Memorandum submitted by Dr V Suresh, Change
Management Group (CMG), Tamil Nadu Water Supplies and Drainage
Board, India
SOLUTIONS TO
THE WATER
CRISIS: NEED
FOR A
PARADIGM SHIFT
We are privileged to send this Note for consideration
by the International Development Committee inquiring into "Water
and Sanitation issues". It is a Note based on the concrete
experiences and lessons learnt from an ongoing process of bringing
about governance reform in a State Level water utility, the Tamil
Nadu Water Supplies and Drainage Board (TWAD). We feel that the
experience has lessons which are valid for many state or country
contexts. We feel confident the Committee will find it useful.
We are encouraged to send this Note especially
after a meeting with the Chairman, Mr. Malcolm Bruce, and another
Member on 5 July 2006 at the House of Commons when they met 2
others from Brazil, Uganda and myself from India. The lively exchanges
we had and the issues debated made me realize that it is of great
importance that we should send in our submissions. We would also
like to place on record our appreciation for Ms. Chloe Challender,
Committee Specialist, who was very helpful and responsive to our
queries and requests.
Over the last three years since 2003 a major
effort has been underway within the Tamil Nadu Water Supplies
and Drainage Board (TWAD), the official state body with exclusive
mandate to supply water and ensure drainage facilities for the
entire state of Tamil Nadu, barring the city of Chennai. The ongoing
work titled "Democratisation of Water Management"
has focused on bringing about reforms within the water sector
and ensuring improved water delivery, not through infusion of
more capital or technology, but by focusing on institutional change
within the water utility. This encompasses three interconnected
areas of:
(i) attitude changes amongst water engineers;
(ii) perspective shifts amongst both government
staff as also amongst the community; and
(iii) redefining the nature of relations
between water engineers and the community at large.
The experiment has produced both a qualitative
change in the way community has assumed responsibility for conserving
water and ensuring sustainable supply, but has shown remarkable
difference in financial parameters of functioning as the papers
appended to the submissions highlight.
The TWAD experiment has been recognized as representing
a fundamental paradigm shift in the water sector and has also
been adopted as a model of governance reform in water sector for
the entire country by the Government of India. Following a day
long national level discussion with Water department Heads from
12 major states in India, the Government of India has also decided
to form a national level "Change Management Forum"
to formulate the future path of water sector reforms in India.
We are presenting this short note to the Committee
based on the experience of working on water reforms in Tamil Nadu,
India. We would only be too happy to provide any further clarifications
if found necessary.
We also take this opportunity to invite Members
of the Committee to visit the villages in Tamil Nadu where the
experiment is underway, to see for themselves the extent to which
community has taken charge of managing their own water resources.
It has been our experience that we need to break
out of the stifling confines of existing perspectives and paradigms
on water sector reforms full of jaded clichés and empty
rhetoric. We do not claim to have solutions for all the problems
that bedevil the water sector; but we do know that no "one
size fits all" strategy is the answer. What we share in the
next few page are some of our thoughts, ideas and perspectives
which have guided our work. We hope that members of the Committee
will find it useful.
A: VOICES FROM
THE FIELD
"As a 15 year old girl, I too wanted to
go to school and study; and do all the nice things they show on
TV. But I had to get up daily at 3.00 am to go the nearby town
of Tiruvannamalai to fetch water. Many girls like me had to give
up studies. So much so, when the water engineer sat with us to
find out a local solution we thought he was mad!
No water engineer had ever visited so often
or was so open in talking with us. He kept asking old people about
finding sources of water used in the past. We got infected by
his enthusiasm to search for local water sources. A 80 year old
grandfather remembered local stories of a fresh water well in
a remote corner of a nearby forest, used ages back by tribals.
We searched for it and actually managed to find one. Today, this
well, supplies water. For the first time in many years, I no longer
go to water taps; I am learning a trade."
...Manjudevi, 18 year old girl from Endal
village, Tiruvannamalai District
"Our village was totally water starved
with a water supply of 10 lpcd[226]
once in 6 days. To focus attention on the water problem we even
conducted a marriage of donkeys in our village! We asked for a
major water scheme costing a lot of money to bring water from
a distant river source. At this stage reading about the problem,
the TWAD engineers visited our village. We conducted a detailed
study of water table and other technical issues. Despite our acute
water shortage, he persuaded us to postpone the mega-scheme and
instead initiate a community led scheme to expand and deepen local
water sources, ensure conservation through rational use, go in
for tree planting and other measures which we could control. Two
years later, our village is an oasis in an otherwise dry region
and there is almost full realization of tariffs."
