India - The Karnataka urban water sector improvement project : 24x7 water supply is achievable

In 2003, the Government of India had posed this question at a workshop: Is the essential goal of 24-hour water supply in urban India achievable? At that time it was understood that none of the 51,612 urban local bodies in India was delivering a 24x7 water supply. This Field Note describes how, in the demonstration zones of three cities in Karnataka, it has proved possible to deliver continuous 24x7 water supply through individual household connections to all residents, including the poorest. This has been achieved with a 10 percent reduction in overall water consumed, whilst increasing the revenue billed by a factor of five, and increasing the revenue collected by a factor of almost seven. This Note begins by describing the current situation and challenges of intermittent water supply. It then tells how the project was implemented. The next section discusses lessons learned, and afterwards, what would it take to scale up the project. The last section presents conclusions.