Rural Water Supply Schemes Research Articles

Access to Safe Drinking Water through Rural Water Supply Schemes: Evidence from District Muzaffargarh (Pakistan)

Access to Safe Drinking Water through Rural Water Supply Schemes: Evidence from District Muzaffargarh (Pakistan)

Challenges in developing trust in the rural drinking water supply systems

Abstract The water sector in developing countries continues to tackle the emergent challenges of increasing demand for water by the growing population, poor cost recovery from the users, ageing infrastructure and intermittent water supply regime. The national and sub-national governments entrusted the community to tackle these challenges. This led to the emergence of community-managed rural water supply systems where ‘Building Trust with Stakeholders’ is an essential concern for the sustainable functioning of the rural drinking water supply schemes. Trust is developed by engaging stakeholders in decision-making and the overall knowledge-sharing process. However, maintaining and sustaining trust is challenging in the context of the above-mentioned challenges. Amongst all the concerned stakeholders of the water sector, building the service provider's trust with the residential water users is an important aspect. Building upon the given context, this study attempts to understand the trustful relationship among the three key stakeholders of the rural drinking water sector: Scheme operating agencies, village local self-government bodies and their residential water users. The study aims to utilise the learnings from the trust research to empirically understand the factors shaping the trustful relationship between the stakeholders in India's rural drinking water sector.

What determines the success of rural water supply schemes? Insights from an assessment in Maharashtra

Abstract The article discusses a statistical model to explain the varying performance of water supply schemes under different physical environments in the state of Maharashtra in India, characterized by high spatial and temporal variability in rainfall and climate, and heterogeneity in geological and geomorphological conditions. The factors that enhance the performance of the schemes are effective utilizable recharge rates, extent of surface irrigation, and aquifer storage space. The factors that adversely affect the performance are the extent of the population covered by groundwater-based schemes and irrigation water demand per unit area. Subsequently, the districts in Maharashtra where groundwater-based schemes are likely to succeed were identified. The article also explains the practical and policy relevance of the model results for rural water supply planning.

COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY AND COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS: IDENTIFICATION OF SOCIAL REASONS BEHIND DYSFUNCTIONAL RURAL WATER SUPPLY SCHEMES

Using the canon of qualitative research methods this study aimed at answering the pertinent question as to why rural water supply schemes become dysfunctional over a period of time and as a consequence bring untold problems in the lives of common people. The management of rural water supply schemes is a global challenge but it becomes more grievous in developing countries. An appropriate solution proposed global to cater to this problem is engaging Community based organizations (CBOs). However, CBOs too have limited capacity for implementing and monitoring all water supply schemes in the province of Punjab, with the result that around 45% remain non-operational. Using the case study method 5 villages of district Jhelum were selected and interviews were conducted with Community Based Motivators (CBMs) and chairpersons of CBOs. The content analysis of data gathered from these interviews yielded results that revealed the reasons behind the deterioration of water supply schemes. It was found that the most common reason behind the non-functioning was the execution of water supply schemes without need assessment of the areas, political pressure, community clash, theft of the engineering equipment and financial embezzlement issues. These dysfunctional water supply schemes lead to negative consequences, but they fall majorly in three categories; waterborne diseases, lack of water for sanitation and washing purposes, and fetching/ purchasing of drinking water. It can be concluded from the study that the idea of handing over of the rural water supply schemes to local people and their representatives like CBOs for operational purpose is not erroneous or less useful. There were several other socio-political reasons that conspired to have damage the rural water supply systems beyond its utility. Keywords: Rural water supply schemes, Community based organizations, Political pressure on CBOs, Water.

