SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT OF RURAL WATER SUPPLY SCHEMES IN UTTARAKHAND

Abstract

Majority of the Indian population stays in rural areas and provision of drinking water to the rural areas is the minimum essential requirement to achieve human resource development in these areas. Although, it is a basic requirement for country's growth, it remains a great challenge as many executed schemes fail to sustain. For sustainable development, sustainability of a rural water supply scheme need to be checked before economic resource is committed. 1-lowever, measuring the sustainability of the scheme before its launch and sanction is not an easy task. Sustainability is measured in the form of an index. There are some sustainability indices which have been developed world over in water sector and successfully applied to achieve sustainable water management. These existing water sustainability indices have been developed for specific case study areas. Owing to the peculiarities of water resources in India, uniqueness of its rural areas and socio-economic conditions of the rural population: a rural water supply sustainability index specifically designed for Indian rural sector was felt necessary. This study attempts to arrive at a conceptual framework to assess the sustainability index of a rural India water supply scheme. The proposed sustainability index factors in the social, economic, environmental and technological dimensions of sustainability as components of index. This goes in tune with the concept of sustainability and sustainable development as envisaged by the United Nations and experts' world over. Indicators and sub-indicators have been chosen after due deliberation and methods of their quantification have been provided. Finally, a method to arrive at qualitative and quantitative sustainability rating of the rural India water supply scheme has been elaborated. As a case study, the conceptual framework of Rural India Water Sustainability Index (RlWSl) as proposed has successfully been applied (illustrated) to the three different real time under planning water supply schemes in the state of Uttarakhand and qualitative as well as quantitative sustainability rating has been arrived at. Sensitivity analysis of the index has been carried out. Finally, the major issues in the research have been discussed in detail and scope for future development is commented upon before the conclusive remarks.