Mr. Raghunathan, Panchayat
President[227],
Ramainahalli Village, Dharmapuri District (May, 2006)
"I dreaded April and May every year. The
acute water shortage during the summer months always resulted
in water conflicts, agitations, police action and criminal cases.
For the first time in 15 years, this summer of 2006, we could
supply water to all people; surely not as much as everyone would
like but enough to satisfy all needs.
The water engineers of the TWAD Board tirelessly
visited our village and persuaded us that instead of going in
for costly, money guzzling water schemes we should instead focus
on conserving and expanding local water sources. They talked to
the local people of the importance of limiting water use voluntarily.
Assuring equitable supply through ensuring the rich did not over
draw water at the cost of the tail end areas. Frankly after over
25 years in politics, deep in my heart, I was disdainful and scoffed
at the engineers as being romantic fools.
However within a year the 30 odd check dams
resulted in raising the water table. Children who planted over
7,000 tree saplings, in their names and in the names of their
class mates and pets, made sure most of the trees survived. The
water table has risen up from about 1,200 feet to 800 feet. We
are now daring to dream of changing the dusty, dry and dreary
landscape we have today into a green and prosperous village".
P Gopalsamy, Panchayat
President, Palangarai Village, Coimbatore District (May, 2006)
"We are poor. Our views and voices counted
for nothing. We knew that the rich and propertied drew away all
the water even before the water reached our areas. Questioning
was risky!
We then learnt about the tap stand study and
participated in finding out how long it takes to fill a pot in
the portion where the rich live and in the areas where we stay.
Nothing more needed to be said about discrimination in water supply.
Details about water pumping hours, electricity consumption, time
of supply and so on are written on boards. We ensure that the
details are updated. Slowly things have started changing. We are
also learning there are ways other than merely quarrelling and
fighting to resolve conflicts and to ensure just supply of water".
Dalit (Scheduled Caste
or Untouchable community) leader, Pagalmedu Village, Tiruvallur
District (Name withheld on request).
B. THE CONTEXT
FOR THIS
NOTE
For the last three years since late 2003, the
water engineers of the state owned Tamil Nadu Water Supply and
Drainage Board (TWAD) have been involved in a quiet exercise of
institutional transformation. Starting from focusing attention
on their own attitudes to work and to the community, the engineers,
as a collective body, have been engaged in critically re-examining
and redefining fundamental notions of water supply. This necessarily
required self-critical analysis of the hitherto technology driven
approaches based on high investments in creating water infrastructure.
The search also demanded an honest appraisal of the extent to
which water engineers were truly willing to share power and authority
over decision on water schemes with local villagers and the community,
despite the rhetoric of the last decade or so.
The state wide exercise also emphasized that
not only should the rethinking within the state public utility
result in changes in policy and practice but should be manifest
in a more open, egalitarian and democratic relationship with the
community. The training process was anchored in ensuring attitudinal
shifts and perspective changes amongst the engineers before they
began the process of re-negotiating and re-creating a new relationship
with the community. The training was also premised on another
important principle: that good governance is a two way process
in which both the bureaucracy and the civil society has to undergo
attitudinal changes and re-negotiation of roles, boundaries and
responsibilities. The engineers were sensitized to the fact that
they too had a responsibility in bringing about attitudinal changes
amongst the people by engaging with opinion makers, leaders, women,
children and other stake holders.
There was widespread unanimity amongst the TWAD
Engineers participating in the exercise that that the effectiveness
of the entire change exercise was to be measured in terms of the
experience of improved water supply by every household, particularly
the socially marginalized sections.
Three years onwards the results speak for themselves.
While there is no claim of dramatic earthshaking transformation,
the change in water policy and practice, the response of community
and stake holders and the concrete experience of improved water
supply has helped raise confidence that innovative solutions to
address the water crisis can actually be evolved and discovered.
The result of an independent UNICEF sponsored
study on the impact of the "Democratisation" experiment
has also highlighted the extent to which the new approach has
resulted in the creation of sustainable, democratic and effective
water supply system.