Privatization in Rural Water Supply and Customer Satisfaction: An Empirical Case Study in Vietnam

This article investigates the private sector participation in investment, management, and operation in rural water supply schemes in Vietnam. Different organizations manage rural water supply facilities, including the private sector, public sector, and others. This paper aims to compare the different characteristics affecting user satisfaction of water supply facilities managed by the private sector and the remaining sectors. An ordered logit model was utilized for calculation with the data collected from semi-structure questionnaires with 1200 households using water from rural water supply systems managed by different sectors in Vietnam. The results indicate that the water-user satisfaction with rural water supply projects managed by the private sector is higher than that in other sectors (community, cooperative, commune people’s committee), whereas there is no significant difference in customer satisfaction between systems managed by the public sector and the private sector (enterprise, private management). The water availability and quality of schemes greatly influence the customer satisfaction. Findings from this study provide considerable information for the private sector on how to improve the management and operation of water supply systems efficiently through customer satisfaction assessment.

Role of Community Based Organizations in Sustainability of Community Managed Rural Water Supply Schemes

Role of Community Based Organizations in Sustainability of Community Managed Rural Water Supply Schemes

Potnet: Online Potable Water Quality Monitoring Network for Overhead Water Tanks in Rural Water Supply Schemes in India

Background: Monitoring the quality of potable water is a challenging endeavor due to the significant sources of contaminants, the majority of which are human-induced. Limited access to drinking water owing to acceleration in industrialization, urbanization in consort with growing inhabitants, unprocessed sewage discharge, and toxic industrial effluents causes different life-threatening diseases. Manual water quality monitoring techniques vividly aggravate quality deterioration. Considering the significance of the automatic water quality monitoring system, we need an in-situ, real-time, continuous surveillance system to ascertain the quality of potable water. Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) motivated us for a practical water quality monitoring system due to their continuous, real-time, and adaptive infrastructure to provide an early alert in hazardous conditions. Objective: To design and implement an online potable water quality monitoring network for rural water supply schemes in Nagapattinam district, Tamilnadu, India, to sense physiochemical parameters of potable water such as pH, turbidity, conductivity and temperature. Methods: Online POTable water quality monitoring NETwork (POTNET) integrates the reimbursements of WSN and different information and communication technologies for data acquisition, data processing, and data visualization. The core hardware of POTNET contains off-the-shelf sensors (i.e., electrodes), a microcontroller, a data transmission system, a customized buoyage, and a sink node. It senses physiochemical parameters of potable water such as pH, turbidity, conductivity, and temperature in a pre-programmed time interval. Furthermore, it enables cloud storage for gathered information and generates an alert to the preregistered user via mobile phones when there is a deviation of quality measures from threshold values. Results: The system was implemented in three overhead tanks for seven days in order to validate the stability of the buoy and efficiency of energy source, storage, and data transmission. It senses physiochemical parameters of potable water such as pH, turbidity, conductivity, and temperature in its predefined interval of 30 minutes. To check the system accuracy, the measured data values from developed sensors were compared with the observed data values using a commercial multi-parameter water checker, the Horiba® probe. Measured data were sent through the transceivers to the base station for data logging in a suitable format for ease of data visualization and utilization. Conclusion: Extensive experimental results reveal that our POTNET can be employed for potable water quality surveillance to help consumers or concern authorities to make a sound decision by providing appropriate and real-time data.

Applicability of semi quantitative approach to assess the potential environmental risks for sustainable implementation of water supply schemes: a case study of Sri Lanka

Abstract Identification and quantification of environmental and socio-economic impact risks and effective monitoring of water projects are crucial for sustainable water resource management. Hence, the present study was conducted with the objectives of identifying potential environmental risks of different stages of the development of a new water supply scheme located in the wet zone of Sri Lanka, and categorizing identified impacts based on their significance. A rapid environmental assessment (REA) was followed to identify the upstream point source pollution and downstream water uses in the immediate catchment. Subsequently, a semi quantitative approach was conducted to screen the environmental, social, and economic risks concerning likelihood and sensitivity of the impact. Besides, an analysis of physico-chemical and biological parameters of water quality was conducted in the intake location. The semi quantitative method highlighted that low and medium risk with ecological impacts (50%), low risks towards sustainability of water source (75%), medium level constructional impacts (60%), and very high-level impacts at the operational stage were available (50%). A water quality monitoring program revealed that Escherichia coli count, total coliform bacterial count, and colour of the water were above the standard limits in the nearby freshwater source. In conclusion, a similar approach can be implemented worldwide as a reference to determine the potential socio-environmental consequences in water supply projects to minimize the adverse impacts. Through this study, sustainable mitigation measures were proposed accordingly to prevent the impacts and to strengthen the long-term viability of the new Rural Water Supply Scheme.

