The Amphan cyclone that struck the Sundarbans in the month of May this year has wreaked havoc in the area destroying lives and livelihood. A lot of the locals living in the Sundarbans depend on animal husbandry and fishing to earn a living. The cyclone destroyed animal rearing shelters and swept away most of the cattle and domestic animals. The saline water that entered ponds and lakes resulted in locals having to dispose of fish which could have earned these people income.

After the Aila storm in 2009, the region had already suffered quite a lot. The locals had to move to other states to earn more than the meagre incomes that they were managing at home due to the irreversible devastation caused by Aila. Recently, because of the coronavirus pandemic, all those locals had to move back and the concurrent cyclone has made the villagers despondent and exacerbated their suffering.

Animal husbandry and fishing, as can be seen in the pictures, has been affected to a very large extent with entire animal rearing centres being destroyed and records being washed away. They have no way to earn from home through animal husbandry and fishing nor can they go to other states to find jobs because of the ongoing lockdown. With almost all existing infrastructure being torn down due to the cyclone, locals will have to build everything back again and set up their businesses all over again which will be extremely tough especially since their problems have been exacerbated due to the pandemic.

For about last three weeks, Dhananjay Kumar along with his wife and children have been living on the embankment under their plastic shed following the late night July floods that submerged their house.

He tells the India Water Portal, "From the morning of July 20, water started spreading in the area. However, at the speed at which the flood water was rising, we felt that it would not spread much. But, at about 11 o'clock in the night, the water rose rapidly and entered our homes. We somehow managed to spend the night at home and came to the embankment in the morning with our belongings. We have been staying on the embankment since then."

Dhananjay Kumar is a resident of Chanchalia panchayat of Taraiya block in Saran district. After the advent of floods, a community kitchen was opened by the administration in the area. Locals inform that the community kitchen was started three days after the floodwaters entered the village, and was closed just few days ago.

Dhananjay Kumar informs, "The closure of the community kitchen has led to starving of the people as they have run out of whatever grains they were left with."

As per the local CO Virendra Mohan, “The floodwater has receded from the panchayat, due to which relief camp has been closed”. On the other hand, locals inform that houses have been inundated with up to three feet of floodwater.

Local head representative Krishna Kumar Gupta expresses his surprise at the closure of the community kitchen. He tells the India Water Portal, “People are upset with the closure of the community kitchen. They have nothing to eat. Everyday people come to us and ask for food. Taking note of people's worries, food is being prepared for 1000-1500 people daily at my house."

Like Dhananjay Kumar, thousands of people of North Bihar are forced to live under the plastic sheds being put up either on the embankments or along the highway, owing to the absence of relief camps.

The flood situation has worsened in Saran. Local people inform that floodwater has entered 15 more panchayats following the Gandak river breaching its embankment. An official of Saran district, on the condition of anonymity, informs that, to date, floodwater has entered 101 panchayats of Saran and 7.22 lakh people have been affected.

As yet, 24 people lost their lives in floods

At present, the floodwater has spread to 16 districts. According to data received from the Disaster Management Department, water has entered 1232 panchayats in 16 districts and 74 lakh 19 thousand people have been affected by the floods. Along with this, the floods have led to the death of 24 people and 66 livestock.

As compared to the number of affected people, the number of relief camps in the state are negligible and even these are decreasing day by day. Only seven relief camps are operational across the state. Of these, Samastipur, with five camps, has the highest number, while Khagadia and Darbhanga have only one camp each.

The floods have severely affected three districts-- Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur and East Champaran -- with nearly 4.5 million people being flood-hit. In Darbhanga, 20,02,100 people have been affected by the floods while 14.15 lakh in Muzaffarpur and 10.19 lakh people in East Champaran have been flood-hit. Along with this, 23 people and 63 livestock have died in Muzaffarpur due to floods. Despite the severe flood situation, not a single relief camp has been established in the latter two districts due to which people are facing immense hardships.

Rainfall alert

Due to intermittent rains during  the past few days, the flood situation has become more critical in the state. Further, the Meteorological Department has issued a forecast of more continuous rains to come over the next few days.

So far, the monsoon rains in Bihar have been above normal and it is expected that this rainfall pattern will continue to remain the same in the coming days.

An official from Patna Meteorological Centre told the India Water Portal, "The monsoon entered the state on June 12 and 828 mm of rain has been received since then, which is 36 percent more than the normal. By 11 August, the state should have received 609.4 mm of rain.”

According to data received from Patna Meteorological Centre, as against the 1156 mm of rain received, Araria should have received 834.8 mm of rain in the same period. Darbangha received 1052 mm of rain instead of 542.5 mm, similarly, East Champaran received 1176.1 mm rain instead of 641 mm. Likewise, Madhepura, Muzaffarpur, Purnia, Shivahar, Sitamarhi and West Champaran have also received heavy rains.

Heavy damage to crops

Along with severely affecting people and livestock, floods and waterlogging have caused extensive damage to crops as well. Kamlesh Singh, a farmer from Muzaffarpur, says, “Owing to good rainfall in the beginning of the monsoon, I had sown paddy in 20 kathas. However, the heavy rains and floods have waterlogged the paddy field and the crop has been completely ruined.”

Abdus Sattar, Assistant Professor at Rajendra Prasad Agricultural University, informs, "Paddy crops don’t require much water at the time of their plantation. Waterlogging of paddy fields, for a long time, is very harmful for the crop. The way the monsoon is getting heavy rains this time, it is going to cause a lot of damage to the paddy crop.”

He adds, "The only benefit of the heavy rains to the farmers is that they will be able to sow the crop early in the next season. But right now, the paddy farmers will suffer a lot.”

Officials from Bihar's Agriculture Department inform that as per their assessment, up till now, 7.75 lakh hectares of crops have been damaged by the floods. Agriculture Minister Dr. Prem Kumar has told that people will be compensated for the crop loss within a month of assessing the losses.

Amid the floods, the Bihar government has once again accused Nepal for not providing any cooperation in the flood situation. On August 10, in a video conferencing with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar communicated that there is no support from the Government of Nepal in completing the flood mitigation schemes. He further added that due to the non-cooperative attitude of the Government of Nepal, the implementation of the flood preventive measures were late by a month.

Your cooperation

In case you notice any cracks or other problems in the embankments in your area, then call the helpline number 18003456145 and share the information immediately.

You can also report on Twitter by tagging #HelloWRD, @WRD_Bihar (Department of Water Resources). On obtaining the information, the department will immediately inform the officials of the concerned area and prompt action will be taken.

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You can read the article in Hindi here. Authored by Umesh Kumar Ray; Translation to English by Swati Bansal

The wH2O: The Journal of Gender and Water invites articles for publication in its 8th volume (March 2021). The deadline for submission is October 15, 2020. The authors to write research, review and case studies including but not limited to the following topics:

• Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) interventions
• Role of WASH in healthcare and pandemic response
• Role of women in water management
• Water Infrastructure and the role of gender
• Gender impacts of climate change (e.g., flood, drought, sea-level rise)
• Innovations in policy for increasing gender diversity in the water sector
• Nexus of race, ethnicity, gender, and water
• Agricultural water use and gender impacts (e.g., women in irrigation management)
• Environmental justice, water rights and the value of water
• Gender, water and sustainable development goals

For more details on the Call for Papers, please click here.

A large section of the population living in the Ganga river basin still depends on the river for daily use activities and livelihood. Hence, the cleaning of the Ganga river’s water and making it safe for use remains a major goal for policymakers. Towards this end, the Namami Gange Clean-up programme was launched with a budget of Rs 20,000 crore during the period 2015–2020. However, the National Green Tribunal stated in 2017 that “not a single drop of river Ganga has been cleaned so far.”

In this context, a study 'Livelihood and health challenges of riverine communities of the River Ganga' by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) supported by the Tata Centre for Development at UChicago and Water-to-Cloud attempts to examine the quality of the Ganga river’s water at selected stretches of the river during the year 2019-20. Further, it seeks to assess the inter-linkages between pollution in the Ganga river water and the livelihood of users of the river by analysing their socio-economic profile.

The report studies a particular riverine community, that is, fisherfolk, along selected polluted stretches of the Ganga river. While fishing activities are associated with many occupations, the fishing community is the most vulnerable as its members come into the direct contact with the river water and thus, suffer the maximum impact of pollution in the river.

The study was undertaken in two phases along identified upstream and downstream locations in the States of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. While Narora and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh comprised the upstream sites, Jangipur and Tribeni in West Bengal were the downstream sites. A total of 1600 respondents were surveyed with 400 from each of the four sites in both the phases. The survey entailed conduction of water experiments using sensors, along with in-person interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs).

The study found that the respondents in both the selected States belonged to the economically poorer sections of the society. About 48 and 65 per cent of the fisherfolk in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, respectively, reported earning a monthly income of less than Rs 5,000 from fishing. This figure is comparable to the 2012-13 data from the 70th Round of the NSSO, according to which the corresponding average monthly incomes in the States of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal were Rs 4,455 and Rs. 4,636, respectively.

This poor economic status of the fishing community is compounded by the prevalence of higher illiteracy levels and lack of sanitation practices among them, especially in Uttar Pradesh. About 22 per cent of the respondents, mostly from the lower-income categories, were also found to be practising open defecation in Uttar Pradesh.

The study also enquired about perceptions among the fisherfolk regarding the quality of the river water and its suitability for various uses such as drinking, fishing, and bathing. A majority of the respondents among fisherfolk (40-65 per cent) across different sites in Uttar Pradesh considered the Ganga river’s water to be suitable for all activities, including bathing, drinking, and fishing.

The proportion of the respondents for bathing and fishing was higher in West Bengal, at 80-90 per cent. It was also found that the proportion of respondents in Uttar Pradesh who were actually using the river water for drinking, at about 82 per cent, was even higher than those who perceived it safe for drinking.

An important part of the study included the collation of data on water quality at a high geospatial resolution using real-time, state-of-the-art sensors. This enabled the mapping of the communities’ perceptions with the actual water quality parameters. The sensor data shows that the overall water quality at the study sites was suitable for fishing and the survival of aquatic life.

Among all the sites, the quality of the water was most consistent in Narora while the maximum variation in quality was noted in Tribeni. The influence of anthropogenic activities was observed in both the downstream locations, that are Unnao and Tribeni, resulting in temporal variations in water quality. Similar observations were made in the ghat areas where high levels of Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) were observed.

