WAC News December 2004

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tions key water initiatives are the two regional pro-grammes, namely, the Water for African Cities Pro-gramme and the Water for Asian Cities Programme.The objectives of the Water for African Cities Pro-gramme and Water for Asian Cities Programme areto reduce the urban water crisis in cities throughefficient and effective water demand management, tobuild capacity to reduce the environmental impact ofurbansation on freshwater resources and to boostawareness and information exchange on water man-agement and conservation.

The work programme of the various divisions of UN-HABITAT contribute to the achievement of its strate-gic vision. The Monitoring and Research Divisionthrough its programme of Global Urban Observatorygathers, organizes, analyses and disseminates infor-mation on all subjects that impinge on urban povertyand slums. Similarly MRDs Best Practices pro-gramme is now focusing on good policies related tourban poverty alleviation, shelter and sustainablehuman settlements development. UN-HABITATthrough its global campaigns on (a) Secure Tenure

and (b) Urban Governance is trying to address theissues relating to slums and urban poverty. TheTraining and Capacity Building Branch concentrateson improving knowledge, skills and attitudes of localgovernment officials and civil society partners.Among the other important programmes of UN-HABITAT include the Localising Agenda 21 Pro-gramme, the Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP),the Urban Management Programme, the Risk andDisaster Management Programme and the SaferCities Programme.

The Regional and Technical Cooperation Division,the operational arm of the UN-HABITAT has a portfo-lio of 150 ongoing projects and about 50 pipeline

projects in 61 developing and transition countries. Inaddition, RTCD provides substantive advisory ser-vices for project formulation and development as partof the UN-HABITATs Technical Cooperation.

UN-HABITAT has entered into several types of stra-tegic partnerships for tackling urban poverty moreeffectively. These partnerships include alliances withthe Cities Alliance; UNDP; Regional DevelopmentBanks (Asian Development Bank and IDB); PrivateSector; and the Partnership programmes with sev-eral Multi-laterals and Bi-laterals.

UN-HABITAT (formerly UNCHS) was established in1978 and is the lead agency for Human Settle-ments. It works to reduce poverty and promotesustainable development within the context of arapidly urbanizing world. The UN-HABITAT hasbeen assigned, among other things the responsibil-ity for coordinating the implementation of the Habi-tat Agenda adopted by 171 countries at the CitySummit held in Istanbul in 1996.

UN-HABITAT has been working on strategies forurban poverty reduction which are based on normsand principles that include, among others, sustain-able urban development, adequate shelter for all,improvement in the lives of slum dwellers, accessto safe water and sanitation, social inclusion, envi-ronmental protection and the various human rights.With a sharp focus on urban poverty, in particular,slums as the most visible manifestation of urbanpoverty, the UN-HABITATs strategic vision which isconsistent with social norms and political principlesas well as with UN-HABITAT mandates, capabilitiesand partners objectives has the following elements.

1. Knowledge management and reporting,expanding the global understanding of urbandevelopment, shelter and poverty, and track-ing progress in implementing the HabitatAgenda;

2. Advocacy of norms for sustainable urbaniza-tion and urban poverty reduction, carriedforward through two global campaigns and anumber of global programmes;

3. Technical cooperation in linking norms andcampaign/programme goals to urban povertyreduction activities on the gound.

4. Innovative financing for urbanization andspecific shelter needs of the urban poor;

5. Strategic partnerships to leverage resourcesand coordinate international programme ac-tivities that work toward similar ends.

The work programme of UN-HABITAT includesshelter and social services; urban management;environment and infrastructure; and assessment,information and monitoring. Water and sanitationare important focus areas. Among the organiza-

UN-HABITATs System Capacities in Support of Water for As ian CitiesProgramme in India

Important News

UN-HABITAT prepar-

ing for the Develop-

ment of Water Con-

servation & Demand

Management Strat-

egy for the city ofIndore (Madhya

Pradesh)

