P.K. Kurian , Director Monitoring and Evaluation,

1. Decentralized Governance and Sustainable Service Delivery: A case of Nenmeni Rural Water Supply Scheme, Kerala, India P.K. Kurian, Director Monitoring and Evaluation, Kerala Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Trivandrum Dr. Kurian Baby IAS, Senior Programme Officer, International Research Center (IRC), Netherlands Terry Thomas, Project Manager CDM Smith, Bangalore

2. RWSS - Nenmeni - Wayanad District - Kerala Nenmeni Gram Panchayat Area: 69.38 sq.km. Population: 44096 No. of Households: 9010 No. of Water Supply Schemes: 103 nos

3. Community Water Investment in Nenmeni Panchayat • Investment made under Kerala Rural Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation Project - “Jalanidhi” is approx. Rs. 4.9 cores (2005-2008) • 51 : New rural water supply schemes • GP rehabilitation schemes 2 KWA rehabilitation schemes • Schemes by Block and Dist. Panchayat (non Jalanidhi) 103 : No. of rural water supply schemes operational Nenmeni RWSS is the largest covering 23% of GP households. Today this community scheme manages distribution of over 1 million litres of water

4. Successful case of water utility transfer and operations from State owned Kerala Water Authority (KWA) to Community Management 1990-1993 : Construction of Nenmeni Rural Water Scheme by Kerala Water Authority 1993-2005: Operation and maintenance by KWA 2005-2007: Scheme transfer and operation and maintenance by Grama Panchayat 2007-2009: Management of the scheme by the Transition Management Committee 2009 - onwards: Total management by apex level community body

5. Major assets built • River bank infiltration well- 6m dia • Pumping units: 50HP x 2 (submersible) • Pumping main: 5840 m • Water treatment facility • Distribution system: 70227 m • Domestic connections • Public Stand Posts • Storage reservoir : 3.75 lakhs liters cap.

6. Source, Treatment and Pumping Arrangements

7. Ground level storage reservoir- 375,000 liters capacity • Click to edit Master text styles • Second level • Third level • Fourth level • Fifth level

8. Assets status at the time of transfer • 257 Public Stand Posts and 389 (427 in records) domestic connections prior to rehabilitation • Irregular water supply • Frequent issues with water quality • Flat tariff, with weak billing and collection system in place • No substantial accountability systems • Electrical power arrears to KSEB -Rs.35 lakhs • No fund allocation from KWA for system improvements • UFW/NRW: More than 50% (based on estimates) • Approx. arrears Rs. 200,000 (KWA settled with GP internally)

9. Water supply scheme today • Distributes to 2058 households, of which 1408 are private connections and rest through stand posts (71 nos) • All household connections are metered • Volumetric pricing in place (approx. 109 lpcd) • Consumers opine that the service quality and level have vastly improved after rehabilitation • No electrical power arrears • UFW-NRW: Less than 20% (calculated) • Slush deposit and frequent turbidity issues • Breakages in distribution lines, especially with AC pipe lines • Consumer complaints- 7-9 nos per day and addressed in shortest possible time

10. Metered Behaviour • Click to edit Master text styles • Second level • Third level • Fourth level • Fifth level

11. Institutional Arrangements East Cheeral 247 HH Puthen Kunnu 149HH Thazhathur 299 HH Cheeral 164 HH Koliyadi 155 HH Pazhoor 148 HH Nambiarkunnu 97 HH Mala Vayal 95 HH Kazhampu 110 HH • GP Council with 23 members Gram Panchayat Board • 9 members in SLEC • GP President and SLEC Secretary are ex-officio members • SLEC has 5 women and 4 men representatives. Scheme Level Executive Committee (SLEC) • GB consists of 45 representatives (9x5=45) • 5 reps. /area (3 women and 2 men) Scheme Level General Body( SLGB) Community zones

12. Scheme Administration SLEC President SLEC Secretary Pump Operators 3 Plumbers 3 Meter Reader 1 Accountants 3 Valve Operator 1

13. Relationship between SLEC and GP • GP President is the ex-officio member of the SLEC • GP provide financial support to SLEC for extension of distribution networks and other activities- Rs. 510000 in three tranches. • GP entrusted SLEC to take over one defunct micro water supply scheme with mandate to operate and manage • SLEC maintains cordial working relations with the GP Council, irrespective of political force in power • SLEC function like a NGO in Watsan for the GP

14. Tariff Charges For Public Stand Posts charges collected as per KWA rates prevailing. This equates to Rs. 1750 / connection / year, paid by GP

15. Billing and collection of water charges Payment Options Meter Reader visits all Member Households Records meter and issue demand notice Payment on the spot to Meter Reader Payment at local collection centers (4 nos) Payment at CTC of the NRWSS at Cheeral Payment at Central office NRWSS

16. Inclusive expansion in Nenmeni RWSS New Member Households General New Member HH Rs.1500 BPL New Member HH Rs.750 SC-ST New Member HH Rs.300

17. Professional Operations Management:Secretary and President of Rural Water Supply Scheme • Click to edit Master text styles • Second level • Third level • Fourth level • Fifth level An in-house software is developed which takes care of tariff, metering, billing, controlling expenses and preparing all MIS statements, including tracking defaulters

18. Income & Expenditure under O&M in NRWSS

19. Diverse Investments • Computer operation instruction centre • Photocopier and Fax machine service • Two 50 HP electric pumps purchased/ installed to enhance efficiency of distribution • Through bank loan brought 15 cents of land • Proposed to build a community hall, an office space for the NRWSS and shift the CTC to this proposed facility.

20. Computer Training Centre of NRWSS

21. Stable Leadership • NRWSS has been developing local leadership and skills in the ‘learning by doing’ mode • Scheme has had a stable leadership right from planning till date • SLEC is well informed of all developments in the scheme. • Internally developed IT support for administration and scheme management

22. Professional Management • Complaint redressal system • Metering • Meter reading • Collection of water cess, • Multiple collection centres • Transparency systems

23. Key Lessons / Observations • Consumer households rate the scheme and its service level high. • SLEC function like an extended non-governmental arm of the GP. • SLEC supports GP with its specialist skills and expertise in the water sector. • GP takes advice from NRWSS to address problems of other small community based water supply schemes in the GP

24. Open Arms Approach • Open verses “Closed Arms” approach to new members • New members easily admitted • Inclusive approach/ easy and workable inclusion techniques. • Pro-poor with special provisions for BPL / SC /ST HHs with lower subscription rates to become members

25. Politics of Development • Good case of positive local politics supporting local development initiatives. • An institution that supplies water to around 2000 households on an everyday basis can potentially become a power centre in a GP in the Kerala context. • Either it can become a parallel power centre opposing the GP or an extension of the GP with a NGO façade

26. Conclusion • Community driven -PRI centric approaches in service delivery is a powerful institutional delivery model • Communities need strong professional, technical and management empowerment for sustainability • Community achievement in successful rehabilitation and expansion of potentially viable failed public scheme to improve coverage and service levels • Good facilitation and governance support by GP • Effective decentralized local governance can be inclusive by retaining public stand posts targeted to the poor, subsidized by the GP

27. Asset transfer, improvement and operations in Nenmeni Rural Water Supply Scheme (NRWSS) are process results through Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing

28. Recommendation Consider NRWSS as a Field Training School for community water management and for model rehabilitation of water supply schemes

29. Thank You P.K. Kurian, Director Monitoring and Evaluation, Kerala Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Trivandrum Dr. Kurian Baby IAS, Senior Programme Officer, International Research Center (IRC), Netherlands Terry Thomas, Project Manager CDM Smith, Bangalore