In recognition of the relevance of the new approach,
the Government of India convened a meeting in New Delhi of about
10 states of India in August, 2006 to highlight the TWAD experience
and to urge interested states to adapt the lessons of the TWAD
experience to their own settings. It is important to note that
the Water Board of the State of Maharashtra, Maharashtra Jeevan
Pradhikaran (MJP) has already invited the TWAD Change Management
Group (CMG) team consisting of TWAD engineers and external facilitators
to conduct a series of intervention workshops for their utility.
A Similar CMG has been formed at the Maharashtra state level.
This unparalleled Public-Public Partnership or `Water Operator
Partnership' is a significant step in addressing the water issue
nationally.
Government of India has also set up a "Change
Management Forum" at the national level to take forward
the change exercise in water sector throughout India.
Finally, there have been exchanges of experiences
between the Egyptian Water Supply and Sanitation utility and TWAD
CMG.
This Note therefore draws on all these experiences.
It should be stressed that the Note seeks to etch out the contours
of the framework for ensuring changes in service delivery system
which has been the template for the change effort in Tamil Nadu.
Details can be found in the different reports annexed to this
note.
It also needs stressing that this Note draws
on an experience which is still evolving. We have only begun the
long journey of democratizing the water supply sector and ensuring
that there is sustainable, safe and equitable water supply to
all citizens of the state. The TWAD Board currently serves 70
million citizens of Tamil Nadu in an area roughly ¾ the size
of England.
We do not lay claim to having the final answers
or even to definitive solutions. We only know that the process
of engaging in transforming institutions and changing mindsets
is not only a cost effective way of finding solutions to the water
crisis, but also the best way to ensure an open, transparent and
democratic system.
It is also necessary to stress that this Note
is based on experience of more or less stable government systems
with a long history of investment in the water sector. The writers
are painfully aware that there are many areas of the world which
have been affected due to endemic wars, ethnic clashes and other
problems resulting in non-investment in or poorly developed infrastructure.
The issues raised in this note may perhaps not cover these countries,
though the lessons learnt could be applied whenever solutions
to water crisis are attempted in these countries.
The Framework for Change
1. SOLUTIONS
TO THE
WATER CRISIS:
FOCUS ON
GOVERNANCE REFORMS
NOT INCREASING
INVESTMENT ALONE
The TOR of the Water and Sanitation Inquiry
recognizes the acuteness of the water crisis worldwide and the
stark reality that across many nations and regions of the world,
Governments and water service providers are nowhere close to achieving
the aim of reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable
and safe water. What is ironical is that the poor success is despite
the investment of millions of pounds and dollars in water schemes
and water supply projects over the last 2 decades and more. International
Donors have not stopped with advancing money alone, but have actively
influenced water policies in most of the aid receiving nations,
including in pushing for dismantling public utilities and ushering
in privatization of water resources. Often this has produced disastrous
consequences as the water agitations in different parts of the
world show. An army of experts and consultants, most from the
First World itself, have also been engaged by the IFI's and donor
countries and have little to show for the sustained impact of
their inputs on lessening the spread of the global water crisis.
It is not as though well meaning governments
and water engineers have not attempted genuine water sector reforms.
In spite of all these efforts, the water crisis is deepening.
The writing on the wall is not just gloomy, but scary.
It will be useful to refer to 2 perspectives
elaborated by official UN agencies.
"(The) water crisis is largely our own making.
It has resulted not from the natural limitations of the water
supply or lack of financing and appropriate technologies, even
though these are important factors, but rather from profound failures
in water governance. ... .Consequently, resolving the challenges
in this area must be a key priority if we are to achieve sustainable
water resources development and management".
...UNDP on Water Governance.[228]
The Second World Water Development Report released
during the IV World Water Forum (WWF) meeting in Mexico City in
March, 2006 has drawn attention to the fact that,
"There is enough water for everyone. Then
problem we face today is largely one of governance: equitably
sharing this water while ensuring the sustainability of natural
eco systems. At this point in time, we have not reached that balance.
"Decisions on water management are a top
priority. Who has the right to water and its benefits? Who is
making allocation decisions on who is supplied with water—and
from where, when and how..."[229]
The unfortunate reality is that despite
numerous official reports calling attention to the importance
of working on governance reforms, in actuality there are very
few serious attempts initiated anywhere in the world. In a world
where outsourcing enterprises and dismantling service utilities
is the mantra, working with huge public utilities to reinvent
their relevance is not attractive. Further, bringing about changes
in the way people feel and act, in the manner in which institutions
respond and treat citizens and in democratizing systems is also
painfully time consuming. Equally importantly, it requires the
commitment and involvement of both the bureaucratic bosses and
the political executive to bring about such changes. In view of
these factors, governance reforms are not the favoured strategy
of policy makers in the donor countries of the First world or
amongst IFI's.