DFID proposes to

support Urban Water

Supply and Environ-

mental Improve-

ment loan project of

ADB in Madhya

Pradesh through an

Urban Poverty Re-

duction Programme

Capacity BuildingProgramme on

Sanitation Tech-

nologies is being

organized in India

by UN-HABITAT in

collaboration with

SIITRAT for Profes-

sionals from African

Countries

Inside this issue:

Pro-poor Urban Water andSanitation Governance 2

CommunityMunicipal part-

nerships2

ADB Assistance in Urban

Sector in India3

Indias Urban Water Supply

and Sanitation Scenario3

Implementing WCDM Strat-

egy4

A NEWSLETTER FOR WATER FOR ASIAN CITIES PROGRAMME IN MADHYA PRADESH (INDIA)

DECEMBER 2004 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 2


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WATER FOR ASIAN CITIES PROGRAMME IN INDIA

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EditorialDeveloping a framework for Pro-poor Urban Water and Sanitation Governance

Governments are invariably involved in the provision of Water and Sani-

tation services. Generally they work to ensure that all residents haveaccess to adequate water and sanitation. However, these arrangementsoften fail the urban poor, particular the slum dwellers, who are at a dis-advantage in both the market and in the public policy arena. The poorgenerally end up using water and sanitation systems that are unhealthyand even illegal. There is, therefore, a need for developing a frameworkfor Pro-poor Urban Water and Sanitation Governance in the overallcontext of managing water and sanitation utilities; supporting communitydriven water and sanitation initiatives and working with informal sectorwater vendors so that governments and other actors work together toinstall and manage the water and sanitation systems.

Unfortunately the conventional approach to water and sanitation man-agement is highly bureaucratic rather than open and transparent; expertdriven rather than inclusive and communicative and is generally biasedin favour of those able to access the large water and sanitation networksrather than equitable and ethical. Water utilities are generally unaccount-able, inefficient, unresponsive to consumer demands or environmentallyunsustainable. With these perceived weaknesses in existing water andsanitation governance, Global Water Partnership (GWP) has identifiedseveral principles of effective water governance that suggest ap-proaches which are open and transparent; inclusive and communicative;coherent and integrative and equitable and ethical.

At the same time, performance and operation has to be accountable,efficient, responsive and sustainable. We, therefore, have to move be-yond sectoral and segmented models of water governance towardscoherent and integrated ones. We have to put unserved or inadequatelyserved residents at the centre of urban water governance. The obstaclesto improving water and sanitation provision for low-income householdsthat are unserved and inadequately served do seem to be in large part

institutional rather than technical.

In Madhya Pradesh where Urban Water Supply and Environmental

Improvement Project is going to be implemented in 4 towns through anADB loan, the Pro-poor Governance framework has to support commu-nity driven water and sanitation initiatives; manage networked water andsanitation systems, bring in small scale water vendors and sanitationproviders and get the best out of the private enterprises, public agenciesand civil society groups so that the new water governance has an institu-tional framework which is pro-poor and free from corruption. The newframework must have transparency, accountability and the rule of law.

This diagram emphasizes the role of negotiation in ensuring that services such as water workbetter for low-income people. The underlying framework is based on the notion that demandfor improvements needs to come from the poor people themselves and that the level ofimprovement will depend on the influence that poor people bring to bear on the service

providers either directly or via the government.

Source: World Bank (2003) World Development Report 2004: Making Services Workfor Poor People, The World Bank and Oxford University Press, Washington DC

Key relationships of power and accountability

CommunityMunicipal partnerships to improve sanitation in India

Community-based organizations demonstrated that they could plan,build and manage community toilet blocks in slum areas that were bet-ter designed and managed than those built by local government. But itwas only when municipal governments worked in partnership with themthat a large-scale programme was possible. Today, hundreds of thou-sands of people in low-income areas of Mumbai and Pune have muchbetter quality toilets and washing facilities because of governmentcommunity partnerships. Two community organizations (the NationalSlum Dwellers Federation and Mahila Milan savings and loans coop-eratives formed by women slum and pavement dwellers) and a localNGO (SPARC) developed community toilets that were better designedand managed than conventional government-funded, contractor-builttoilets. But it only became possible for these to be constructed on alarge scale when the municipal commissioner in the city of Pune de-cided to get NGOs and community organizations involved in replacingor building 440 toilet blocks. A third of the construction costs were tocome from the city, a third from the state government and a third fromthe national government. A further condition was that NGOs/communities would agree to maintain the toilets for a set period, asgovernment did not have the capacity or resources to do this. SPARC,

