) that aims at eradicating open defecation by 2019, covering 4,041 cities and towns.
A Parliamentary Standing Committee report found that the government would be unable to achieve its 2017 target of providing 50% rural households with piped water.
[92] During the 2019 Independence Day of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi confirmed that the target of half of the country's households provided of piped water wasn't reached.
[103] In addition, GIZ actively supports the introduction of ecological sanitation concepts in India, including community toilets and decentralised wastewater systems for schools as well as small and medium enterprises.
"[108] The World Bank finances a number of projects in urban and rural areas that are fully or partly dedicated to water supply and sanitation.
This includes support targeted towards the Ganga River Basin, municipal development in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and in rural areas of Uttarakhand and Punjab.