We would argue that working on governance reforms,
especially in countries with stable governance systems and a history
of investment in water resources and assets, is more rewarding
in the long run in terms of ensuring sustainable water supply
systems. It is also incredibly cost effective. If implemented
in a clearly planned, open and inclusive manner, it is more likely
to take roots and outlast the leaders who initiate the change
process and champion it through the initial period. For any systemic
reform, change has to be embraced by everyone in the institution,
not just the dynamic few.
As stated previously, this paper is based on
experience in one Indian State but draws on experience elsewhere
in India too. Hopefully the lessons will be of use to other situations
also.
2. INVERTING
THE POLICY
FRAME
LOOKING BACK
AT THE
ESCALATING WATER
CRISIS
There are two types of problems afflicting
water supply utilities.
GROWING WATER
CRISIS
There are numerous dimensions to the water crisis.
We present the more important ones below.
— Unsustainable systems and investments.
— Over exploitation of ground water
leading to depleted water tables.
— Impact of climate changes resulting
in monsoon changes.
— Environmental degradation and related
issues impacting quality and quantity of water.
— Increasing short supply for drinking
water and conflict over allocation of water.
IDENTITY CRISIS
A much less noticed but very impactful change
has been a growing identity crisis afflicting the public water
utilities. Using the example of TWAD as a template, the dimensions
of this crisis can be depicted as follows:
— Narrow interpretation of mandate.
— Old supply driven approach being
challenged as being unsustainable.
— Policy directive stipulating change
of thrust from being "providers" to "facilitators".
— Policy framework requiring sharing
of power over decision making with community.
— Criticism from civil society.
— Target of onslaught by IFIs and donor
countries as being inefficient and requiring to be dismantled.
PREVALENT PERSPECTIVES
ON REFORM
Viewed from this perspective, the dominating
strategies adopted for bringing about reform in the sector have
included:
— Inducting higher technology.
— Organisational restructuring.
— Thrust towards community participation.
PERSISTENT SHORTCOMINGS
Despite the adoption of these strategies in
different regions there were persistent shortcomings:
— Unsustainable practice.
— Uninvolved technocracy.
MISSING CORE:
THE PARADIGM
SHIFT
Three critical areas need to be focused on:
— Social Dimension of Exclusion—the
challenge of ensuring inclusion of all.
— Sustainable service delivery.
— Changes in institutional cultures
and practices.
WHO TRIGGERS
CHANGE?
A critical question always raised is about how
such change processes are championed. Do we need change champions?
Is it possible for the larger body of people who make a system,
especially a state wide system, to be committed to carrying the
process forward despite opposition and brickbats.
In some countries, notably from Latin America,
powerful social movements have championed water reforms. Elsewhere
charismatic political personalities or parties have sought to
democratize systems. Where neither of these two processes exist,
an important question suggests itself: can the public water utilities
themselves initiate the process of governance reform?
The TWAD experience demonstrates that it is
possible to comprehend that the water engineers of the state utility
can initiate such a process. We should notice the fact that as
a state level utility, water engineers cover the entire length
and breadth of the state and have an unmatched understanding of
water issues in every nook and corner of the state. They are therefore
best suited to initiating such reform.
There are no illusions that merely being a state
wide service, water engineers will necessarily be interested in
or committed to bringing about change or ensuring equitable supply.
It is precisely because of this bottleneck, that the present democratisation
initiative focused on working to change attitudes of the water
engineers and bring about perspective changes in the way they
perceived themselves vis-a"-vis the community in general
and specific water users in particular.
3. CHANGING THE
POLICY THRUST:
REACHING THE
UNREACHED
Over the last 20-30 years the efforts of many
governments has been to ensure water supply to all villages and
habitations in a state/region. As a result the emphasis has been
more on measuring completion of schemes by verifying water supply
has reached the village or area. The policy framework does not
include verifying if every person in that area has actually been
supplied with water.