Mahila Milan and the National Slum Dwellers Federation successfullybid for 114 toilet contracts. The new toilet blocks were light and airy,with tanks to ensure a constant water supply (conventional toilet blocksoften ran out of water), and with toilet blocks at the front specially de-signed for children (children are frightened of using smelly dark pit la-trines and havent the same capacity as adults to queue). The blocksincluded a home for a caretaker, who also helps to collect a smallmonthly fee from community members to pay for maintenance. Someblocks had a community hall built on top. The scheme in Pune hasencouraged other slum dwellers and municipal authorities to try similarapproaches, and these same three organizations obtained a contract tobuild 320 toilet blocks in the slums of Mumbai. As a result of these com-munitymunicipal partnerships, hundreds of thousands of slum house-holds in Pune and Mumbai now have clean, cheap, easily accessedtoilets with facilities for washing. There are plans to promote this newapproach in smaller towns and cities, where local resources and capac-ity are even tighter. SPARC, Mahila Milan and the National Slum Dwell-ers Federation also have many other projects and programmes to im-prove conditions for low-income households that are being developed inpartnership with local governments and national government agencies(Burra, Patel and Kerr, 2003).


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DECEMBER 2004 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 2

Page 3

Indias Urban Water Supply and Sanitation ScenarioUrban Water Supply

The present status of urban water supply and sanitation in India is ex-

tremely inadequate. According to an estimate, about 89 percent of theurban population about 57 per cent with house service connectionsand about 32 per cent with standpost - had access to safe drinking watersupply facilities at the end of the Ninth Five Year Plan i.e. March 2002.However, the figure does not reflect adequacy and quality of water. Asper the recent statistics, the water availability per day is exceedinglylimited ranging from 2 to 8 hours in a day as against 22 hours Sri Lankaand 24 hours in Malaysia. Thus, even the figure of 89 per cent is per-haps misleading. The service levels also vary dramatically among differ-ent categories of the cities. Even in some of the Class-I cities (havingpopulation above 100,000) the service levels fall below the nationalstandard of 135 lpcd, with Class-II cities (having population between10,000-20,000) receiving only an average of 55 lpcd.

Further, on the urban water supply front, transmission and distribution

networks are largely of very poor quality, in addition to being outdatedand badly maintained, resulting in higher operating costs. Physicallosses are typically high, ranging from 25 to over 50 per cent. Low pres-sures and intermittent supplies lead to back siphoning, resulting in con-tamination in distribution network. Unsatisfactory service standards haveled to low tariff structures, which in turn have resulted in poor resourceposition of ULBs, poor maintenance and service a vicious circle.

Urban Sanitation

At the end of the Ninth Five Year Plan, 60 per cent of the urban popula-tion had sanitation facilities 30 per cent with sewerage facilities and

about 30 per cent with on-site sanitation (low cost sanitation and septictank) facilities. Of the total municipal waste water generated in cities andtowns, less than half is collected and what is collected, less than halfgoes through some form of treatment (invariably primary) before finaldisposal. The high cost of conventional sewage treatment places thisoption out of the reach of the most of the urban local bodies. It is esti-mated that about 80,000 metric tones of solid waste is generated inurban areas every day, of which about 60 per cent is collected and dis-posed of as open dumping.

Result of Deteriorating Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Sector

Inadequate urban water supply and sanitation facilities and deterioratingurban environment have been deterring Indias social and economicdevelopment and affecting adversely the quality of life of its people,particularly the urban poor.

The substantial deficiencies in supply of potable water has led to wide-spread water- borne diseases like diarrohea, hepatitis, jaundice, round-worm and hookworm which not only affect public health, but also impacton the environment and add to economic costs. It is estimated that 30.5million Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY) are lost each year due topoor water quality, sanitation and hygiene. If considering merely theeconomic value of life year at the average per capita GDP of US $ 300per person per annum, the annual loss of 30.5 million DALYs is aboutUS $ 9150 million.