The assessment of the water quality parameters was also done with the objective of identifying incidences of water-borne diseases. For this purpose, the survey asked questions on specific illnesses such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, cholera, cough/cold, fever, skin disease, typhoid, and jaundice. The incidences of at least one of these water-borne diseases across the various sites were found to be in the range of 76 to 96 per cent during Phase I and 88 to 96 per cent during Phase II of the survey.

However, the figures for those experiencing these illnesses during the three months preceding the survey fell to 50-60 per cent among respondents in Uttar Pradesh and to 28-52 per cent among those in West Bengal if some of the common symptoms of cold, cough and fever were excluded.

It was further observed that the highest incidence of diseases occurs during the monsoon season and the correspondingly lowest incidence during the pre-monsoon period. In-depth interviews with selected medical professionals provide suggestive evidence that the incidence of diseases can be linked to the quality of the Ganga river’s water. The FGDs with the riverine communities also revealed that water-borne diseases were primarily caused by the poor quality of potable water in the river.

As part of the assessment of the livelihood implications, the fisherfolk were also asked to report the active fishing months, the months when they earned the highest and lowest incomes, and if the amount of fish catch had changed substantially over the last five years. The respondents, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, reported a significant decline in the amount of fish catch over the years, whereas fisher folk at all the sites in the two states reported a decline in the commercially important fish species and a rise in the number of exotic or invasive species in their fish catch over the last five years.

When asked to list the five main reasons for livelihood-related adversities, the respondents at all the four study sites said that low water volume was a major cause for concern, followed by irresponsible fishing manifested in the use of micro-mesh (mosquito net), which causes poisoning and also catches fingerlings and kills eggs. The participants also identified pollution as a cause for concern, but only after the above-mentioned two reasons.

Community participation has always been identified as an important tool for maintaining the sanctity of the Ganga river water. A contingent valuation exercise indicated that a significantly higher proportion of the respondents in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, at 90–98 per cent, were willing to form a cooperative society that would ensure the preservation of the river water quality, but their financial constraints prevent them from making any monetary contribution to ensure the successful operation of such a cooperative.

In this process, the authors also enquired if the respondents wanted to accept any monetary contribution from the polluting agencies as compensation for their livelihood challenges. Almost all the respondents declined, which shows their faith in the divinity of the river and willingness of the community as a whole to uphold the quality and sanctity of the river.

Overall, it was observed that the fisherfolk are socially and economically fragmented. This report makes several recommendations based on the findings of the study. While there is a need to formally recognise the communities settled on the river banks as part of the riverine ecosystem, it is also important to synchronise their local ecological knowledge with scientific knowledge for implementing better water monitoring techniques. There is a need to formalise the traditional occupation of riverine fishing by providing proper licensing facilities to allow for targeted policies for the community in order to mitigate the livelihood challenges being faced by it.

The other measures suggested in the report include the establishment of cooperatives in the riverine villages, recruitment of Ganga Praharis or guards to protect the river from exploitation by unscrupulous elements, and promotion of decentralised power structures to prevent malpractices related to fishing. 

Please see the full report here

Floods coupled with erosion increase the woes of Bihar

In the midst of the increasing havoc of floods in Bihar, people are also fearful of erosion. The rising rivers and the speedy flow of water has caused erosion at several places in the region forcing people inhabiting the place since a long time to migrate to safer places.. 

The fear of floods has also spread to Ranidiyara of Pirpainti in Bhagalpur district. Nearly 700 families are on the verge of being displaced in Tapua of Ranidiyara as erosion from the Ganga river intensifies. Locals have informed that two pucca and two mud houses have so far been submerged into the Ganga river. However, from the last two days (as of 18 August 2020), the river water flow had slowed down somewhat and people breathed a sigh of relief. This was short lived however, as the river flow has intensified again and the water level of the river has increased too that has triggered panic among people. 

According to a bulletin issued by the Water Resources Department on the evening of 16 August, the water level of the Ganga river was at 32.65 meters and 30.98 meters at Bhagalpur and Kahalgaon gauge stations in Bhagalpur, which is very close to the danger mark.

Local resident and social activist Sunil Saurabh tells the India Water Portal, “Seven panchayats in the region, which have a population of nearly one lakh, come under the submerge area of the Ganga river."

The erosion due to the river started a couple of years ago, and according to the locals, it has been occurring continuously since 2011, spreading misery and inflicting numerous hardships on the people in the region. Till now, the river has engulfed the farms of about 80 percent of the families residing in the area. 

Local resident Manohar Mandal tells the India Water Portal,

“Due to erosion, people have reached at the brink of destruction. At night, they stay awake in fear of their houses being swept away by the strong current of the Ganga river. Both the state and central governments have failed to save people in such times."

Government turns a blind eye, does little to tackle erosion

“For many years, we have been asking the government to come up with a plan to stop erosion. This year, to prevent erosion, the government has placed 80,000 sand bags, but those bags have been washed away in the river. The government does not seem to be taking the issue seriously", says Saurabh.

It is said that the Bihar government spent Rs 700 crore on sand. Sunil Saurabh says, "If the government had put a boulder instead of sand bags, the erosion could have stopped, but the government refrained from using boulders. These sand bags get washed away in the river along with the river banks". 

Like Pirpainti of Bhagalpur, there is severe erosion due to the Ganga river in Katihar. In the last two months, more than 500 houses in Katihar's Manihari have been damaged due to erosion.

Social worker Victor Jha, who works in Katihar district, informs, "Here erosion occurs only during the flood season because of the heavy and increased  flow of the Ganga . Every year at least 1000 houses in the area are engulfed by the river. Right now, only erosion is the problem, but come September, erosion along with floods will create havoc in people’s lives.”

Bhagalpur, Katihar, Khagaria and Begusarai are the four districts in the state that regularly get affected by erosion due to the Ganga. 

Too little relief for too many!

So far 81.44 lakh people have been affected by the floods. Of these, nearly 20.61 lakh people have been affected by floods in Darbhanga while 18.98 lakh people have been flood-hit in Muzaffarpur. The death toll has increased to 25.

Despite 81.44 lakh people being affected by floods, only 10 relief camps are being operational in only two districts of the state when the flood waters have spread to 16 districts. An official associated with the Disaster Management Department informs "There are nine relief camps in Samastipur district and one relief camp is operational in Khagaria. However, community kitchens are more prevalent in the region. In 16 flood-hit districts, there are 723 community kitchens running in which 5,85,048 people have been fed so far."

An official of Darbhanga district however informs that there is no need to build relief camps at several places as the flood water has receded and people are staying in their homes. For these people, food is being prepared in the community kitchens.

Barauli of Gopalganj is one of the flood affected blocks. The Community Officer of the block, informs that 87 community kitchens are running in the area, but does not respond to our question on relief camps.

MP bears the brunt of locals' anger

Amidst all the claims of providing relief to flood-hit people, several complaints of government aid not reaching to people are being received. 

Recently, BJP MP Janardan Singh Sigriwal had to face the anger of people while he went to take stock of the flood situation. According to locals, the MP along with his supporters visited a relief camp in Siwan, where not only the people demonstrated in front of him, but his supporters and local people clashed.

As per the MP, he visited the relief camp to assess the irregularities in the camp when the village head and his supporters attacked him. These allegations, however, have been dismissed by the village head. The matter has taken a serious turn and the police have had to intervene.

Food grains get damaged raising fears of delay in rations

Hundreds of quintals of foodgrains have been damaged as the flood waters have entered the Food Corporation’s warehouse located in Kesariya, East Champaran. According to an official, around 300 quintals of the grains have been destroyed by the flood waters, but some media reports have estimated that 6000 quintals of grains have been wasted.

The reason for the warehouse flooding has been attributed to the embankment breach of the Gandak. After receiving the news of water entering the warehouse, DM Apex Kapil Ashok visited the warehouse and formed a committee to investigate the matter.

According to local people, the rice stored in this warehouse is the one allocated for the public distribution system which lets people get cheaper ration. Due to the floods ravaging the warehouse, people are worried that their procurement of ration may get delayed.

You can read the article in Hindi here. Authored by Umesh Kumar Ray; Translation to English by Swati Bansal

About the conference: 

Aqua Foundation’s World Aqua Congress (Conference & Exhibition) brings water, environment and related professionals from around the world and offers new insights into how cutting edge research, technological innovation and leading practices shape the major transformation in water management. The conference provides a unique opportunity to learn about the latest trends in best practices, innovative technologies and cutting edge research. Connecting experts from across water and environment sectors, it deliberates on challenges of delivering clean water to growing populations, keeping rivers and water bodies clean & healthy, best practices for groundwater exploration and management, industrial water management, enhancing water use efficiency, impact of climate change, policies and regulations, and acknowledging champions of water & environment. Experts, practitioners, decision-makers, business innovators and young professionals from a range of sectors and countries network, exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions to the most pressing water-related challenges of today. We believe water is key to our future prosperity, and that together, we can achieve a water wise world. The congress presents the collective knowledge and know-how through leading keynote speakers, tech - talks by industry leaders, research paper presentations, poster sessions, showcasing latest technologies in display areas, and open discussions.

The 2020 edition of World Aqua Congress aligns itself with theme of UN World Water Day. This year's theme, "Water and Climate Change," highlights the urgent importance of strengthening water security and establishing access to a sustainable water supply in the face of changing climate conditions worldwide. Climate change and water are closely linked. Climate scientists have been saying all along that one of the primary effects of climate change is the disruption of the water cycle. Since so much of everyday life and planning is determined by hydrological systems, it is important to understand the impact that climate change is having (and will have) on drinking water supplies, sanitation, food and energy production. Adapting to the water effects of climate change will protect health and save lives. Using water more efficiently will reduce greenhouse gases. We cannot afford to wait. Everyone has a role to play.

The conference is being organized along with exhibition on water technology, at a virtual platform. Various new technologies have emerged for efficient use of water, water management, wastewater treatment, distribution, desalination, recycling, re-use etc., and exhibition provides a platform for display of these technologies. 

For more details of the event, download the event brochure from below or visit the website of World Aqua Congress. 

Also, do take a look at the virtual tour of the event. 

Many organizations, individuals already working in the field of water have shown genuine interests to be partner in this pan-India programme, Jal Jeevan Mission. Thus, JJM aims to harness the huge potential of the local community through Voluntary Organizations (VOs), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), social service & charity organizations, and professionals working in drinking water sector, who are willing to work towards mobilizing and enhancing the capacities of the communities to achieve the goal of the mission.

For this transformational Mission's success, it is imperative that Government and private/corporate sector including voluntary & charity organizations join hands together to develop synergy for efficient outputs. To make water everyone's business, mission strives to build partnerships and work together with various institutions/ individuals to achieve drinking water security for all.