Governance for Sustainability of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Schemes (RWSS): Case from NAPA WASH

Water and sanitation are taken at the heart of achieving a number of goals and critical targets of sustainable development goals. But achieving sustained water and sanitation service in a rural context is problematic from the viewpoint of technical, financial, environmental, and social, and governance aspects of functionality. Therefore, good governance in the operation and management of rural water and sanitation schemes are a key component to determine the other aspects of functioning and longer-term sustainability. The study sees the working of five indicators of functionality, five layers of priority ranking indicators, four service indicators of quantity, accessibility, reliability, and quality (QARQ), and ten indicators of assessing governance level sustainability. In all aspects of assessment, most RWSS found to stand at the level of partial sustainability. This urged for giving higher priority to upgrading such schemes in the status of full sustainability.

Groundwater Responses to Artificial Recharge of Rainwater in Badulla District in Sri Lanka

Two thirds of the country is considered a dry zone, where people face difficulties to access safe drinking water. According to the 2008 national census, pipe borne water coverage in Sri Lanka is around 34%, with the rest of the population depending on local sources such as wells, hand pump tube wells, small scale rural water supply schemes, rain water harvesting tanks and surface water bodies: irrigation tanks, canals, streams and springs. It is believed that contamination of water sources, by industry and through agricultural waste and fertilizers, is the main cause of the growing water-related health problems in the country. Most of the Schools in Badulla District are mainly depend on groundwater wells for its uses. Major problems in using the groundwater wells was the decreasing well water levels during dry season and quality deterioration. Therefore this study was designed to use the overflow of the rainwater harvesting tank for artificial recharging to increase the groundwater levels. In total seven were selected in seven schools and overflow of the rainwater harvesting tank was diverted to these wells. Water levels in the well and the rainwater harvesting tanks were monitored at weekly intervals. In addition pH, electrical conductivity and total soluble salts were measured in weekly interval. Results showed that the groundwater level increased due to artificial recharging of rainwater during the year 2018 even though the annual average rainfall of year 2018 (1827.9 mm) was less than that of year 2017 (1924.5 mm). Further the pH, electrical conductivity and total soluble salts in rainwater harvested water were within the safe limits of 6.5-8.5, 1500μS/cm and 500mg/L. However the EC and TDS values of rainwater harvested water is much less than the well water, therefore artificial recharging by rainwater do not post any threat to the groundwater.

Community-Based Management Strategies in Sustainability of Rural Water Supply Schemes

The sustainability of Rural Water Supply Schemes (RWSS), managed by communities, is a major concern in the developing world. A sustainable RWSS delivers safe and sufficient drinking water for a longer period to rural people. Community management was viewed as an accepted model that leads to sustainability, even though community management had difficulties and constraints in sustainability of RWSS due to social, technical, institutional and financial constraints. This paper reviews the sustainability factors of community managed RWSS. There is a need to take multi-stakeholder approach, a demand driven and community led approach, which ties these stakeholders like government, community and non-governmental sector for the effectiveness and sustainability of drinking water services. The synthesis evidenced that community management needs modifications, in terms of external factors, like, institutional support that include financial and technical support, trainings and administrative assistance to make RWSS sustainable. The community, like participation in all phases of planning, implementation, operation & maintenance, water tariff, sense of ownership, transparency, leadership and management are essential for the sustainability of RWSS. The participation by the community members in RWSS plays positive role for its sustainability. To conclude, analysis also highlighted commitment to community management should be pragmatic and rational. The scaling up of community management is an effective and efficient model to address the issues of sustainability in RWSS.