Official figures therefore talk of how there
is impressive 90% + improvement in coverage. However the figures
hide the grim reality that behind the data there are unserved
communities who do not get water. Whether it is slum dwellers
or shanty town residents in urban areas or marginalized people
like Dalits (untouchable community) in rural areas, the fact is
that there are more people without access to water than are served.
Equally importantly, just as there are unreached
communities who do not receive water, there are unreached regions,
which are discriminated from receiving water schemes.
INVERTING THE
POLICY: FIRST
SHIFT
IDENTIFY THE UNREACHED—as individuals,
community, regions.
MEASURE THEIR NUMBERS—as gross numbers
as also nature of habitations.
ASK THE QUESTION: Why are they unreached?—Is
it due to social discriminatory practices? Or lack of political
power? Or other reasons.
The Policy should be to ensure that adequate,
safe and good water reaches all the unreached communities.
INVERTING THE
POLICY: SECOND
SHIFT
IDENTIFYING THE
CONSTRAINTS TO
REACHING WATER
TO THE
UNREACHED ?
The next policy shift is to make the focus of
water policy move from merely finding technical solutions to reaching
water to asking the question: what are the constraints to reaching
water to the unreached? Based on our situation we have identified
5 broad factors which operate as constraints and which would need
to be addressed with seriousness. Very briefly, these are:
CONSTRAINTS
| Physical | —
| Poor resource availability, strain and overuse of water; depleted waterTables.
|
| Social/Cultural | — |
Social discrimination, denial of water. Issues of equity, non-recognition as a community. Social conflicts.
|
| Political | — | Lack of political patronage, bargaining capacity, fractiousness
|
| Financial | — | Poor economic status, defensive expenditure, no alternative Employment sources.
|
| Technical | — | High ended technology, literacy barriers, maintenance skills and costs, Alienating technology.
|
SOLUTIONS AS
COUNTER MEASURES
The above list of constraints are merely suggestive and are
not by any stretch comprehensive. The constraints will also vary
from place to place, even within the same state or country. The
important shift, is to acknowledge that there are a divergent
number of groups, factors and forces which continually impact
on any water project affecting the fate of the scheme. While the
issue of identifying constraints so as to evolve strategies to
address them seems to be fairly obvious, in practice, we have
found that most schemes flounder as these constraints impact on
the life, usefulness and sustainability of the water schemes.
It has also been our experience that once a changed perspective
is brought about in both policy and practice, water engineers
are able to evolve counter-measures to ensure enhancement of positive
features and reduction or eradication of negative factors or constraints[230].
Based on our experience we present the following list of
Counter Measures to address the constraints highlighted above
include. It is important to highlight here that the counter measures
include two arenas of action:
(ii) Practice (Service Delivery).
We would like to stress that the list below is more to illustrate
the method rather than a compendium of measures to tackle the
constraints.
1.Physical Resource
—Scarcity (Availability)
—Wastage
—Unsustainable
—Access
| Counter Measure: (Focus on)
—Conservation and reduction of Wastage.
—Voluntarily accepted changes in consumption pattern.
—Distress Sharing
—Policy Shift:
Move away from efficient exploitation of Resource to sustainable utilization of available resources.
|
2.Technical
| Counter Measure
—Leverage Traditional Wisdom (Johaads of Rajasthan)
—Which is low tech., people friendly and can be handled by local skilled personnel.
—Provide training, operation and maintenance to local people
—Share with the Community—the Maintenance Costs and the Capital Investment
—If conditions force adoption of high tech water systems, it is important to educate the disadvantaged also well enough to reduce the knowledge gap.
|
| 3.Financial | Counter Measure
—Full transparency in sharing information and knowledge about—Recurring Costs; Methods to reduce expenditure.
—Share up-to-date info about running costs with weekly/monthly updates.
—User Charges based on affordability
—Improve O & M Collection base through collective engagement and building consensus.
—Investments need to target reaching the unreached.
|
| 4.Social | Counter Measure
—Refocus on reaching the unreached
—Effectiveness in Service Delivery based on equity
—Provide Voice and Choice.
|
4. MODEL OF
GOVERNANCE REFORM
The "democratisation" initiative in the water sector
is based on a larger understanding of all service delivery institutions
and has been informed by the experience of the authors of this
note in their different capacities as a serving government official
and a Management Development Consultant who has worked with governance
reforms work with Social Welfare, Education and Health Departments
amongst others.
