India's Sector Reform Projects and Swajaldhara Programme

Year of publication: 2005

The Government of India (GOI) started its sector reform pilot projects (SRPP) in 1999, as a distinct departure from the supply-driven target-oriented approach that characterised its earlier efforts to provide safe drinking water to all its citizens. The SRPP was intended to be a demand-driven programme. Significant investments were also to be made in building community capacity, and in providing information, education and communication (IEC). Despite the detailed guidelines, reporting & monitoring formats there were problems implementing the SRPP on the ground. Even as these were being identified and addressed, the government scaled up the SRPP in December 2002 into a countrywide programme called the Swajaldhara.

The Swajaldhara programme is a bold break from the past, and deserves commendation for the stupendous effort it made to scale up to national-level, a community-based, demand responsive and participatory drinking water supply programme in a vast and diverse country like India. It is therefore unfortunate that the unresolved shortcomings of the SRP have hampered its effectiveness and sustainability.

This case study of how the SRPP was implemented in two districts in Andhra Pradesh, Khammam and Chittoor, documents the situation on the ground, and identifies issues that need to be considered while scaling up.

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