Inadequate sanitation facilities have caused contamination of surfaceand ground water contributing to environmental pollution. Inadequatecollection and treatment of solid waste has led to unhygienic conditions,namely soil and water contamination, chocking of drains etc.

ADBs involvement in Indias urban sector began in 1993 with TA toprepare an urban infrastructure project in Karnataka. Since then ADBhas provided 22 TA grants totaling US$ 11.35 million to prepare projectsand support capacity building. Since 1995, ADB has approved loan for

seven projects in the urban sector. Totalling to US$ 1.4 billion; Karna-taka Urban Infrastructure development (US$ 105 million), RajasthanUrban Infrastructure Development (US$ 250 million), Karnataka UrbanDevelopment and Coastal Environment Management (US$ 175 million),Urban Environmental Infrastructure Facility (US$ 200 million), KolkataEnvironment Improvement (US$ 250 million), and Housing Finance Iand II (US$ 420 million). In addition, ADB has approved a loan of US$500 million for Gujarat Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction in2001.

The TA of US$ 200 million ADB loan assistance to Madhya Pradesh isthe first urban sector assistance to the State. Other recent ADBs assis-tance to the state includes: Madhya Pradesh Public Resource Manage-ment Program (US$ 250 million approved in October 2001), andMadhya Pradesh Power Sector Development Program (US$ 350 million

approved in November 2001). The former is aimed at assisting state-level fiscal reforms through a structural adjustment facility. As part offiscal reforms and public sector restructuring program the GoMP,amongst others, is committed to reduce primary deficit to below 1.0 percent of state domestic product, introduction to value-added tax, im-proved cost recovery water charges to cover at least 75 per cent of O& M expenditure and adoption of flexible wage policy enabling ULBs tohave separate service conditions and salary scales.

Since 1990s, the Government of India has treated external assistance tostates as additionality over the Plan allocations. This assistance ischanneled on the basis of a 70:30 loan / grant ratio at a fixed interestrate. The foreign exchange risk is borne by the GoI. The state of

Madhya Pradesh, although accounting for 13.5 % of the geographicalarea, 8 % of the population, and more than 5 % of states domesticproduct, has received comparatively low levels of external assistance.

ADB Assistance in Urban Sector in India

Urban Services Project Cities

Bhopal Gwalior Indor e Jabalpu r

Population served by piped water supply 67 68 68 89

Population with household connections 37 62 48 34

Unaccounted for Water 64 64 52 52

Hours of supply 2-3 hrs 1 hr 1hr 2-3 hrs

Average lpcd 87 93 66 67

Sanitation and Drainage

Population served by reticulation system 7 9 10 0

Population with served with septic tank 30 30 44 50

Septic tanks working satisfactorily 11 2 8 5

Household reporting problems with flooding 41 20 33 32

Solid Waste

Waste collected 60 60 60 60

Waste to safe disposal 0 0 0 0

Existing Provision of Urban Services in fo ur Project Cities in M.P.(per cent)


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WATER FOR ASIAN CITIES PROGRAMME IN INDIA

Editorial Team

Editorial Board Gopal Reddy, Secretary, UADD, Government Board

Savitur Prasad, Director, Govt. of India

UWSEIMP Project Director/ Deputy Project Director

Debashish Bhattacharjee, ADB, India Resident Mission

Professor H.M. Mishra, State Academy of Administration

Guest Editor P.S. Mathur, CITI Foundation, India

Managing Editor Kulwant Singh, CTA, WAC Programme

UN-HABITAT

Water for Asian Cities Programme Office

EP-16/17, Chandragupta Marg, Chanakyapuri

New Delhi - 110021 (India)

Tel: +91-11-24104970 - 73

Fax: +91-11-24104961

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.unhabitat.org & www.unwac.org

Page 4

Greater Johannesburg Metropoli tan Council:

Implementing Water Conservation and Demand Management StrategyThe City of Johannesburg forms the largest urban complex in South Africa andone of the largest on the African continent. It supports a population of more than3.5 million people of which almost 500,000 are located in informal settlements.