National Jal Jeevan Mission (NJJM), Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Jal Shakti seeks interest from foundations, trusts, NGOs,Community Based Organisations (CBOs),VOs, etc. to work closely with the mission as 'Sector Partner'. Basically, sector partners are organizations proactively working in the social sector as detailed in the notice with wide outreach and impact. They are expected to play a huge role in supporting the implementation of JJM. The Terms of Reference (ToR) and declaration/ undertaking form may be downloaded from the website and CPP Portal.

In view of this, services of organisations/ agencies having experience in the field of water, sanitation and hygiene, natural resources management, community engagement, capacity building & awareness generation, education, health, tribal development, gender & equity, etc. are required. The interested agencies may submit their applications in the prescribed format for consideration of the NJJM.

Download the notice and TOR of the expression of interest from below or click here.

People in remote hamlets left out by previous schemes like Swajal and Sector Wide Approach Program of the Uttarakhand Jal Nigam and Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan longed for household-level piped water supply for drinking and domestic purposes. People’s Science Institute (PSI), a not for profit organisation based in Dehradun took up a drinking water and sanitation program with the active participation of local User Water and Sanitation Sub Committees (UWSSCs) through the support of The Hans Foundation in 2016.

Ten hamlets in the remote Bageshwar district now have access to adequate quantities of safe drinking water through the household water connections. Rupail hamlet of Joshipalri and Dubagarh hamlet of Matela are two of these hamlets where the PSI program managed to provide safe drinking facilities for the residents.

Women and girls from the hamlets had to trudge a distance of 200–500m down the hill to the nearby springs to collect water. “Trailing up and down the hill with a drum of 20-litre water was strenuous work. During the rainy season, the path became slippery and the risk increased,” says Mohini Januti (70) retired teacher and treasurer of UWSSC.

“We had to travel 6-7 rounds daily to collect water for drinking as well as other domestic purposes,” says Meena Bisht (30), who works as a village facilitator.

The credit of organising the women’s group goes to Bhagwati Pandey, community organiser, PSI. “Collecting water was a waste of time and energy. Due to the shortage of water, the locals faced a serious problem of health and sanitation. School going girls had the responsibility of collection of water before going to school and on return,” says Pandey.

Village Joshipalri is located about 20 km away from district headquarters at Bageshwar. There are 24 households including five scheduled caste families in Rupail. The hamlet with a population of 162 is located at 1,630 meters above the mean sea-level. Scarcity of water, especially in summers, is very common, which is also one of the causes of migration of people from the hamlet.

Rupail is linked with an old multi-village pipeline, but due to irregular supply, there is a serious problem of drinking water in the village. The quality of the water was also poor. As a result, for drinking purposes, the people are completely dependent on two natural springs available in the village. The problem of drinking water in Rupail gets aggravated during summer when the water from the two springs dries up.

Increased discharge of the springs encouraged villagers

Considering the dependence of the people on the two perennial springs, recharge work such as the construction of trenches, plantation etc., was done in June to September 2017 and again during June to September 2018 in 0.5 ha area. After the demarcation of the recharge zone by geo-hydrologists, about 120 trenches were constructed and the vegetative cover was strengthened through the plantation of fruit trees and roots of Napier grass.

The winter discharge data in Rupail source-1 (upper source) shows 25 per cent increased discharge in one year and 50 per cent increased discharge as compared to pre-project (before treatment). Similarly, source-2 (lower source) shows 25 per cent increased discharge in one year (Feb 2019) and 37 per cent increased discharge as compared to pre-project (before treatment).

Electric lift scheme provided safe drinking water at the doorstep

When a team of PSI, Dehradun reached the village, Mohini Januti and her husband requested them to develop a scheme for 24 families who were facing a serious problem. Gita Devi Das, the village pradhan too extended full cooperation in the planning and execution.

Following the PRA exercises and household surveys, a hamlet level microplan was developed by the PSI team. A spring recharge plan was prepared by engineers and geo-hydrologists following the technical feasibility and geohydrological studies.

It was observed that an increase in spring discharge after recharge and catchment treatment work, would not necessarily reduce women’s water collection drudgery if the water continues to be stored near the spring, albeit in a bigger tank. Hence, a plan for an electric lift scheme was developed and submitted to The Hans Foundation for financial support.

After approval of the plan, an all-women UWSSC was formed in the hamlet. The UWSSC collected 2 per cent community contribution in cash. Two storage tanks of 7,500 and 6,000 KL capacity were constructed by May 2018.

Electricity department was contacted for the installation of a power line with poles and connections and at the same time, a pump was ordered. Both the tasks took a long time. Finally, the pump was successfully installed and the power line installed.

“The scheme has saved time and reduced the workload of women. Now our biggest problem has been solved, we can take care of our health and sanitation,” said Gita Devi, panchayat pradhan and Mohini Januti, treasurer, UWSSC.

Training on water quality testing was provided to village facilitators and members of UWSSC. The results show all the parameters are under permissible limits. Post-implementation surveys indicate 20 to 50 per cent increase in spring discharge during the lean season, where spring treatment measures were undertaken.

Sample household surveys of targeted beneficiaries conducted during the winter of 2018, showed a 15 per cent increase in water consumption. Some of the farm families use water for growing vegetables, which provides good nutrition to the families.

UWSSCs collect Rs. 100 from the 15 user families while 9 very poor families have been exempted from the monthly charges. They have appointed one youth of the village as waterman (caretaker), sowing the seeds of sustainability of the scheme.

Development is best done when it is undertaken by the locals. The initiative undertaken by PSI in these unreached hamlets of Bageshwar in the hill state of Uttarakhand is a testimony to the fact that inaccessible communities can also be accessed by perseverance and commitment.

Conclusion and the way forward

Right to water includes the right to safe drinking water as well. Lives and livelihoods of the rural people in Uttarakhand are more dependent on springs and streams rather than big rivers. Uttarakhand is most vulnerable to climatic risks. Despite, abundant rainfall in this region, the springs are drying up. At present, eleven of the thirteen districts in Uttarakhand face regular water shortages, particularly of drinking water.

The government has promised that every home of India will get water by 2024. The successful case study of the remotely located hamlets at Bageshwar demonstrates how the water can be provided to all based on the principles of social equity, economic efficiency and environmental sustainability.

Since last week, people of Birjain village have been protesting against erosion by the river bank. They are demanding that the government should put in efforts to prevent river erosion and save their houses, otherwise they will continue with their Satyagrah and perform Jal Samadhi (suicide by drowning). Sattore, a flood-prone Panchayat has about 3000 houses. According to the locals, erosion was not present in the panchayat till 2019, when it was first reported. The problem intensified this year.

"So far, 35 houses have been submerged by the river and if the government does not take immediate and concerted action to stop erosion, the entire village will get engulfed into the river," said Inglesh Kumar, a resident of Birjain who has participated in the Satyagraha. 

Saharsa is mainly flooded by the Kosi river, which has been changing its course over the years and following numerous paths. The river that flows through Birjain and causes widespread erosion is a distributary of Kosi.

“Earlier no river flowed through our village. It was only 10 years ago that suddenly a branch of Kosi started flowing from this side. There was no erosion initially, but this time the water flow is turbulent which is causing severe erosion,"said Inglesh Kumar.

Erosion victims take refuge at the embankment

The erosion has completely ruined 35 houses."The erosion victims have not received any government help, except for tarpaulin. They are somehow living on the embankment," said Prabha Devi, the Mukhiya (village council head).

She further informed that at about 100 feet distance from the village, excessive erosion is taking place and if the government does not take prompt action, then the whole village will get submerged in the river water this year. 

“The house got engulfed into the river and it was so sudden that we could not save anything in the house except for our life. We are taking care of our family somehow and have not received any help from the government," said an elderly man living on the embankment.

Concretisation of the riverbank on the cards

In this regard, the local administration informed that soon steps will be taken to prevent erosion in the region. A block-level official said,"Parco piling, using ballast sand and cement, will be taken up along the river bank as this is the most effective way to prevent erosion." He further informed that the plan has been approved and work will start on a war footing soon.

83.62 lakh people flood-affected

With the onset of monsoon in mid-June, floods have been creating havoc in Bihar and there has been no respite from it. Till August 30, 83.62 lakh population across 16 districts in the state have been affected by floods. According to the data received from the Disaster Management Department, so far 27 people lost their lives due to floods. However, at present, the water level of the rivers is below the danger mark, due to which the floodwater is not inundating new areas. An official associated with the Disaster Management Department said, "For the last one week, Bihar has not experienced heavy rainfall due to which rivers are flowing below the danger mark. It is a matter of great relief and we are hopeful that the flood situation will be stable now.”

You can read the article in Hindi here. Authored by Umesh Kumar Ray; Translation to English by Swati Bansal

Friedrich Nietzsche famously wrote that he who has a ‘why’ to live can bear almost any ‘how'. A strong reason, motivation (why) and curiosity lead to actions that pave the path (how) to achieve any desired goal.

Sounds ideal and perfect! And we would like to believe or hope that everyone approaches the decision-making process concerning natural resources the same way. Why are then most decisions on water resources in India perceived as incoherent by the larger society? Let us try to understand the extent of perplexity and complexity involved in this domain, deeply, by answering two questions:

• First, what are the barriers that hinder good decision-making, in general, and about complex natural systems, specifically?
• Second, what elements can create an apt space, which might facilitate better decision-making?

How do we humans make decisions? And why are we tilted towards making bad choices?

As humans, we take thousands of decisions every day. These choices shape our future. Research has established that the task ofdecision-making is a multifaceted and cognitively overwhelming process. For example, deciding to build a dam or not! Or implementing a watershed program is a humongous and resource-intensive task. A few of the fallacies and hidden traps are explained below, which impede us from making a good decision.

Choices and time: Researchers suggest that trying to decide betweentoo many choices can lead to cognitive impairment. Moreover, we are inherently wired to perceive cost-benefit in theshort term versus long term differently. We are thinking about electricity generation (short term) and not conserving the ecosystem (long term) simply because of our flawed perceptions¹. Maybe, it is not about morality after all!

Environment: The environment in which the decisions are made also plays an important role. When our environment is threatening, we get into a defensive mode and our ability to respond rationally is hijacked by fight or flight responses. The amygdala in the brain, which generates a fear-based response, gets activated. Whereas a relaxed, threat-free environment activates theprefrontal cortex and can lead people tomake better decisions.