At the core of the model is the issue: How do we ensure responsive
governance? Given our understanding that good governance is a
two way process involving both civil service and civil society,
responsive governance can be achieved only by brining about changes
both amongst members of the service delivery institution as also
in the community. Having said that however, we need to recognize
the constraints of operating in a socially and culturally diverse
societal framework in which conflicts and hostilities are endemic.
Hence it will require a greater amount of commitment and involvement
on the part of the members of the state utility to bring about
desired change. By the same token however, they, as members of
a service expected to be neutral are also best suited to ensure
that desired changes are brought about.
We may depict the model as encompassing "Retrieving
centrality" of the three most important shortcomings
identified previously, viz.,
— Social Exclusion represented by its converse of
"Inclusion".
— Institutional Cultures.
(1) Inclusion
While the reality of social exclusion in many welfare schemes
is well known, as a policy formulation leading to a paradigm shift,
we would like to suggest that the primary aim should be to ensure
inclusion of as many of the excluded people as possible. There
are several dimensions to the issue of ensuring "inclusion":
Reaching the unreached, with
Equity, and fulfilling accepted notions of
Social Justice.
(2) Sustainability
Sustainability includes three interconnected areas of (i)
Resources (ii) Financial and (iii) Human resources.
In the water sector in particular, sustainability was not,
till recently, an area of concern. In many parts of India so long
as bore wells could be sunk and an overhead tank constructed,
policies were geared towards "exploiting" water
sources rather than "conserving" them to ensure longevity
and sustainability. This mind set is a major stumbling block in
any attempt to bring about a more rational approach to provision
of water based on norms of conservation and sustainability.
No change process will ever be accepted by the larger governance
system unless the thrust of the reform process includes efficient
management of financial issues. Ensuring reduction in working
and operating costs, achieving higher recovery of O & M Costs
(operations and maintenance costs) and other parameters are vital
to acceptance of the change process by the larger system.
One of the issues on which public utilities in many places
are criticized is in poor use of human resources. While issues
of existence of excess government staff needs to be studied relative
to each utility, there is a crying need for a more efficient utilization
of human resources in the utilities. Creating a congenial working
atmosphere, evolving a work culture that appreciates creativity,
innovation and risk taking, ensuring high level of motivation
and similar other measures will yield perceptible results and
manifest in terms of improved performance and better relations
within and outside the organisation.
(3) Institutional Culture
The last dimension for bringing about change is in the area
of transforming institutional cultures. We perceive this as including
two arenas:
Organisation efficiency, and
Institutional effectiveness.
While organisational efficiency focuses on internal issues
impacting on efficiency, institutional effectiveness encompasses
relations with the external world whom the public utility seeks
to serve. Both these dimensions are interlinked and related. However
any change effort will need to focus on bringing about changes
at both levels.
To our mind, this is the most difficult part of the entire
process of bringing about governance reform. The reality of decades
of functioning as an unquestionable entity, the crushing impact
of a bureaucratic culture which is inhibitive of innovation, creativity
and risk taking, a colonial mindset which is suspicious of questioning
and non-appreciative of efficient performance, and an administrative
practice which brings even the most innovative of change efforts
to a standstill through bureaucratic manipulation, all make the
task of addressing changes in institutional cultures daunting.
Added to this are other problems of non-ethical practices, political
involvement or interference and other issues which impact on the
way the utility finally delivers.
It may be useful here to refer to a refrain always expressed
in the ongoing "democratisation" work. It is constantly
stressed that the change process cannot be visualized as a "project"
to be executed for some time until the next project comes about.
Democratisation requires a much more intense engagement, a vigorous
sustained involvement and a willingness to share and risk.
The most encouraging part of the work in the TWAD Board has
been the wide ranging acceptance of the concept by a large number
of water engineers throughout the state level utility. 2-3 years
is too short a time frame to bring about total attitudinal changes.
As on date over 425 water engineers of the rural water supply
division of TWAD have undergone training in the democratisation
model outlined in this paper. An overwhelmingly large number of
engineers have shown a willingness to s been who are willing to
get over their own doubts, skepticism and cynicism and to experiment
with changing work practices, working cultures and community relations.
The concrete achievements in the field endorses the view that
such attempts at governance reforms can and will produce results.
5. CONCLUSION
Promoting dialogues:.
"Let engineers talk to other engineers; citizens
to other citizens".
Ways that DFID can help address the water crisis?
