Dehradun, 27 April 2007
The World Bank Friday announced a $120 million rural water supply and sanitation (RWSS) project for Uttarakhand.
The project aims at upgrading areas with no or partial coverage of water supply to full coverage with sustainable services, benefiting at least 1.2 million people of the state.
The scheme is designed to improve the effectiveness of RWSS services through decentralisation and an increased role of local governments and communities by supporting policies and institutional arrangements for improving service delivery.
Uttarakhand Chief Secretary S.K. Das said in an official press release: ‘After the successful implementation of project Swajal Phase-I, the State of Uttarakhand had embarked upon replicating the principles of community managed water supply and sanitation systems across the state through the central funded ‘Swajal-dhara’ programme.’
Smita Misra, a senior World Bank economist and project leader, said: ‘Under this project, rural local governments in partnership with rural communities, will plan, design, construct, operate, and maintain their water supply and sanitation schemes. Even in Multi Village Schemes, user water and sanitation sub-committees will be formed, and an ongoing consultation process for obtaining peoples point-of-view will be put in place.’
Only half of the state is estimated to be fully covered with now functioning water supply schemes. Nearly 30 percent of the schemes suffer from a shortfall in the availability of water, especially during the summer months, due to depletion of water sources.
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