Since we are cognitively wired to respond this way and the fact that socio-ecological systems are inherentlycomplex adaptive systems (CAS), it becomes all the more important to have an apt environment where participants can deliberate and can make more mindful decisions. This can lead to better collaboration and conflict resolution. It is also found from cognitive studies that people find it easier to make decisions when things are in order².

Conditioning biases: Perhaps, not all of us perceive most inclusively and consciously. Are we biased as engineers or economists due to our training? We don't behave the way it is expected. In fact, most of the time the tendency is to misbehave!³

Complexity and data overload: Now, imagine a system so complex that it is difficult to understand all of its variables, interactions, and different subsystems within the water ecosystem. As one of the links in this complex system, we have to decide on the overall behaviour of the system, which is difficult as our conscious mind cannothold big data.

Diverse storylines: An important point to ponder is that we humans are at this stage of evolution because webelieve in cooperation. We can create, imagine, and believe in stories and align ourselves with them. For example in the context of water, imagine the different stories that we all have about how water should be distributed. This diversity arises from the contexts we are situated in and make their way into decision-making processes through policy advocacy.

The idea of Decision Support Space (DSSpace)

Historically, as a society, we used to live very closely with nature. The rule was that if you don't understand it, leave it untouched, make it sacred or holy or at least try and stay in harmony with it. We can see several examples still alive in India, as illustrated inSurvival lessons by the Peoples’ Science Institute (PSI). But we don't do that anymore.

Decision Support Systems (DSS), in recent times, have been seen as magical boxes that can give objective answers to complex situations involving CAS. They have been focused on engineering methods and do not cater to societal preferences and environmental values.

They have not been able to reflect the possibility of tradeoffs or flexibility to shift solutions. The momentum of outcome orientation does not allow them to adapt to the shifts in the system itself.

Given the above context, there is a clear need to initiate and nurture a holistic process of continued engagement within the water sector in India. According to psychologists, such an engagement should have two ingredients for learning: frequent practice and feedback. The water decision-makers we admire have become so by developing a gut feeling through constant engagement with different sets of knowledge.

There is a need for space where different stories can co-exist and co-evolve. Space where efforts and energy can be conserved and channelized to make better decisions. And this space can be utilized to create a story that is self-evolving, keeping in mind the diversity of participants involved and the dynamic policy space. This is also one of the inspirations behind Decision Support Space (DSSpace).

The following represents a conceptual diagram of the DSSpace. It seems outrageous though! But as Einstein said ‘things should be simple but not simpler’!

Elements of a good DSSpace

Purpose-driven outcomes: Every decision needs a purpose. This should be rooted in values of - equity, justice, transparency, inclusivity, systems thinking, and rights-based approach of rivers, marginalized communities, and above allkindness. Having remotely sensed information, for example, doesn’t hurt anyone! But, we should not become slaves to this data and use it to assist the decision-making process.

Top-down and bottom-up approach:Research suggests that social learning is crucial for adaptive water management. In the case of top-down, we can learn a great deal from comparative hydrology or learning from the data in different watersheds. For bottom-up, fieldwork becomes important. Citizen science should also be a part of DSSpace and synthesized information should be shared back with people at the grassroots.

Adaptability: CAS is ever-evolving and new variables can appear at any time. A DSSpace for CAS should be flexible enough to respond to uncertainty⁴. For example, COVID-19 is a completely unimaginable scenario.

The figure illustrates something interesting! It is possible that we started with the right intention and hoped that we would make good policy or decisions but somewhere down the line, we learned that it's not working. So, there should be a way where we can toggle to choose alternative pathways. We can be allowed to make mistakes but be mindful to not take them beyond the tipping point. Nothing should be hard-wired.

Red Flags: DSSpace should be able to put red flags on inherentcognitive biases and blind spots of decision-making processes.

DSSpace should have a multiplicity of vantage points to break the silos. 

The diverse perceptions of various participants are essential for a holistic understanding of the system. The diagnostic kit is important (GIS, data) but so is perception.

Long term and short term pathways: It is all about prioritizing and orienting goals based on providing solutions or responding to needs. A DSSpace should be able to lay out short term tangible, need-based goals that are aligned with long term value-driven goals. A multiplicity of group-based values can also help here to critically think about long term decisions!

The DSSpace we have in mind should not only be a state of the art technology-driven but also an inclusive multi-disciplinary space for bias-free, non-fear based decision-making. Creating such a space can aid in more mindful decisions and policymaking regarding events like droughts or floods and helpminimize conflicts and enhance cooperation in water.

This is a work-in-progress. Stay tuned for our upcoming research article.

Bibliography

1. Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Macmillan.

2. Harari, Y. N. (2014). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Random House.

3. Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits: An easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones. Penguin.

4. Thaler, R. H., & Ganser, L. J. (2015). Misbehaving: The making of behavioral economics. New York: WW Norton.

Footnotes

1: For every individual, Perception is the only truth, rest is all distortion!

2: “A general “law of least effort” applies to cognitive as well as physical exertion. The law asserts that if there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action. In the economy of action, effort is a cost, and the acquisition of skill is driven by the balance of benefits and costs. Laziness is built deep into our nature.”― Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

3: “What makes the bias particularly pernicious is that we all recognize this bias in others but not in ourselves.”― Richard H. Thaler,Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics

4: “The idea that the future is unpredictable is undermined every day by the ease with which the past is explained.”― Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast, and Slow.

Authors

Divya has completed her Ph.D. from the Department of Natural Resources, TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi and is a recipient of a Ph.D. research grant from the Himalayan Adaptation, Water and Resilience (HI-AWARE) Research on Glacier and Snowpack Dependent River Basins for Improving Livelihoods program.

Neha Khandekar is currently working as SRA at ATREE under a project Ph.D. position.  She is researching water conflict-cooperation in the Cauvery basin using the socio-hydrology lens. 

Punjab no.1 in overexploitation of groundwater 

According to the information placed by the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation in the ongoing session of the Rajya Sabha, in Punjab, 79 percent of the assessment units showed the annual groundwater extraction to be more than the assessed annual extractable groundwater resources. Punjab is followed by Delhi with 65 percent overexploitation, Rajasthan with 63 percent and Haryana with 61 percent. The major reason for the overexploitation of groundwater in Punjab is the largescale cultivation of paddy in the state. Along with this, the rains in the state this season have been 10 percent below the long period average so far leading to low recharge of groundwater. (The Tribune)

Country observes a rise of 145 percent in arsenic-affected habitations in last five years

According to data shared with the Parliament, the number of arsenic-affected habitations, group of households at a community level in a village, in the country have increased by145 percent in the last five years. From 1,800 arsenic-affected habitations in 2015, the number has increased to 4,421 as on September 17, 2020, informed the Jal Shakti Ministry. These habitations are mainly in Assam, Bihar, West Bengal, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh (UP). On the contrary, the number of fluoride affected habitations have significantly come down in the last five years — from 12,727 in 2015 to 5,485 as of September 13, 2020. (Down to Earth)

Government declares Telangana a fluorosis-free state

At the time of formation of the state in the year 2014, the fluoride-affected villages in Telangana were 967. However, following the successful implementation of Mission Bhageeratha, the number of these villages have come down to zero. The initiative was launched to supply safe drinking water to every house in the state and reduce the dependency of people on groundwater. As part of the initiative, the state government built a water treatment plant at a cost of Rs 436 crore to provide safe drinking water to 585 affected villages. In the last five to six years, there have been no new fluorosis victims in the state. (Pune Mirror)

Drought prone Jhansi turns lockdown into opportunity by reviving ponds

Under “One Village, One Pond” initiative launched by the district administration, as many as 325 ponds have been revived in drought-prone Bundelkhand’s Jhansi district. The basic idea behind the initiative, which is also a part of MGNREGA scheme, was to have one pond in good condition in each gram panchayat of the district. A total of 496 gram panchayats exist as of now in Jhansi. The coronavirus-induced lockdown had resulted in 11,000 migrant workers returning to the state who were employed in the pond-revival works and till now 1.12 lakh people in the district have received employment under the MGNREGA scheme because of this initiative. (The Indian Express)

Study recognises focus areas under the aspirational district programme

A study assessing the impact of the aspirational district programme (AFP) has suggested that the government needs to focus on areas such as agriculture, water resources, financial inclusion and skill development under the programme. In January 2018, the government had launched ADP with an aim to accelerate improvement in the socio-economic indicators of the most underdeveloped districts of the country. The study, that has surveyed 112 districts where the programme has been implemented, has recommended that the government streamline the survey and collection mechanism, update plan of action based on new learnings, leverage data to design effective evaluation systems while driving targeted investments through partner ecosystems while engaging in customised local level interventions. (The Economic Times)

This is a roundup of important news published between September 7 - 21, 2020. Also, read policy matters this week.

Only about 29% of the 189 million rural households, in India, have potable water supply through household tap connections (Jal Jeevan Mission, September 2020). To address this difference and deficiency in basic services, the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) was launched in August 2018 to provide safe and adequate drinking water through Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) to all rural households by 2024.

This goal is sought to be achieved through a bottom-up planning and investment program. The basic planning unit is a revenue village, along with associated habitations. A Village Action Plan is developed for each village through detailed surveys. These VAPs are integrated into District Action Plans (DAPs) and State Action Plans (SAPs). The DAPs and SAPs will also outline other critical activities like Information, Education and Communication (IEC), capacity building, water quality testing, and Operation and Maintenance (O&M) plans. These plans help identify target villages for infrastructure development on an annual basis and the budget allocations. Currently, such plans are being developed on excel sheets, as per data and prioritization indices developed by JJM.

The JJM planning approach is largely similar to the erstwhile National Rural Development Program (NRDWP), where the emphasis was on Annual Action Plans (AAPs) at the district level, which was then used to develop state-level AAPs. The primary objective of the AAPs was to identify habitations that needed investment and other program support such as capacity building. In essence, the district level AAPs, under NRDWP, were habitation prioritization exercises.

These AAPs were prepared and priority habitations selected by using data from field and office records and by analyzing the data through excel sheets. The data points were related to access (% of people with access to 40 lpcd or more), water quality, etc. Priority habitations were then selected, based on rudimentary analysis, and budgets were allocated for investments in such habitations.  

The World Bank is supporting the Water Supply and Sanitation Department (WSSD) of Government of Maharashtra to implement a rural water supply program (Jal Swarajya-2), with a focus on improving service delivery in peri-urban areas from 2015 to 2020. One of the objectives of this program is to improve the planning framework for AAPs. This activity is being jointly carried out by the WSSD team, the World Bank team, and a team led by Prof. James Wescoat, Aga Khan Professor of Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA and researchers supported by the Tata Center for Technology and Design at MIT.  

