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Many nations have implemented policies to improve drinking water quality, but challenges arise from overexploited or contaminated groundwater-based sources. This paper aims at examining the aspects of water scarcity, security, and sustainability within an Indian village context. We attempt to compare two rural water supply sources in Nagla Chandi village in Uttar Pradesh, India: (a) untreated groundwater sourced from bore wells and (b) treated water from a reverse osmosis (RO) plant. We observed that subterranean minerals are the primary pollutants of unprocessed water drawn from borewells, which form the main source of drinking water. Even though water from the RO plant meets all the quality parameters of potability, frequent breakdowns of the plant due to improper management force the villagers to drink untreated water from the dug wells fitted with hand pumps, affecting their health. We also found a high incidence of water-borne diseases. The case analysis suggests enhancing village water treatment projects by training local artisans in system repair and increasing Panchayat staff to include trained engineers for technical advice and maintenance. The paper proposes reducing water testing cost in rural areas to make it possible Q4 for local organizations to regularly assess water quality and implement corrective actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Munroe Island in Kollam District of Kerala is a typical backwater village situated at the confluence of the Ashtamudi backwater and the Kallada River system. It is an amalgamation of eight small islands with a total area of 13.4 km². Salinity intrusion has been a serious threat in the downstream areas of Kallada River for more than one and half decades, affecting the groundwater quality of Munroe Island. The present study focuses on the seasonal variation in physico-chemical characteristics of the underground water system of Munroe Island and Kallada River with special reference to saline water intrusion. Physico-chemical analysis of ground water revealed that samples were unsuitable for drinking due to higher content of Na, Ca, and K. Microbiological analysis of island groundwater showed the presence of coliform and E. coli bacteria above the permissible limit. Results indicated a significant correlation between salinity and major anions viz., Cl- and SO4² and cations viz., Mg, Na, Ca, and K of both river surface and island groundwater. In the present study it is clearly evident the occurrence of saltwater intrusion in Kallada River from Ashtamudy Lake and the its severity become higher during premonsoon season. The results also indicated that the salinity increase in Kallada River has a negative impact on island groundwater quality. The paper also suggests suitable management strategies for overcoming the saltwater intrusion thereby upgrading island sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As water is a state subject in India, an enormous variation of irrigation water pricing across the states is noticed. Revenue collection under irrigation water charges of the states is not encouraging. The present paper reviews the structures of water pricing mechanism in different states of India and suggests a way to achieve sustainable water resources management in India. Various reports, water policy documents, and major recommendations of the irrigation commission were reviewed and analyzed. It was observed that low revenue collection is mainly due to the low rate of water taxes, no periodic revision, and flaws in the current revenue collection mechanism across the states. The water regulatory authority should be made a statutory body to manage various water uses and their fair pricing. A volumetric pricing system can be implemented in wells and tube-well-irrigated areas and for surface irrigation, and this requires considerable investment in irrigation water supply infrastructure and development of operational plans. Until a well-developed volumetric system comes into practice, the current system of revenue assessment and collection must be rationalized and simplified. An appropriate power tariff policy for rural areas and inclusion of the irrigation sector in a ground water conservation fee is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to contribute to the limited literature on water governance in small towns in India. For assessing water governance, we propose a broad framework encompassing adequacy and affordability, equity, sustainability and responsiveness. Analytically, the concept of 'service modality' is expanded to include not only institutional arrangements but also water resource deployment, and placed within a framework that includes multiple contextual variables as well. We use this framework to carry out an inductive analysis by comparing water service delivery and governance in four small towns across two states (Karnataka and Tamil Nadu) in southern India. Apart from differences in size, the towns differ in the institutional arrangements - from fully municipal management to a combination to complete para-statal management - and in the deployment of water resources - only ground water to a mixed supply of ground and surface water (dual sourcing). Data were gathered using a combination of household surveys, metering, records, and interviews. Dual sourcing resulted in adequate supply and optimization vis-à-vis end uses. Inter-household inequity is driven by socio-economic differences amongst households, but can be mitigated to an extent by increasing public tap density. But water resource use is not physically or financially sustainable. The responsiveness to citizen needs was significantly higher when the distribution was done by the local governments. Separation of roles, with para-statals providing bulk supply of surface water, and local governments managing the distribution of this and groundwater, may be an optimal service modality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater emerged as a major source of irrigation in India during the mid-1970s. However, a large expansion in well irrigation due to a massive rural electrification programme, government policies of promoting private tube well construction and large subsidies on electricity for agricultural use resulted in groundwater over-abstraction in many semi-arid and arid regions of India. In addition, most of the direct and indirect measures to regulate groundwater use have met with little success and have been largely ineffective in arresting groundwater over-exploitation. This paper reviews the institutional and market-based instruments that are now being advocated by scholars and practitioners as potential instruments for sustainable groundwater use. The review mainly focuses on research that examined the viability and impacts of establishing private and tradable water rights in groundwater and pro rata pricing of electricity for irrigation use as instruments to arrest the problems of groundwater over-exploitation in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of the replacement of traditional communal irrigation systems called tanks by modern irrigation systems, that is, private wells with pumps, using a village and household data set collected in Tamil Nadu, India. Our statistical analyses find that, once the tanks deteriorate, the rice yield of farmers who have no access to wells and thus rely solely on traditional irrigation systems will decrease, whereas those of farmers with well access will not be affected. Since compensation for yield loss by income diversification is difficult, the reduction of income is so large that poverty among farmers without well access increases. Our analyses also find that, even among farmers with well access, the dissemination of private wells results in no significant increase in net return or profit of rice cultivation, presumably because the overexploitation of groundwater increases the cost of irrigation and cancels out the well users' high revenue from high yield. In this way, the replacement process creates a double tragedy: increased poverty among farmers without well access and overexploitation and profit reduction among farmers with well access. Policy options to avoid the tragedy are discussed in the concluding section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Puri city is situated on the shoreline of Bay of Bengal and groundwater is the only source available to meet the city water supply mainly from two demarcated water fields. Due to the anthropogenic activities and absence of sewerage system, groundwater quality is deteriorating through open discharges of domestic waste, open defecation, septic tanks, soak pits, contaminated water pools, unorganized waste dumping etc. The objective of the paper was to assess seasonal groundwater fluctuation and water quality in terms of physcio-chemical and bacteriological parameters. For this, groundwater levels were measured and samples were collected during post-monsoon (November 2006) and pre-monsoon (June 2007) from the water fields and city area. Groundwater quality was represented spatially and temporally using geographical information system and evaluated with national and international drinking water standards. Based on the groundwater quality, suitable measures were suggested to minimize further groundwater contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]