National Seminar on
Decentralized Governance in Water &
Sanitation in Rural India
Decentralization initiatives in RWSS
Sector in Uttarakhand: A Case Study
By Kapil Lall
Director “SWAJAL”, Uttarakhand
Background
• The sustainable delivery of rural water supply and sanitation
service has been a cause of concern for policy planners of the
country.
• This has led to a paradigm shift in the way the Government now
approaches the rural water supply and sanitation sector.
• Uttarakhand state is the first state in the country to implement this
paradigm shift in both letter and spirit across its entire territory, as
a Sector-wide Approach (SWAp).
• The objective of this presentation is to share good practices being
adopted in the state under the Uttarakhand Rural Water Supply &
Sanitation Project (URWSSP) and NRDWP etc. for replicability
of the processes in all other parts of the country by adapting to suit
their specific situations.
URWSSP IN BRIEF
• URWSSP is the first project in the RWSS which is based on
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Sector wide approach (SWAp)The project covers entire rural areas of the Uttarakhand State.
The project is facilitated by the Department of Drinking Water,
GoUK and executed by three agencies namely Uttarakhand Peyjal
Nigam (UJN), Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan (UJS) and Project
Management Unit (Swajal).
The project has a total budget of $ 224 million of which the IDA
credit is limited to a maximum of $ 120 million.
The Project period is November 2006 to June, 2014.
The project aims to benefit about 1.2 million people or about 20%
of the rural population and improve sanitation in about 30% of
rural communities to be declared free of open defecation.
Uniqueness of the Project
Sector Wide Approach (SWAp)
• Project demonstrates paradigm shift
to Sector-wide Approach (SWAp)
‘Global First’ for uniform policies and
institutional arrangements
• PRIs and local communities plan,
procure, construct, operate
maintain RWSS facilities
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Community
UWSSC
Gram Panchayat
NGO
Social Audit Committee
Village Level
and
• Intra-village SVS & intra-village
MVS: full responsibility of Gram
Panchayats
• DIAs
DWSC
DWSM
District Level
• Bulk
Water
Supply
MVS:
responsibility of sector institution.
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• Three implementing agencies (UJN,
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State PMU/
UJN/UJS
SWSM
DWD
State Level
UJS and Swajal) working in synergy
for implementing the SWAp
Striving to give the community a voice
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RWSS INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
FUND FLOW MECHANISM
The funds from the State Govt. flow directly to the State level
implementing agencies (PMU, UJN and UJS). The funds from the
State level are transferred to the district level institutions of PMU,
UJN and UJS, based on Annual Work Plans and Budgets.
GoUK
GoUK
GoUK
PMU
PMU
PMU HQ
HQ
HQ
UJN HQ
UJN
HQ
UJS
UJS
UJS HQ
HQ
HQ
DPMU
DPMU
DIA-UJN
DIA-UJN
DIA-UJS
DIA-UJS
GP
UWSSC
UWSSC
Beneficiary
Processes Followed
O&M
Phase
Implementation
Planning
Pre Planning
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3
6
9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42
Months
Process: Planning Phase
SO
Awareness Creation,
Organizing Community
into Groups, Trainings
Monitoring & Public Disclosure
Monthly Progress Report by SO to
DIA
Record Keeping
by UWSSC
Wall Writing/Hoardings
Community Wide Meeting
UWSSC Formation &
Opening Capital
and O&M Account
Web based monitoring system.
Collection of
Upfront
Contribution
Continuous monitoring by DIA
Feasibility & Agree-To-Do
Meeting
Concurrent monitoring by Third
Party.
Preparation of
Community Action Plan
DPR & Implementation
Phase Proposal
Review by
DWSC
Yes Approval by Yes
DWSM
Signing of IPQA
Grievances redressal in community wide meetings.