An initial analysis by the team revealed that the current rural water planning approach in India lacked important data considerations, data were not mapped, and prioritization was not transparent. Also, data were not collected and analyzed for service delivery and O&M, important objectives of any investments in improving water supply in rural India. Based on this understanding and consultations with key stakeholders, the team developed a refined data-driven planning framework, data capturing tool, and data analysis framework to identify priority villages.

This new planning framework focused on democratizing village data collection with a mobile application. Since most village leaders (gram sevaks) use smartphones, a mobile survey app was developed using Kobotoolbox software to help them collect water service data from each village in the district. The mobile app simplified data collection with drop-down and radio button choices, which avoids transcription errors.

The key indicators for data collection were divided into two sets. The first set is related to physical aspects and includes (i) groundwater availability, (ii) percent of household tap connections, (iii) number of days/month water supplied during summers and other months, (iv) number of hours water is supplied in summers and other months, (v) number of days tanker water is provided, (vi) quantity of water supplied in terms of lpcd. These were used to determine priorities for physical interventions.

The second set of indicators were designed to capture information on capacity and sustainability. These include (vii) O&M related – recovery of water user charges (as a percent against planned amount/ year) and operator functioning and training, and (viii) effectiveness of Village Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSCs). The village survey has been designed to be completed by a knowledgeable gram sevak in about half an hour. 

Responses collected through this method are stored in the cloud and are thus simultaneously accessible in the field as well as in offices at all levels. The mobile app software converts each survey response to a score from 1 (best) to 5 (poorest). These scores help rank village needs for individual parameters, such as percent of households with tap connections in the village, and for a combination of all or some key variables to identify high priority villages.

Villages with scores of 4 or 5 raise a concern and can be potential candidates for program support, either for physical infrastructure and/or for capacity building support. The data was then mapped on a GIS map to get a spatial pattern for visual identification of trends and regional issues if any.

For example, the maps can visually highlight if issues related to water stress, water quality, etc., were for a particular village or a cluster of villages and this can help in finding solutions, as appropriate. Uniform colour codes from light green (good) to bright red (poor) were used to indicate priority in the mapping.

The village gram sevaks were trained to enter the data on all these indicators, through workshops at Block levels and requested to enter data for each village through the app.

The app has an option to enter data even in off-line mode, where internet connection is an issue. Alternately, the Gram Sevaks can collect the data and enter the same on the computers at Block offices, where internet connection is more assured. Once entered, the data were verified by Block and District officers responsible for NRDWP program, and cleaned as required.

This exercise was carried out in four districts of Maharashtra - Pune, Raigad, Satara and Bhandara. A brief note on the Pune district planning is presented below (Singh et al., 2019).

Pune district consists of one urban Taluka (Pune urban) and 13 rural Talukas. The district has 1401 Gram Panchayats, 1877 revenue villages, and 9207 habitations (IMIS data, April 1, 2018). A revenue village was identified as a basic planning unit, as these are census coded and GIS maps are available at this level only. Shapefiles and geocoded Census data do not exist for habitations and GPs (Wescoat et al., 2019). Data from 1566 villages (86%) were collected from village officers through the Kobo tool and were checked by Block and District level officers. A few examples of the analysis for different indicators are presented below to showcase the power of this planning framework. 

This planning framework helps in improving the rural water sector performance in the following critical ways;

• Identify priorities for actions for villages, based on data for each village. These actions could include infrastructure, service delivery, operations and maintenance, capacity building, etc. The current DPR approach is focused on providing infrastructure and does not address specific service delivery and O&M issues.
• Mapping helps to identify trends and regional issues. Mapping also improves transparency by visualizing priority villages.  
• The data allow for multivariate indicator analysis. For example, juxtaposing data on groundwater availability along with infrastructure needs allows for improved planning of source strengthening and sustainability. Similarly, comparing data on percent of tap connections and revenue recovery can help in understanding the capacity of GPs on O&M and equity of access.  
• The time required for entering data for a village is less than an hour and is needed only once a year. Hence, this is highly doable.
• When data are entered every year, one can see trends of improvement or deterioration of various indicators and address critical issues, as required. Similarly, poor water access and service conditions may require a multi-year plan.  Current planning tools do not allow this type of year-on-year comparison.
• The data and analysis also allow for benchmarking performance among the similar type of villages, which can be used as a strong communication tool.
• The data and mapping can also help in developing multi-year action plans that can be adjusted to finances and capacity available.

The WSSD appreciates this planning framework and is working towards scaling up its use in all districts.

For additional details see the open access articles:

Singh, R.; Brahmankar, R.; Murty, J.V.R., Verma, P., and Wescoat, J.L. Jr. 2019. “Analyzing Rural Drinking Water Services for District Planning in Maharashtra, India,” Water Policy, online at https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2019.086.

Wescoat, J.L. Jr., Shah, Riddhi; Singh, Ranu; and Murty, J.V.R. 2019. “Habitations, Villages and Gram Panchayats: Local Drinking Water Planning in Rural India.” Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 9,3: 522-530. Online at https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2019.196. 

Authors

JVR Murty is a development professional with over two decades of experience in the water and sanitation sector. He is currently freelancing with the World Bank, 2030 Water Resources Group, Tata Trusts and others.

James L. Wescoat Jr. is Aga Khan Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on water resource issues in South Asia.

Piyush Verma recently graduated from MIT, where he was a Tata Fellow (2018-20) and SMArchS (Urbanism) candidate. He is currently setting up ManushLabs.org, a non-profit to support social entrepreneurship in India.

A quick search for the word data on India Water Portal results in a flood of queries - people are looking for water data - for specific villages, cities or for the entire country. 

This endless search for data indicates two things: an overwhelming interest - not only from practitioners and experts but even residents as they seek to demystify water and hold this slippery resource within their grasp. But, unfortunately, like groundwater, water data itself has largely remained invisible - stuck in folders and files, which brings us to the second thing- the problem of discoverability.

Let us take the example of any hill state in this country, which is dotted with springs. Much of the lands that the springs flow from are governed by the Forest Department. Communities depending on this water - and indeed even other departments that want to work on providing water to communities (e.g. Public Health Engineering Department or PHED) must all work with the Forest Department to understand the resource and carry out recharge activities to ensure it doesn’t dry up.

Today, this does not happen. This is because, even basic information like the spring’s location remains a mystery and departments remain mired in protocol - often recreating data sets (including geospatial information) every time a new programme on water is commissioned. However, data, much like the springs can be understood and demystified easily. It can escape the confines of files and folders and flow - unconfined, to help people understand and build on each other’s work. 

Making data flow: The registry thinking

Can we reimagine the possibility of designing a trusted data store that not only captures water data but also makes it easily accessible for people, organizations and systems to leverage? Can we design capabilities to ingest, protect and use the data in ways that amplify value for its users? Can all of this be scalable yet contextual? A registry is meant to do just this.

A registry is a shared digital infrastructure on which authorized agencies can publish digitally signed (verified) data about their users, entities, or resources (such as water springs). This data set can be granted consented access via open Application Programming Interface (API) for other authorized users or systems to consume.

This digital infrastructure empowers organizations, systems and communities to use the data to resolve their local needs.

Working at scale

Let us apply this thinking to the problem of springs in hilly states. For the sake of simplicity we will consider the following actors - forest department, line departments such as public health and engineering department (PHED) and communities.

Let us examine a few benefits that a spring registry can offer to each of these actors:

Forest Department

• Can maintain a record of the location & discharge of all the springs 
• Can be alerted when there is a reduction in discharge, flagging off the need to protect wildlife through other water sources
• Can optimize funds allocation for soil and water conservation.

Line Departments ex. Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED)

• Don’t have to duplicate the effort of recreating existing spring data when working on new projects
• Can quickly build relevant solutions on top of the Forest Spring registry
• Can open up new data sets for more enhanced collaboration

Communities

• Can gain access to local spring’s data (ex. water discharge) in their village.
• Can improve community decision making - decide how best to use the water, which springs to recharge etc.
• Can submit accurate village level micro-plans for funding.

The below diagram depicts the flow of data from the originator (forest department) into the registry and then to various consumers such as PHED, communities etc.

Creating such systems requires us to understand and design for appropriate ingestion, protection and usage of data. Following are few key considerations:

Ingestion

• Is the data created/curated by your organization, your partners or through the extended ecosystem?
• Is the data time sensitive?
• Can you trust the quality and accuracy of the data? If not, how do you ensure that it is clean when ingested?
• Does the data require an independent entity to certify its authenticity?

Protection

• Which data attributes require encryption and protection when stored?
• Which data attributes require explicit consent to use?
• Who are the actors leveraging the data? What attributes of the data do they need access to?

Usage

• Who are the users of the data?
• What data is being read?
• How and where is the data being used?

Operationalizing a registry

Let’s look at some answers using the spring example itself. When setting up a springs registry, we would need to decide who all collect data, whether there can be a mechanism to verify if they have the expertise to carry out data collection (e.g. did they receive training in discharge measurement), if we need a maker-checker method to moderate/ verify data upload and who consumes what data - with different views for different people that takes into account data protection laws. 

By doing this, we not only make a scarce resource (data) abundant but also create the ability for each of the actors who interact with the spring to become problem solvers. Thus building on a common database and helping distribute the ability for the ecosystem to solve.

Having said that, the true value of a registry is realized only when the quality of data that it holds is accurate, consistent and timely. This requires that there is a custodian of the registry who is aware of the origin (provenance) of the data, can legally host, manage, maintain and protect it for security and privacy.

The first instances of the registry thinking can be traced back to paper record keeping, especially in health care. With the advent of technology, several of these paper records have moved online. However, while this increases accessibility, it is still extremely hard to share and use the data at scale.

The intent of future registries should be to address these challenges by providing open APIs through which digitally signed data can be accessed. It should provide the ability to easily search and discover relevant and contextual information and importantly be available in machine readable format for external systems to access. OpenSABER is one such open-source software that organizations can leverage to build and deploy highly scalable and trusted registries.

The water ecosystem has made several strides forward in ensuring more rigorous data collection and use in decision making. By using the registry thinking we can ensure that this data is liberated from the custody of one set of users and a single programme making it a reusable asset that each programme and actor builds on.

Anand Rajan is a platform advisor who works on amplifying network interactions by designing solutions that fit ecosystem needs, scaled through responsive digital infrastructure.

