Decentralised Governance for Rural Development in Water and Sanitation: A Study of Gram Panchayats in S.A.S. Nagar District, Punjab

Research Paper Discusses the delivery of water supply and sanitation through decentralised institutions in SAS Nagar District. It attempts to find out the problems faced by the Gram Panchayats in performing these functions.  Section I discusses the concept of decentralised governance.  Section II describes the condition of water and sanitation services in Punjab with special reference to the two case studies.  Section III summarizes the findings and gives some suggestions.

Research Methodology  For primary data: Two Gram Panchayats from Dera Bassi Tehsil has been randomly selected. The research paper is based on a household level survey in two villages including 100 respondents among which 8 were elected member and 92 were households.  The secondary data: books, academic journals, newspapers, official documents and publications of the concerned authorities have been accessed, greatly supported by the internet.

Decentralised Governance  Decision making power to the local people for management of their own affairs.  Transfer of authority – political, legal, or administrative from a higher level of government to lower level.  Prime mechanism through which democracy becomes truly representative and responsive.  Aims to foster better and faster communication, involvement and commitment of people in development, mobilisation of support and utilisation of resources in an efficient manner for national development, reduction in delay in decision-making, greater equity in allocation of resources and investments as well as reduction in apathy of administration towards citizens.

Water and Sanitation Condition  43.5 percent are using tap of which 32 percent of water is treated and 11.6 percent remains untreated.  42 percent use handpump/tube well, 11 percent use well of which only 1.6 percent of well are covered and rest are uncovered.  3 percent use other source for drinking water. In rural areas, 51.9 percent of the households depend upon hand pump/tube well followed by 31.8 percent who has tap water.  47 percent of the households have toilet facility within premises with 36 percent households have water closet and 9 percent households have pit toilets.  The rest of the households defecate in open.

Water and Sanitation Situation in Punjab  Plenty of water both ground water and surface is available.  Most of the rural population depends upon ground water without any treatment to satisfy its needs of drinking water.  Tube wells are major source.

Case Studies  Basma Village  Basma Colony Village

Basma Village  Access to water supply and sanitation presents a far from comfortable picture.  Water supply pipes have been installed & 98 % households have water connection.  91 % told actually water doesnt flows out of the pipes for more than a couple of hours each day & nor does the water that come is safe.  65 % of the villagers have handpump.  35 % have submersible pump in their houses.  Water table is becoming deeper handpumps also stop working in summers or just give one or two buckets of water.  Additionally, it was found that ground water is polluting due to use of pesticides in the fields.  Household survey revealed that access to safe drinking water is an enormous challenge.

 In contrast, 50 % have toilets & rest defecate in open.  Additionally, in order to fill the gap between demand and supply of water, it is necessary to augment the supply by installing more tubewells.  People are not used to these and don’t feel like using toilets.  Converted these toilets into storage godowns or have demolished them and used its bricks for some other households’ purpose.  Toilets made in the houses are for women.  Sarpanch is unable to do anything as the top level officials at the district level do not give importance to the issues which are raised by the gram panchayats.

Basma Colony Village  All the households have access to water and toilet in their houses.  90 % revealed that though pipe lines are placed, water supply is negligible in summer.  Every house has its own handpump and 10 % of the household have submersible pump.  Sarpanch put forth that undisrupted water supply is a distant dream for the villagers.  Fatehgarh Sahib district has taken step forward by empowering the panchayats of two villages (Chunni Khurd and Chunni Kalan) to operate and maintain the rural drinking water supply system. He suggests that this should be done in all districts.

 Majority of people believe that sanitation programmes and projects have not given desired results because of lack of involvement and commitment from both communities and external agencies–government or non-government.  There had been lapses in technology, planning, implementation, supervision, support, and above all, accountability.  Common but predominant message emerged from the household survey across the belt was that their political leaderships must take a collective resolve in the region to promote right to sanitation and assure dignified lives to people by providing them and their children with a disease-free and healthy environment.

Conclusion  Huge gap between demand and supply of services, the Gram Panchayat was unable to cope with the pressure and situation is alarming.  Drinking water and toilet imbalance is a huge issue that has to be addressed. With water getting scarcer this imbalance will further grow. If the country wants sanitation coverage to catch up with that of water, these two have to be linked and not separated.  Sarpanchs were aware of the exact situation of their village, they were unable to do anything as they have little autonomy.  Villages shows improvement in other infrastructure like streets, roads, maintenance of dharamshala and crimination ground.  Decentralised institution has performed well in other activities, it can also exceed in water and sanitation if given a change.

Key Issues & Way Forward  Groundwater Extraction  Time-bound Implementation Plan  Autonomy to PRIs  Capacity Building  Coordination and Accountability Mechanisms  Documentation  Behavioural Change  Social Audit  Addressing Local Issues  Participatory Culture  Community Self Financing

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