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Process: Implementation Phase
Fulfillment of Payment
Conditions by GP/UWSSC
SO
• Training & Capacity Building
• Management Support to
GP/UWSSC
Funds Release to
GP by DIA
Transfer to Funds from
GP to UWSSC
UWSSC/GP
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Material Procurement & Construction
Collection of balance Contribution
Utilization of Fund
Record Keeping
Quality Control
Supervision by
Third Party
Preparation
of IPCR
Vetting o IPCR
by GP/UWSSC
Account
Settlement
by DIA/DWSM
Start of
O&M Phase
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Process: O&M Phase
SO
DIA
• Exit from the village
after 4 months
• Technical Support to UWSSC
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Refresher Training
Handholding on Maintenance
of Account
Establishment Of O&M System
Exit
UWSSC/GP
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O&M of Scheme
Collection of O&M Tariff
Enforcing Bye Laws
Sanction new connection
Record Keeping
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INNOVATIONS AT A GLANCE
Planning Unit:
Habitation
Legal Status to
UWSSC
Model Bye-laws
for UWSSC
Grievance
redressal
Integrated
delivery
Social Audit
Committee
Constitution of
TRC
URWSSP
Single Set of
Schedule of
Rates
Elaborate Exit
Strategy
Insurance of
schemes
Fine-tuning of
SOs Selection
Criteria
Online
M&E
IEC
HRD
Community
Contracting
MVS vs
SVS
Capacity building
of all stakeholders
‘Agree-To-Do’ meeting for finalization of technological option
Training on documentation & account keeping maintenance
FTK training
Wall writing
Social Audit Committee
Wall Writing of Social Audit Committee
Social Audit Committee
• The Gram Panchayat will directly constitute a Social Audit
Committee with five members for a period of two years. The
Committee members;
• Should be respectable members of the community and on whom the
poor have faith.
• Not immediately related to the GP members or UWSSC members.
• Should not be members of any of the decision making committees
• At least three members should be from target population.
The Social audit Committee will perform the following
functions:
• Ensure that all the committees follow Procurement Manual.
• Report any violation or deviation of rules to Gram Panchayat.
• Monitor the adherence of project principles and rules in selection of beneficiaries,
implementation of sub projects and all decisions of UWSSC.
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Monitoring and performance tracking
Web based monitoring
Exit: Withdrawal from village
Empowered
Community
X-Ray of all
Works Done
Public Interest Disclosure
in community wide
meeting
Inventorization of
Assets
Transfer of
Assets & Tools
Trouble Free
Sustainable O&M
Impacts
• Building Local capacities: The new decentralized approach has
been received with a high level of enthusiasm from local
governance institutions. By building the capacity of these
institutions to design, implement and manage their own works - in
addition to managing procurement, finances and accounting- they
have been equipped to take on other development projects in their
areas, whether under MNREGA or any other program.
• Eliminating Layers of bureaucracy: Decentralization to local
communities has eliminated layers of bureaucracy, reducing the
scope for leakage of funds - an estimated 40 percent of funds
deployed. time and expenses involved in lodging complaints with
the authorities, paying bills, getting corrections in wrong bills, and
getting sanctions for new water connections. Repairs are now
much quicker and more long-lasting because of the strict
supervision exercised by local communities.
Impacts
• Savings for state exchequer: Detailed assessments show that by
decentralizing service delivery to local communities, the state
government’s savings include: savings in institutional costs and
O&M costs. Thus the State Government has to provide lesser
budgetary support through State Exchequer as GP meets the O&M
expenses including energy costs.
• Greater availability of time for Line Departments: GP/UWSSC
takes up the full responsibility of O&M, with back-up support by
the UJS, as and when required. Thus line department have more
availability of time for managing complex schemes and lesser
management problems.
Impacts
• Communities have the following advantages:
• lesser dependence on outsiders for water supply service i.e. Gram
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Swaraj (Village Self Rule)- leading to ‘community pride’ &
‘community control’.
reduction in coping cost as well as more availability of house hold
space due to elimination of storing water in larger containers
elimination of travel time and travel cost in lodging no-water
complaints, making payment of bills and getting sanction of new
water connection
Improvement in Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) due to better
quality of repairs and strict control/supervision by the community.
Reduction in women’s drudgery of about 2-3 hours per day leading
to better quality of life i.e. utilization of their quality time in caring
their children and leisure time besides income generation in some
cases.
Thanks to the empowered community for
keeping the SWAp philosophy and
program on the path to success !
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