The UNICEF and the Scaling City Institutions for India (SCI-FI) initiative at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) in collaboration with the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department (PR&DW), Government of Odisha (GoO), and the District Administration, Dhenkanal are making strides towards instituting district wide approach for Solid Liquid Waste Management (SLWM).

As the country heads into the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM 2), the district of Dhenkanal in Odisha is piloting an innovative approach to ensuring district-wide achievement of SLWM. Access to a toilet facility has increased manifold under the aegis of the SBM putting India on the global map of sanitation leaders among developing countries.

Recognizing that the outcomes of improved sanitation cannot be sustained without the safe management of faecal waste beyond the toilet, SBM 2 emphasises Open Defection Free (ODF) sustainability, Faecal Sludge Management (FSM), Solid Waste Management and Greywater Management. The state of Odisha has already emerged as a pioneer in urban FSM, and with the recent issue of its state-level Rural Sanitation Policy, 2020, the state is set to lead the path for rural FSM and SLWM as well.

Building on this momentum and in line with the state- and national level imperatives, the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department, Government of Odisha, in partnership with UNICEF and the Centre for Policy Research under its initiative, Scaling City Institutions for India: Water and Sanitation (SCI-FI), is undertaking a Pilot Project on ‘Solid and Liquid Waste Management in Rural Areas of Dhenkanal District’.

The Project will demonstrate two approaches to FSM and SLWM service delivery for rural areas in the district that hold lessons for the state- and nation-wide scale-up of FSM and SLWM services. The first will systematize urban-rural convergence for Faecal Sludge Management by formally ‘plugging in’ Gram Panchayats (GPs) located within 10 km radius from the Dhenkanal Urban Local Body to the urban Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant (FSTP).

The second, focusing on rural areas outside of the plugging-in boundary, will create clusters of GPs for SLWM planning and service delivery, as well as, demonstrate a Greenfield SLWM system in one of the identified clusters. Furthermore, the Project will develop a novel District Sanitation Plan, covering all aspects for successful SLWM interventions, including IEC, Capacity Building, Technology Selection, among others.

The District Administration of Dhenkanal in collaboration with the UNICEF and the SCI-FI team, formally launched the initiative on urban-rural convergence for FSM on September 29, 2020, via videoconferencing. Kicking off the proceedings, Project Director, District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Dhenkanal, stated, “Dhenkanal Municipality has become a model for pioneering faecal sludge and septage management in the country. Our priority is to extend these urban facilities to the rural areas to improve the quality of life of the rural populace.”

Ms Monika O. Nielsen, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Odisha remarked, “UNICEF is delighted to demonstrate the operationalization of the policy through the pilot project on solid and liquid waste management in rural areas of Dhenkanal district with the Centre for Policy Research.”

Praising the Project’s two-pronged approach to enabling district-wide as highly unique, comprehensive and relevant for state and nation-wide efforts on SLWM in rural areas, Mr Sujoy Majumdar, WASH Specialist, UNICEF said, “We are certain that the Project will not only enable Dhenkanal to emerge as one of the first districts in India to have safely managed sanitation, but also show the path for many more districts and states.”

Shubhagato Dasgupta, Senior Fellow and SCI-FI’s Project Director, said, “I am happy that today’s workshop will pave the way for the success of urban-rural convergence on SLWM under the committed leadership of District Collector, Dhenkanal, with the active participation of other stakeholders in the district including the Urban Local Bodies and Panchayati Raj Institutions”.

The District Administration expressed whole-hearted support to the Pilot Project with the Collector and District Magistrate, Dhenkanal District, informing that processes are currently underway for signing an agreement with the Dhenkanal Municipality to formalize the urban-rural FSM convergence for service delivery in rural areas.      

The launch concluded with the Additional Project Director, DRDA, Dhenkanal affirming that the Project will immensely benefit the district’s rural population and thanking all the project partners.

For further information and to schedule interviews with the concerned stakeholders, please write to sci-fi@cprindia.org or shubhagato@cprindia.org or hrudananda@cprindia.org or pooja@cprindia.org

Revised guidelines for groundwater use notified

Centre has issued revised guidelines for groundwater use that prohibit new industries and mining projects in over-exploited zones. The new guidelines mandate existing industries, commercial units and big housing societies to take ‘no objection certificate’ (NOC) under expanded compliance conditions. Unlike the old provisions where the NOC holders just had to pay a nominal lumpsum amount, the new conditions have set forth paying the groundwater abstraction and restoration charges based on the quantum of extraction. However, the agriculture sector and the individual domestic consumers drawing less than 10 cum/day of groundwater have been exempted from taking NOC, under the revised guidelines. (The Times of India)

Potable water supply in schools: A 100 days campaign launched

The Ministry of Jal Shakti has launched a 100-day campaign to ensure potable water supply in all schools and anganwadi centres across the country under the Jal Jeevan Mission. Taking note of water contamination causing serious health issues, the campaign has been launched to provide safe water to children through tap water connections as children are the most susceptible to water-borne diseases. In order to make the time-bound campaign a public movement, it demands concerted efforts from various departments. (The Economic Times)

Set up ETPs to address gaps in sewage treatment: NGT to states and UTs

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered all the states and union territories (UTs) to address gaps in generation and treatment of sewage or effluents by ensuring setting up of a requisite number of functional Effluent Treatment Plants (ETP), Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) and Common and Combined Effluent Treatment Plants (CETP). The order has come after the tribunal observed that the timeline for the commissioning of STPs has long passed and no action against non-compliance has been taken. The NGT has also directed that the unutilised capacity of the existing STPs may be utilised expeditiously and the states/ UTs may ensure that the CETP, ETPs and STPs meet the laid down norms and remedial action be taken wherever norms are not met. (Business World)

NABARD earmarks Rs 800 crore for government’s WASH programme for FY 2020-21

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has announced a special refinance facility to support the government's Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme and has earmarked Rs 800 crore for this purpose for the year 2020-21. The aim behind the move is to promote sustainable and healthy lifestyle in rural areas. While acting as a boost to the Swachh Bharat Mission, the funding will support eligible activities such as construction, repairing, enlarging of household toilets or converting an existing toilet to an accessible family toilet. (Outlook)

NGT strict over muck dumping in Chenab river

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered the State Pollution Control Board (PCB) to proceed with coercive measures, including assessment and recovery of compensation for the damage and initiating prosecution against the violators of environmental norms and dumping muck in Chenab River. The violators in the case are the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and its contractors that are involved in dumping muck in the Chenab river in the course of four laning of National Highway from Udhampur to Banihal in Jammu and Kashmir. While directing remedial action, the tribunal had constituted a Monitoring Committee (MC) to provide an independent report on the matter. (Business World)

This is a roundup of important policy matters from September 22 – October 5, 2020. Also, read news this week.

In Kerala, around half the urban population and 80% of the rural population depend on open wells on their domestic water needs. But in the last decade, the majority of observatory wells recorded an average annual decline of half a meter. Groundwater is a common-pool resource that is vulnerable to exploitation, at both individual and community level, and India is its largest extractor. A decline in water level in 54% of India's groundwater wells that could result in a national groundwater crisis was estimated in 2018.

The present system of groundwater management does not enable democratic cooperation between states and the centre for tackling the challenge of overexploitation. In such a context, a decentralised, grassroots level approach to groundwater challenge is essential for equitable, hyperlocal groundwater management.

As part of an ongoing study at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), we visited five locations in Kerala (coastal regions in Ernakulam and hinterlands of Thrissur) in February 2020, to understand the efficacy and differential impact of two grassroots techniques: the Rainwater Syringe Technique developed by KJ Antojy, and the Mazhapolima well recharge programme. Our study collected 10 samples from the sites where the techniques are installed along with a corresponding supporting sample (water sources like wells or ponds located within 200 metres from the site) for each to measure salinity and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) levels to verify the impact of the technique.

We found that both these techniques which consider local parameters rejuvenate not only the water table and the surrounding environment but also the region’s aquifers, underlying the importance of understanding the local hydrogeological condition to ensure a balance between extraction rates and recharge patterns.

The rainwater syringe technique for deep aquifers

Ramesh (name changed), who manages an orphanage and a care home at Kochi that is located near the backwaters, was facing issues with saline groundwater. They depended on the municipal water supply for drinking and cooking and used water from their well and ponds for irrigating their garden with tamarind trees, mango trees, herbs and seasonal vegetables.

In 2012, they installed the rainwater syringe unit that was developed by K J Antojy in the late 1980s. “Ponds never went dry after this. The iron content has drastically reduced. There is enough water to use for irrigation,” says Ramesh, adding that the vegetation yield of tamarind and seasonal vegetables also almost doubled.

The CGWB Technical Report 2013 highlights that the Vaikom aquifers (coastal sedimentary aquifers which cover most of Ernakulam district) are saline except small pockets of Narakal and Kumbalangi, which have freshwater in the deeper aquifer. The rest of Ernakulam district, covered by Warkalai aquifer, is also completely saline.  

The rainwater syringe technique uses a pressurised motor pump or the gravity method to inject rainwater into the deeper aquifers, depending on the dynamics of local aquifers. As a result, the pressurised technique acts not just as a rainwater harvesting unit but can also create a ‘freshwater lens’.

Vishwanath Srikanthaiah, water and rainwater conservation expert from Bengaluru, confirmed that when rainwater gets injected into an aquifer which contains saline water, it neither mixes nor dilutes the saline water, which is usually denser than rainwater. Instead, it creates a new freshwater lens. This is what we observed at Kochi happening with the rainwater syringe unit, where the deeper aquifers became storage spaces for rainwater.

Mazhapolima well recharge for restoring the water table

The district of Thrissur in Kerala has around 4.5 lakh wells, and nearly three-fourths of the state’s population depends on dug well for domestic water needs. Usually, around 70% of the dug wells dry up during summer.

At Orchard Diens, a gated residential community in Thrissur which did not have a municipal water connection since its establishment in 1998, Rani noticed in 2018 that the borewells her household relied on for regular water supply were drying up. Her neighbours were also found to be extracting water through other borewells, and all this overexploitation led to the depletion of the groundwater.

Facing severe water shortage, they sought the help of the Mazhapolima water recharge programme to establish a regular water source, by directing rainwater from rooftops to household dug wells. A community-level rainwater harvesting structure was installed in 2019 by Mazhapolima technician Ramdas, which captures rainwater from the roof of the clubhouse and diverts it to an open sump through a series of infiltration trenches. The sump water was further used for recharging the open dug well, eventually restoring the shallow aquifers.

Within a year of installation, our study found that the technique helped restore the shallow aquifers of the region through the recharge of rainwater with a combination of infiltration trenches and an open well.