Analytical Hierarchy Process Based Decision Support System for Ensuring Sustainable Service Delivery by Piped Water Supply Schemes in Rural Areas of India

The Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India aspires to provide piped water supply in all households by the year 2024. At present approximate 18.33% households have been provided with piped water supply, which is much less that the target set to be achieved by the year 2017. With the present methodology for scheme implementation and various reasons associated with poor coverage nd service delivery, it is impossible to achieve the targets. The present research work proposes aDecision Support System based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), a Multi-Criteria Decision Making tool for scheme implementation, which could help implementing government and multi-lateral agencies in achieving the desired targets. This will help Central and State Governments for safety of funds to the tune of INR23,000 Crore required to be invested in rural water supply schemes by the year 2030.

Evaluation of Level of Service in Rural Water Supply Schemes in Selected Southern Ethiopia

Evaluation of Level of Service in Rural Water Supply Schemes in Selected Southern Ethiopia

Third Party Evaluation and Remidial Measuers for Rural Water Supply Scheme at Vadoli-Nileshwar

Government of Maharashtra empaneled Technology and Development Cell (TDSC) as third-party evaluator in all district to improve Rural Water Supply Schemes (RWSS) for improving sustainability, efficiency and equitability of these schemes. The objective of the paper is to investigate and design of rural water supply scheme. The investigation was carried out during 2018-19 in Vadoli-Nileshwar village. Investigation was completed in three stages out of that first stage is to collect document related to scheme like detailed project report, second stage is to verify all documents in scheme and third stage is to verify physical assets of scheme like source well, raising main, storage reservoir and distribution network. Investigation was notified that Vadoli –Nileshwar water supply scheme is completed in 1981, scheme is designed for 2900 peoples with daily demand 40 lit/person/day. But due to increasing population, increasing daily demand and newly developed area water supply is insufficient. For solving this problem, scheme is redesigned in which raising main, storage reservoir, pumping machinery and distribution network is designed for 3700 peoples with daily demand of 115lit/person/day and 12 supplying hours. Scheme was designed by ‘Jaltantra’ software. It is expected that, if this revised design is considered, the problem of water availability to consumers will be solved. Spacing. Manuscript Details must be in Font Size 8, in the Bottom, First Page, and Left Side with Single Line Spacing. References must be in Font Size 8, Hanging 0.25 with single line spacing. Author Profile must be in Font Size 8, with single line spacing. Fore more details, please download TEMPLATE HELP FILE from the website.

Sustainable Rural Water Supply Schemes and Sri Lankan Community-based Organisations

With a majority of the world’s poor living in rural areas, focusing on rural water supply, sanitation and hygiene is necessary if Millennium Development Goals are to be achieved. Therefore, donor agencies invest a significant amount of funds on rural water and sanitation projects. These rural water supply schemes (RWSS) are usually proposed to be managed by community-based organisations. Therefore, sustainability has become a widely discussed aspect in the agendas of programmes related to these projects. Benefits can be obtained by developing a framework for measuring sustainability and identifying the factors affecting the sustainability of RWSS. This can help to predict sustainability before implementing projects and to take necessary actions to enhance the sustainability during the project implementation stage itself. This conceptual and practice-based study was carried out to develop a framework to assess and compare the sustainability of community-based RWSS and to identify the factors affecting them.

A Case Study of 24X7 Water Supply Facility of Haraorou Village, Imphal East, Manipur

Manipur including the capital city of Imphal is facing water crisis. The government is able to provide only 70 million litres per day (MLD) against the required 101.9 MLD. Quite contrary to the situation, a village in Imphal East district of Manipur namely Haraorou village avails of uninterrupted supply of potable water through the plant located in the village. The source of the water supply plant is groundwater. Besides, reforestation of the hill range, the villager water and sanitation committee in consultation with the PHED developed an artificial recharge structure to make the source sustainable. By virtue of it, villagers have potable water through the public hydrant as well as domestic connections at a reasonable cost of ` 40 per household for public hydrant and ` 150 for domestic connection. Water tax remains unchanged so far. The water supply plant is now a model for rural water supply scheme in Manipur. This paper examines the model cited herein and also tries to understand why it could not be replicated in other villages.