It's been our experience that an engineer listens more closely
and intimately to what another engineer shares, than to the informed
analysis of an academic or a consultant. Similarly, there is nothing
more powerful than actually visiting the site of a successful
change effort to convince even the most cynical of persons about
the possibilities of change!
Its for this reason that when the TWAD engineers were invited
by their counterparts in Maharashtra to share their experience
of reforms, they gladly accepted. It definitely is a vital element
of the continuing relationship with their Maharashtra counterparts
which continues till date. Similarly, there have been exchanges
between members of the Change Management Group and engineers from
the states of Punjab, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and other states.
It needs to be stressed that 95% of all water delivery globally
is effected by institutions directly owned or operated by the
government through public sector mechanisms. Therefore any hope
of achieving MDG can achieve results on a larger scale only if
the public sector mechanism is addressed. The challenge of ensuring
universal water service delivery can be achieved only by addressing
the issue of governance reform of public sector utilities.
There are many other dimensions of governance reform, apart
from those highlighted in this Note Paper, which have been addressed
in the TWAD during the last three years. Thus apart from the areas
of human resources management, the reforms exercise has addressed
the issue of a re-examination of policy framework relating to
O & M[231] expenditure
and user charges, principles relating to cost recovery and tariff
fixation, affordability and examination of issues related to financial
and resource management. If required, it will be possible to share
our views on these areas of governance reform too.
The advantage of the reform model followed in the current
"Democratisation" exercise is that while it is based
on a larger conceptual framework, the actual intervention design
is evolved in consultation with members of the public utilities
and tailored to suit each local utility. The strength of the "democratisation"
model is that in application at the field level, irrespective
of whether the focus or thrust for change is a water delivery
system at the level of a village or small town or a city, or an
entire state, at every stage plans are evolved and implemented
at every level of the entire water delivery structure. Since the
model by definition doesn't prescribe a global "one size
fits all" framework and is based on adaptation to local circumstances
it allows for great amount of flexibility and localization.
Resultantly, the intervention design necessarily follows
a "bottoms-up" approach making it more acceptable to
local groups and sections. The design for change is thus not based
on a model designed outside, by consultants or donors, and then
implemented. Instead the emphasis is on evolving a design specific
to local conditions and systems. Since this process relies on
involving the personnel of the utility itself as the main resources
for designing the change package it increases the sense of ownership
and involvement. Further, because of the emphasis on valuing and
respecting local knowledge systems and practices, it harnesses
traditional wisdom making the choice of water system acceptable
to the larger community and something that they can be in charge
of and control. In the ultimate analysis these factors ensure
sustainability of the governance reforms exercise.
DFID, and indeed other major donors, need to play a more
pro-active and positive role in bringing about this paradigm shift
in the water sector. With its access to a wider resource and knowledge
base, DFID is best suited to enable dissemination of experiences
of successful reform exercises worldwide. The utility of providing
training software cannot be overstressed. Providing support for
training interventions on the lines suggested in this Note will
go a long way in supporting reforms of public utilities.
An equally supportive role that DFID can play is enabling
higher degree of what the UN has come to term, "Water Operators
Partnerships" or Public-Public Partnerships as it is referred
to by many civil society organisations. At the first level, functionaries
of public utilities must be given the chance to visit those utilities
which have successfully implemented reform packages in their states.
The exchange process should also include visits by public functionaries,
journalists and stake holders from different places so that a
larger social consensus can be built up supporting and assisting
the democratisation reforms of water utilities.
It would be apposite to end with repeating an age old adage:
"A long journey is begun by placing the first foot forward".
That is the challenge before all those interested in ensuring
a water secure world.
October 2006
226
LPCD-Litres per capita per day is the measure of water supply. Back
227
Village Panchayats are considered to be the lowest tier of the
democratic structure in India. They consist of either a big village,
or a set of smaller villages and habitations treated as a single
administrative category. The Village Panchayat is headed by a
President, who is elected. All development funding and activities
in the village is executed through the Village Panchayat. Back
228
http://www.undp.org/water/about-us.html, accessed on 12 June
2006. Back
229
WWDR, 2006, Executive Summary. Chapters 1 and 2. Back
230
For more details please refer to the portion on Force Field
Analysis in the paper, "Democratisation of Water Management"
appended to this Note. (not printed). Back
231
Operations and Maintenance, the routine expenditure incurred
in running schemes. Back
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