Sisyphean labours - Domestic water supply in the central-western Himalayas

This paper by the People's Science Institute informs that domestic water supply, mistakenly referred to as drinking water supply, is a state subject under the Indian constitution. However, policies and programmes are ususally set within a national framework as a part of the national five year plans. Domestic water supply programme performance in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have followed national trends.

The paper  begins with a review of national programmes and their performances. The next two sections highlight the record of domestic water supply programmes in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh with the help of official statistics and some ground truths from microlevel studies and surveys. The implications of these data are discussed in section four. The last section summarises the main conclusions and recommendations for state policies and programmes.

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