The results of Mazhapolima projects indicate that the extent of water level fluctuation has drastically reduced in the low and midland areas¹. Salinity and TDS levels were found to have reduced through the infiltration of rainwater. We observed that this technique worked even in the geography of crystalline rocks, where the aquifers are inconsistently distributed.

Local context played a key role in how the techniques were developed

Antojy’s Rainwater Syringe technique seemed to work best in coastal areas where households depend on open wells for domestic use. Usually, water in the open dug wells is high in saline content and therefore abandoned. In the study, TDS levels in most of the cases had significantly reduced as compared to its supporting samples. Additionally, though these are samples from coastal areas of Ernakulam, salinity was found to be low in both the study sample and supporting, sample which suggests that the rainwater injection is also affecting neighbouring open wells. The displacement of saline water due to the technique can thus have a long-lasting effect on the region’s water quality.

The Mazhapolima technique worked well in lowland and midland areas, where households could easily direct rainwater to open wells using sand, gravel and charcoal filtering mechanisms. Salinity is already generally low in midland areas of Kerala, and the technique appeared to have a drastic impact on TDS levels, which were lower in the study sample than supporting samples. The technique was found to be cost-effective and most suited to curb the water quality of open dug wells in the households of Thrissur Corporation.

The study reiterated the importance of hyperlocal solutions to the management of groundwater recharging techniques. While the Mazhapolima technique has managed to restore the water table through the recharge of shallow aquifers, Antojy’s technique moves beyond the conventional expectations of rainwater recharge where water is not just diverted but injected to create a permanent reservoir of freshwater in the deep aquifers that are not disturbed by any contaminants.

This approach considers regional parameters that influence not only the surrounding environment but also the very nature of local aquifers. Here, we found that aquifers have the potential to behave as storage tanks that can eliminate the cost of an artificially constructed tank.

The impact that both techniques have in their respective physiography are varied and hence appropriate to their local challenges. For example, as Vishwanath explained, the syringe technique itself can have a different impact (displacement instead of dilution) in other areas based on factors such as homogeneity of aquifers, its behaviour, or dimensions. 

We need to move beyond generic solutions 

Although groundwater is emerging as a critical issue has managed to encourage new government schemes like Jal Shakti Abhiyan, our study confirms that a generic solution of rainwater recharge cannot be applied across different regions. The current challenge requires localised solutions that resonate with the water demands in the area and physiographic conditions of the site. For example, in the case of Ernakulam water extraction is high from the deeper aquifer, the recharge should then be in the deeper aquifer, after understanding where the stress is.  Bangalore is another city with high extraction of water from borewells has caused depletion of the water table, and the city was predicted to be one of the first cities that would run out of water.  As Bangalore has a bimodal pattern of rainfall (rainfall received throughout the year), it has a significant potential to capture rainwater, eliminate surface run-off, and promote infiltration to restore the groundwater table in the region.

While the building by-laws of Bangalore mandates rainwater harvesting practices, most of the recharge happens in the shallow aquifers. But there is an imbalance created when people extract water from deep aquifers through borewells, but recharge the shallow aquifers through rainwater harvesting techniques leading to a disconnect between extraction and recharging practices.  

This picture illustrates the disconnect between extraction and recharging practices. While the extraction takes places from the deep aquifers, the conventional recharging practices only inject rainwater into the shallow aquifers.

Hence, while there is a pressing need for policy-level interventions to capture surface runoff and promote infiltration, practices that are implemented should simultaneously assess the impact that is made in the respective context. The adoption of the two identified grassroots level solutions and scaling up of the techniques based on the local context can be a few of the many other solutions that can address the national groundwater crisis.

It is evident that individuals can also play a crucial role in understanding the local hydrogeological condition to ensure the balance between extraction rates and recharge patterns. As more people take up such responsibility at the grassroots level, these decentralised approaches can ensure that the practices correspond to the needs of the people and the sustainability of the environment.

Authors

Abhinav Madhavanunni, Research Associate at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements

Sairama Raju Marella, Senior Associate at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements

References

1.  Centre for Water Resources Development and Management, Kerala, Impact Assessment of Mazhapolima Project on Groundwater Regime in Thrissur District, 2013

Background

Raintree Foundation is a not- for- profit, philanthropic organization (estd. 2018), based out of Pune city, India. The Foundation leverages catalytic philanthropy as a multiplier to strengthen the development ecosystem through a multi-stakeholder, data- driven and research-oriented approach. The Foundation is built on the principles of: participatory and collaborative approach, sustainability, scalability and replicability of programs, and prioritizing data and innovation. The Foundation has two core focus areas- Sustainable Integrated Rural Development and Disability & Mental Health.

Context

The Sustainable Integrated Rural Development (SIRD) program is being implemented in a 2,100 Hectare geography spread over 9 villages in Velhe Block near Pune city, Maharashtra. The targeted population is 4,131 people, including 710 families. Interviews and focus group discussions will be conducted with different target groups and will engage with key government officials and institutions, especially those working in health, environment, women and child development, agriculture, forest and natural resource management and water security.

The SIRD Program has three thematic areas:

• Community Development- Water Security, Sustainable Livelihoods and People’s Participation (institutional strengthening, capacity building of the community on citizenship awareness)
• Environment- Ecological Conservation and Environment Education
• Disability & Mental Health- Mental well- being of people, gender- just community and change in norms & perceptions around gender & masculinity

Objective

The baseline study is an integrated survey that will collect data and information tied with the performance indicators of the SIRD program, mapped out to assess the program’s long- term impact (over 7 years). The survey will also guide the design and refinement of evidence-based strategies to be adopted by the program and its interventions. 

For more details, download the document on Request for Proposal from below. 

India is fortunate to have a rich tradition of public data collection and compilation. Government functionaries at the national, state, district, block and panchayat levels collect data on thousands of variables on population, land use, agricultural production, irrigation, stream flows, reservoir storage, groundwater level, employment and livestock; and almost all of it is meticulously aggregated and compiled at district and state level.

These routine or regular data collection exercises are complemented by quinquennial (every five years) Agriculture, Livestock and Minor Irrigation censuses and the decadal population census. Large-scale sample surveys routinely undertaken by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) add richness to the census data. Compared to other developing countries, India’s public data collection and availability is much better; some of the detailed datasets – such as the census of more than 20 million minor irrigation structures – is not even available in much ‘richer’ water economies such as the United States.

As can be expected from any large-scale data collection process, the quality of our public data is highly variable, sometimes even inconsistent. But, overall, if analyses and interpretation are done keeping in mind some of the limitations, the datasets can be a precious resource at the meso and macro level. For all the effort and resources that go into the collection of this data, and the rich overview of the water and agriculture economy that the data can paint, India’s public datasets are largely underutilized.

Factors that contribute to underutilization of public datasets

Data quality

Most national-level censuses fall under the responsibilities of the concerned ministry of the Government of India. However, the actual execution and data collection cannot be done without support from state and local government departments. For the Minor Irrigation Census, for example, the Minor Irrigation (Statistics) Wing in the Ministry of Jal Shakti (formerly, Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation) is the nodal agency at Centre. All costs associated with conducting the census is borne by the central government. However, execution is the responsibility of respective state water resource ministries/nodal departments.

The central ministry prepares the pro-forma schedule and conducts workshops in states to train enumerators. While some states take this exercise seriously, others may not. While in some states, the irrigation department collects the data themselves, in others, it has been farmed out to private data collection agencies.

In the past, due to several reasons, some states have even failed to send back any data – for example, Rajasthan is missing from the first MI census. Gujarat, Maharashtra and three union territories (Chandigarh, Daman & Diu and Lakshadweep) were missing from the second census. Daman & Diu and Lakshadweep are also missing from the subsequent third, fourth and fifth censuses. All of these create variability and inconsistencies in data and make it difficult to compare and analyse.

Data lags

Given that so far, most of the data collection has been done through paper-based enumeration schedules, there is usually a big lag between data collection and its final release. The report of the Fourth MI census – which had the reference year of 2005-06 was released in 2014; the lag was reduced in the fifth census where the reference year was 2013-14 and the report was published in 2017. In recent iterations, this issue is expected to be tackled through digitization of data collection and compilation and use of tablet-based surveys and appropriate tools for data management.

Data formats

Another huge challenge with data is that it is collected and compiled based on administrative boundaries (districts, blocks)– which themselves keep changing. Any comparison of data across different censuses has to deal with this issue. While changes in administrative boundaries are perhaps inevitable, the analyses can be made easy if disaggregated data was made accessible (so that it can easily be re-aggregated as per new administrative divisions).

Most of the data is released as poorly-scanned data tables in pdf format, and often needs to be painfully downloaded state-wise, or sometimes even by crop or district. Often, undertaking any analyses requires a costly and wasteful process of ‘re-digitalization’[1] which can be easily avoided.

Our hunch is that if the data was better organized and available for download in more ‘user-friendly’ formats, its utilization would improve manifold and it would start informing important policies and programs – both government-led as well as donor or civil-society driven.

Despite these limitations, India’s public ‘water and agriculture’ datasets can help nudge India’s public policy debates towards data-driven planning – at the macro level. These datasets, however, are unlikely to be very useful for the village or even small watershed-level planning.

For best results, data from large public datasets and micro-level field studies should be made interoperable so that the two can be combined to present a nuanced picture of the agrarian economy.

We conclude by highlighting some positive steps in the public data space that are encouraging and a ‘wish-list’ of what else needs to be done to nudge us in the right direction.

Some bright spots

• The National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA) recently published a report that has creatively combined several datasets on rainfall, land use, agriculture, livestock, groundwater, soil moisture, demography, WASH etc. into two district-level indices: Natural Resource Index and Livelihood Index. Both of these are then combined into a Composite Index for arriving at a data-driven prioritization of districts (NRAA 2020).

• The sixth minor irrigation census added a census of water bodies – both rural and urban – which would also capture their pictures and GPS location.

• Adoption of digital data collection tools is slowly becoming the standard practice, and this is likely to improve data quality, reliability, and timeliness. The twentieth livestock census deployed a combination of web-based and mobile-based schedules for collection and compilation of data.

• The India Observatory has launched the Groundwater Monitoring Tool – an open-source Android tool that enables collection and compilation of well water level data. The tool facilitates a network of field organizations to contribute data from villages in their respective field areas.

• Some of IWMI-Tata Program’s research has demonstrated how creatively combining some of these datasets can be used to inform big-ticket policy initiatives such as the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) (Shah et al. 2016).