Water is supplied at the reticulation level by the recently formed companyJohannesburg Water which supplies approximately 380 million m3/annum (1050Ml/day) on a continuous basis. All bulk water is potable and is supplied by RandWater which treats the raw water to international drinking standards before sup-plying to various customers. Rand water is the largest bulk water supplier inSouth Africa with an average supply of approximately 3 000 Ml/day.

The non-revenue water in the City of Johan-nesburg is estimated to be in the order of40% of the total supply of which approxi-mately half is through apparent losses andthe remaining half through real leakage. As aresult of high level of non-revenue water,Johannesburg recently embarked upon anextensive programme to tackle the problemthroughout its area of jurisdiction.

The GJMC has considered the issue of non-revenue water to be very important and arelatively large budget allocation has beenapproved to address various aspects ofwater loss control.

Water Conservation Strategy

Johannesburg was selected by UN-HABITAT as the representative city for SouthAfrica under the Water for African Cities Programme and the programme devel-oped a new demand side focus to urban water management with emphasis onreduction of unaccounted for water. The development of Water ConservationStrategy was part of a project which involved the following three components:

The development of a water conservation strategy for the Greater Johan-nesburg Metropolitan Council;

A review of existing retrofitting projects and other measures to reduceunaccounted-for water in the GJMC and Rand Water areas; and

A review of existing Management Information Systems (MIS) and thedevelopment of a model system for effective and efficient water manage-ment.

The key elements of the Water Conservation Strategy for the City of Johannes-burg are as under:

Efficient Distribution and Operation

Management zones: The strategy recommends that all former managementzones should be re-established and new zones created where necessary toprovide complete management zone coverage for the whole supply area; Moni-toring DAW in each zone:Monitoring of Minimum Night Flows should be under-

taken in all management zones at regular intervals to identify areas of highleakage; Pressure Management: Pressure management coverage to be in-creased to all areas where such measures are financially viable; Mains replace-

ment programme: Pipelines for replacement to be prioritised based on burstfrequency analysis etc.; Active and passive leakage control: Active LeakageControl to be extended to cover the whole supply area, excluding areas where itis known that leakage is low; Pilot Projects:Pilot projects to be used to test newtechniques and or equipment that may be effective in reducing the non-revenuewater.

Efficient use and control of Demand

Retrofitting:All schools and municipal and/orgovernment buildings within the City of Jo-hannesburg to be investigated and prioritisedfor retrofitting. All automatic flushing urinals ingovernment and/or municipal buildings,schools and all other places of education tobe replaced as a matter of priority; TariffStructures and Billing Procedures: A

standard tariff policy to be developed for usethroughout the whole City of Johannesburgsupply area. The policy for metering andbilling to establish a cost effective procedurefor controlling water use and providing aneffective billing system; General Educationand Public Involvement: The City of Johan-

nesburg to play a more active role in general education including school educa-tion and public involvement with regards to efficiency of water use; Payment forWater and Illegal Use: All connections in the City of Johannesburg to be indi-vidually metered; Legislation:Certain new by-laws to be promulgated to encour-age water use efficiency.

Accounting for all Water

Water Audits: An annual water auditing procedure to be established for allsections of the City of Johannesburg supply area; Bulk and Management Me-

ters:All bulk and management meters to be checked for accuracy; ConsumerMeters:All consumers in the City of Johannesburg to be metered; ReconcilingMeter Readings:Meter readings to be reconciled using the new MIS system;Performance Targets:A review of the performance to be undertaken annuallyand the targets re-defined if they are found to be unrealistically high or low.

Water Resource Management

Supporting National Policies: The City of Johannesburg shall continue tosupport the water conservation policies where the costs involved can be justifiedby the savings achieved.

The City shall also encourage (a) Rainwater Harvesting, (b) Water Wise Garden-ing, (c) Recycling of Waste Effluent, and (d) Greywater Use.

Documents

WAC News December 2004