AKRSP(I), Water For People and Arghyam have partnered on a project for the sustainable operation and maintenance of the drinking water supply schemes established across wards in rural Bihar under the Mukhya Mantri Gramin Peyjal Nishchay Yojana (MGPNY). The project aims to design a model that can work at scale for sustainable operation and maintenance (O&M) involving frontline workers.
One of the first activities once the project was initiated in February 2022, was to get a quick sense of the status of the water supply schemes and their operations and maintenance in the project wards through a rapid survey.
When the team discussed the idea of the dipstick, we had two options ahead of us. First, to get a comprehensive and formal baseline study done by an external agency, and second, where ward and gram panchayat (GP) level functionaries designated for O&M of the scheme take up this work.
We decided to go with the latter so that Anurakshaks and panchayat functionaries could familiarise themselves with their ward-level water supply system, the extent of household tap water connections, and user fee collections. This aided in involving them in the overall process and making them proud of the change in the making. As the programme was implemented, it also had a positive impact on the communities by improving the water supply.
One of the project's guiding principles was that the civil society organisation should only serve as a facilitator because the direct involvement of system functionaries was critical. The AKRSP(I) team broached the need for such an assessment at the beginning of the project and discussed rolling it out through the frontline workers, i.e., the Anurakshaks, with the concerned district officials. The district was also keen on getting a better picture of the current status of the schemes and their O&M on the ground. The idea of a rapid dipstick through the Anurakshaks was well-received by the district. With alignment on this between the district and AKRSP(I), a short survey questionnaire was designed and mutually agreed upon.
<p><sdt id="65849500" sdttag="goog_rdk_64"><sdt id="-1833520874" sdttag="goog_rdk_63"></sdt></sdt><sdt id="1237751723" sdttag="goog_rdk_72">The survey was intentionally kept simple to enable Anurakshaks to fill out the survey forms with a minimum amount of handh<sdt id="-2099237722" sdttag="goog_rdk_65">o</sdt>lding or training. When the survey was rolled out, digital tools were yet to be introduced, so the survey was carried out using physical forms. The forms were circulated to Anurakshaks through the GPs <sdt id="1930703605" sdttag="goog_rdk_67">after getting the instructions from the District Panchayati Raj Officer, Muzaffarpur. </sdt><sdt id="143781299" sdttag="goog_rdk_69">T</sdt>he completed forms were then digitised by the AKRSP<sdt id="1705061952" sdttag="goog_rdk_70">(</sdt>I<sdt id="-1584217651" sdttag="goog_rdk_71">)</sdt> team at each block. </sdt></p>
The following information about each ward-level scheme was captured as a part of the survey in 548 piped water supply schemes spread across 45 GPs in three blocks of Muzaffarpur district.
- Functioning of schemes – number of households having a connection, date of commissioning of the scheme, collection of water tariff, average monthly expenditure on maintenance
- Service provision – duration of daily water supply, testing of water quality, Anurakashak’s perception of water quality
- Status of electricity connection and charges
- Capacity building of Anurakhshaks, availability of smartphones and honorarium for the Anurakshaks
- Details of the newly formed Ward Implementation and Management Committee (WIMC) after the GP elections in December 2021 in Bihar
The District Panchayati Raj Officer directed the three Block Panchayati Raj Officers and Block Development Officers to conduct this study and provide the necessary support to the GPs and wards, as well as the AKRSP(I) field staff. AKRSP(I) organised a day-long orientation at each of the blocks to appraise the block-level officials, namely; Block Panchayati Raj Officers, Block Development Officers, Technical Assistants, Panchayat Sachivs, and Executive Assistants about not just the survey, but the overall project to design a scalable model for sustainable O&M. This orientation helped to plan and roll-out the survey across more than 600 wards of the three blocks, and the survey could be completed in about 5-6 weeks.
Key findings from the dipstick survey
- The final number of wards under the Panchayati Raj Department in the three blocks was reduced to 548, and the total number of households across these wards is 1.01 lakh. Although the initially planned coverage was 634 WIMCs, during the survey it came to light that some WIMCs do not fall under the jurisdiction of rural WIMCs, thus the number has decreased from the initially planned number of WIMCs.
- Although the number of households with piped water supply connections was as high as 85.1%, about 69% of wards did not have 100% household coverage.
- Only 4% of the total schemes were not functional. Of the remaining schemes, 48% were supplying water for 4-6 hours and another 43% were supplying water for more than 6 hours. The distribution of schemes by hours of water supply is similar across blocks.
- Water quality testing had been done in 90 of 535 wards (17%). While the water quality status in the wards has not been recorded in the survey, the perceived water quality, as reported by the Anurakshak, is good to excellent across all three blocks.
- The age of schemes could be an important variable for understanding O&M costs, and as schemes become older, the average O&M costs also increase. The majority of the schemes were older than a year. However, an increase in O&M costs was not reflected in older schemes.
- 36% of the total wards reported collection of water user charges, and in these wards, on average, 60% of households are paying the user charges. Of the total households covered across all 548 wards, only 20% of households pay user charges.
- While most (85%) of the schemes have electricity connections, only 75% of them received bills, and further, only half of those who were billed managed to pay the utility. Of those wards that have paid their bill, 77% have also collected user fees. The electricity bill has in fact been a trigger for the WIMCs to start the user charge collection and for communities to pay too.
- Only about 5% of the Anurakshaks had received some part of the honorarium due to them. About 98% had not received any training on their roles and responsibilities.
The dipstick study was found to be useful for stakeholders at various levels. At the ward level, it provided an opportunity for the newly elected Anurakshak and the WIMC to engage and understand the prevalent situation of the scheme and its operations. It also helped them to reflect on issues related to sustainable O&M, such as quality of services, cultivating a willingness to pay user charges, monthly income and expenditure, and gaps in these. The WIMCs have been recently formed, and having this understanding of the schemes’ O&M can lay a good foundation for them to take the necessary action to manage the schemes efficiently.
<p>For the block-level functionaries, it has provided a view on the status of schemes and gaps that need to be filled and that may require some clear guidelines and protocols, e.g., completion of the 100% tap connections to households, fixing electricity connections, regularising or standardising the electricity billing, standardising O&M support through agencies, regularising payments to the Anurakshaks etc. For AKRSP(I), as the civil society organisation on the ground, it has helped to gain a better understanding of the wards in the pilot project, and the knowledge and capacity gaps that need to be addressed on the ground. This will be able to guide the intervention and activities that need to be planned.</p>
Getting alignment on the need for an assessment of this nature and rolling it out through stakeholders within the Panchayati Raj set-up, has led to a conducive and enabling environment where all stakeholders can work together to improve the processes for O&M. The current assessment was limited to only three blocks.
<p><sdt id="-1185204453" sdttag="goog_rdk_186"><sdt id="1852217872" sdttag="goog_rdk_185"></sdt></sdt><sdt id="1212606469" sdttag="goog_rdk_191">If the same effort has to be scaled across the state through Anurakshaks or frontline workers, a few things come to mind that would have to be done differently. Based on the present experience, the survey form needs to be improved, and some instructions/notes for the surveyors need to be provided to strengthen the data coming in. The incentives for Anurakshaks to report the data more accurately would also need to be communicated better. At scale, it will also help to collect the data in a digital format from the beginning so as to monitor the progress across the state and screen the data in real-time with speed. The Anurakshaks will also need short training on the survey form as well as any digital tools deployed for data capture. </sdt></p>
Pritesh Kumar Lal, Senior Programme Integrator - Monitoring and Evaluation, AKRSP(I)
Madhavi Purohit, Senior Programme Manager, Arghyam