Availability of high-resolution remote sensing data is increasing by the day. Recently, Norway invested ~€37 million to make < 5m resolution satellite imagery for 64 countries open access to assist research and policymaking on deforestation. This includes imagery from Planet, KSAT, Airbus and historical SPOT imagery from 2002 onwards.

• CGWB is planning to release data collected through the national aquifer mapping program (NAQUIM) in formats that are useful for the village as well as macro-level planning.

What more is needed

• Inter-ministerial coordination and convergence for coherence: Given that collection and compilation fall in the purview of sectoral ministries; India’s public data tends to be highly isolated and sectoral. Even agriculture and irrigation datasets – which are so closely linked – don’t always sync well. Better coordination between Jal Shakti and Agriculture ministries in designing survey instruments and scheduling rounds of data collection can bring immense returns.
• Since farmers in most states are provided free or highly subsidized power for pumping, data on power consumption in agriculture is at best a rough estimate which is a leading worry for electricity regulators as it can undermine accountability in utility performance. IWMI-Tata Program has used data from the Minor Irrigation Census to estimate energy consumption in agriculture (see Rajan and Verma 2017). Likewise, given the salience of energy-irrigation nexus in India, bringing data from the two sectors together can yield useful insights.
• User-friendly navigation and aggregation/ disaggregation layers: A common portal to bring all the large datasets together can be very useful, especially for planning programs and designing interventions. The Open Government Data platform [https://data.gov.in/] is an early step in this direction but it needs to do more than just be a repository of stand-alone and dispersed datasets.

Links to some useful large-scale data sets available online

Acknowledgement: Some ideas discussed in the article stem from a webinar on “Data-driven ‘water and agriculture’ planning” with Tata Trusts’ and partners. The authors would like to acknowledge support from the CGIAR research program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) and IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program (ITP).

Shilp Verma and Cheshta Rajora work with IWMI-Tata Policy Program. Manisha Shah is associated with Arghyam. Views expressed are personal.

A few of us did an exercise where we closed our eyes and thought of the first four words that came to our minds when we thought of water data in India. Here is what we came up with:

• Where (is it)? - Pointing to a large vacuum in data availability.
• Management Information Systems (MIS) - created during a program’s life as a method for the funding and oversight agencies to know what is happening on the ground.
• Unusable - Most of the data in the public domain is not available real-time, making it irrelevant to the decision making today.
• God knows! - who collects this data, what training did they receive to collect it, how is it updated into the system -  all pointing to whether it paints the right picture.

All these words, we realised, point to one fundamental problem - a lack of trust. We also realised all is not lost. Programs - both governmental and non-governmental are making rapid strides in terms of tools used to collect data and dashboarding this data. Simple, open tools are being developed to urge better data collection and visibility to actors within a program.

Most of these tools, in turn, feed an MIS, which is set up to track and monitor the programs. In fact, programs spend a substantial amount of human and capital resources on their MIS. However, when the program ends, this MIS expires as well. When the next program comes in, it starts with its baseline - and once again leaves no data behind.

Can we break this cycle?

Yes, we can. Let us understand how by using two current programs of the Government of India:  the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) and Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABhY). Together, these programs will reach more than 6 lakh villages, collecting data from each of them to generate plans. The Water Security Plan (WSP) mandated by ABhY has more than 225 attributes to be collected which will involve intensive community engagement. Similarly, the Village Action Plan (VAP) under JJM has more than 130 attributes, some of which overlap with data collected for the WSP, especially the component under source sustainability.

If implemented well, this data will be inherently owned and trusted by the community as both program designs have rightly put them at the centre of these schemes. In villages where both the programs will be implemented, making data from one available to the other is a no-brainer to ensure convergence and optimum outcomes.

This seamless flow of data from one program to another can be enabled if a few principles are kept in mind:

Community as data owners and users

Keeping the subsidiarity principle in mind, data should be made available to the community in a way that builds their agency and empowers them to make the right decisions. Involving the community in a data framework with the right incentives will have the second-order benefit of the community being active collectors of data, allowing for annual VAPs/WSPs to be created leading to a virtuous cycle that lasts beyond the programs. This is also in line with the first Disbursement Linked Indicator (DLI) in ABhY that calls for making data publicly available.

Trust in data

Data abundance will lead to usage and improved decision making only if there is trust in data. This is possible through Digitally Verifiable Registries (of people, entities, tools and assets that participate in the network) with open application programming interfaces (APIs) that can amplify trust and accountability across the network.

This will ensure that personnel collecting data will be tagged to these data sets (in ways that keep their privacy in mind) and the capacity building done as a part of JJM and ABhY will, in turn, be tagged to them thus reinforcing trust in data.

Data as an exhaust

Simply put, this means that data is available in run-time as a part of workflows within the program, without creating new workflows solely for the purpose of data collection and uploading. ABhY lays a strong foundation for this by ensuring the right infrastructure is made available at the GP-level.

Use of open standards

It is necessary to create open standards and certification mechanisms to ensure neutrality and interoperability among devices, sensors, and systems.

For instance, every vendor that sells a water quality test to ABhY or JJM understands the minimum specifications for the device to qualify as viable and usable by the program. So, multiple vendors can build devices for the program, given the huge demand, which in turn can drive down costs.

Incentive aligned collaborative design

There is a need to create an environment for data sharing to empower all the actors and amplify the collective ability of the ecosystem to leverage what exists. It can also enable actors to act, solve the problems, and contribute back as required for creating a data-rich economy. We need to invest and think deeply on designing these incentives and collaborate more to make them a reality.

Given the potential that these programs have to enrich data availability in the water sector, there is a huge potential to reimagine the MIS of these programs to provide program-agnostic data and artefacts to the ecosystem at a granular level in a trusted manner to empower ecosystem actors.

By doing this, the Government of India can seed a reimagined way of managing data - which ensures that communities collect, manage and use their data making the primary objective of these programs i.e. to be participatory, a reality.

Evidence world over shows that small scale agricultural production does very little to deal with malnutrition and food insecurity among rural poor. Women are more likely than men to be involved in agricultural activities that not only involve crop production, but also care of livestock, preparation of food as well as activities related to marketing of produce, and are the ones who suffer the most due to malnutrition.

Farm women in India

Women form a significant section of the agricultural labour force in India and contribute about 32 percent of the time required for agricultural activities. There is no limit to women’s contribution in rural farms. Barring ploughing, a major share of agricultural work such as paddy transplanting, weeding, harvesting, sowing, and threshing is carried out by women. Chores like rearing of livestock and poultry, milking, milk processing, preparation of ghee, selling chicken and eggs are also done by women. 

Women work for as long as 14-18 hours on an average daily and expend more total energy a day as compared to men. Agricultural activities almost take equal time and energy as household activities. However, in spite of the amount of work they do, women are often paid less than men and women’s participation in household and agricultural decision-making continues to be poor.

Overwork, poor diet and women’s health

Rural women continue to suffer from a range of health problems in India. Malnutrition, especially anaemia continues to be rampant among them due to dietary deficiencies. Evidence shows that India has the largest number of anaemic women followed by China, Pakistan, Nigeria and Indonesia.

Why is this so

Lack of voice, discrimination and poor decision making capacity continue to take a toll on the health of women. This paper 'Nutritional outcomes of empowerment and market integration for women in rural India' published in the journal Food Security informs that two strategies have been proposed to improve the nutritional outcomes for rural women and their households - market integration and women’s empowerment. However, there continues to a considerable lack of information on how these factors interact to influence nutritional outcomes among women.

The paper discusses the findings of a study that analyses the relationship between market purchases, women’s empowerment in agriculture and their dietary diversity. The study collected data from 3600 households across four districts namely Munger (Bihar), Maharajganj (Uttar Pradesh or UP), Kandhamal (Odisha) and Kalahandi (Odisha) in India on various aspects of agriculture, empowerment, WASH, seasonal food deficits, demand for nutritious foods and the nutritional status of women.

Empowerment can lead to better decisionmaking

Women’s empowerment implies that women can influence household food consumption as both food producers and consumers. For example, women’s input in which crops to grow and sell can influence the choices made for food production while their control over income and participation in decisions related to purchase of food can greatly influence the diversity of food purchased from local market and included in the households meals.

Women’s control over time they spend in farm work and other chores and availability of leisure time can greatly help in influencing the decisions and time they take in food preparation influencing the choice of foods that are prepared.

The study found that women who had control over decisonmaking and money often purchased non-cereals such as pulses, dairy, eggs and meat, fish, poultry (MFP) from the markets thus leading to improved dietary diversity among households where cereals were the dominant crops grown. Women who had a say in decisionmaking related to crop production in their farms, who were a part of self help groups and who had more leisure time were in a better situation to decide the foods that needed to be purchased for the household and included better dietary diversity in their meals.

Empowerment of women led to better decisionmaking and led to increase in the quantity of pulses, eggs, meats and dairy products purchased by women, and improved the diversity of their diets. Women’s ability to make decisions related to agricultural production was also a significant determinant of the diversity of their diets.

Role of markets

The purchase of non-cereal food groups by farm women highlights the importance of ensuring that households are able to access non-cereal foods at affordable prices through local markets.

For this, the markets also need to support women. For example, the ability of smallholder farm women to integrate in local markets depends on their ability to produce for the market, access and connect to a market and the stability of the market.

The paper argues that there is a need to reorient India’s agricultural price and procurement policies to encourage production of non-cereals for the markets which have historically favoured cereals such as rice and wheat. Ensuring market access is important and the ability of both buyers and sellers of non-cereals to access markets will require investments in rural infrastructure like roads, transport and storage facilities.

If women are empowered to participate in decisions related to agricultural production in their farms, they could influence nutritional outcomes for themselves and their households by making changes in cropping practices by moving away from cereals to pulses, fruits and vegetables and using them for home consumption; selling produce from farming/livestock/kitchen gardens to generate incomes and also contributing in decisonmaking on technologies to adopt to reduce their drudgery in field level activities and use that time for leisure and deciding about preparation of nutritious foods. 

While factors such as shorter distance to market, greater proportion of crop sold leading to a better financial status and capacity to spend higher higher might improve household access to diverse food types, these factors might not influence the decision to purchase more diverse foods. This study shows that in contrast, women's agricultural empowerment can greatly influence the choice of women to buy and grow more diverse foods and helps in understanding the gender dynamics in changing agri- food systems and promoting gender equality in nutrition- sensitive food systems.

The study highlights distinct agriculture-nutrition pathways- income and empowerment and argues that public policies need to address these pathways in order to improve nutritional outcomes for women in smallholder farming communities.

The paper can be accessed here