Optimal Scheduling of Rural Water Supply Schemes

Water Distribution Networks in many rural areas supply water from storage reservoirs at the source of water to a group of villages through gravity or by pumping. Due to poor operational policies, they often fail to meet the demand of the beneficiary villages. This work proposes a rational technique for scheduling the supply in such networks to maximize the water delivered to the villages in an equitable manner. A secondary objective is to minimize the number of valve operations. The problem is formulated as a LP followed by an ILP. The parameters in the optimization problem are obtained by simulations of a well calibrated hydraulic model or experimental data if such a model is not available.

Motorized Rural Water Supply Points in Some Northern Nigeria States and the Way Forward towards Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Nigeria made efforts towards achieving the Goal Number 7, target 7c of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and now currently working on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. In order to support Nigeria's effort in improving access to safe rural water sources, a field work was carried out in the rural areas of Northern Nigeria (Sub- Saharan Africa) on documentation of Motorized Rural Water Supply Schemes, functionality status and challenges in operation and maintenance. The methodology engaged in achieving the project was based on use of instrument for collection of data, physical examination of water sources in the research area and interaction with members of the selected communities. Results showed that out of the 440 motorized schemes surveyed in the four selected States, the use of petrol/ diesel generators to power the schemes are predominant, these schemes accounted for 63.64% of the Motorized schemes. The use of electricity to power water supply schemes was found to be only 2.95% of all motorized schemes in the communities, about one third of motorized schemes found in communities were solar powered. From this research, it was concluded that Nigeria should re-strategize on the operations and maintenance of the rural water sources installed in communities if reasonable progress is to be made in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Sociological Analysis of Community Participation in Sustainable Water Supply in Rural Areas of Punjab, Pakistan

There are many questions arising about country’s ability to ensure adequate water supplies for residents. This study aims to examine the degree of participation of community in supplying the water and further to explore certain sociological factors that may promote or impede the supply of water. In present study collected data was used for developing a causal relationship among the variables. The sample size consists of n=300. Two rural water supply schemes were selected from each District. For collection of data cross sectional survey research method was used. Interview schedule was formed as data collection tool to gather information from respondents who were head of house hold. It is found that empowerment of local people in operation and maintenance tasks of development projects enhance ownership of these projects, in terms of sustainability. It was found that lack of interest of line departments, non-fulfillment of promised benefits and lack of sense of ownership in community is the reason of dissatisfaction with the operating system of water services in their village. The findings of the present study clearly warrant the need for increased rural water supply programs and active engagement of people in quality assurance such schemes. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n2s1p448

Yield-reliability analysis and operating rules for run-of-river abstractions for typical rural water supply: Siloam Village case study

The study focused on yield-reliability analysis and operating rules for optimum scheduling of run-of-river (ROR) abstractions for typical rural water supply schemes using Siloam Village, Limpopo Province, South Africa, as a case study. Efficient operation of water supply systems requires operating rules as decision support tools. System operation methods have hardly been developed or applied to water supply to rural communities that depend on ROR abstractions. Simulated runoff was used to derive unregulated river yield at different levels of assurance of supply (LAS) for Nzhelele River at Siloam Village using 1-day flow duration curves. Yield-reliability analysis results were used to derive operating rules. The results show that Nzhelele River can meet domestic and low-flow requirements at 50-80% (1:2-1:5) LAS. The low-flow and domestic water requirements can be partially met at 90% (1:10) LAS. The generic operating rules for ROR abstractions were consequently derived from the procedure used in developing operating rules for Nzhelele River. This enables generation of operating rules for ROR abstractions in any typical rural water supply system.