Rural water schemes leak: World Bank report

The  loss due to inefficiency of piped water supply systems in the 10 states studied was Rs 50.2 billion per year, while the loss due to schemes getting defunct was Rs 1.9 billion per year.

The 11th Plan allocation for rural water supply shcmes is Rs.39,490 crore while the Ministry of Rural Development will spend Rs 7300 crore this year on the rural water schemes coming under the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme.

The report commissioned by the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance also looked at supply driven against demand driven schemes of water supply run by the Government of India in ten states and found that the costs of the latter were much less than supply driven schemes like Accelerated Rural Water Supply Scheme.

If the economic and time costs of the two schemes were to be compared, the supply driven scheme would cost Rs 38 per litre while the demand driven scheme would cost about Rs 26 per litre, the lead author of the study Smita Mishra said, adding that the demand driven schemes like Swajaldhara were however not being  scaled up.

The report concludes that the best way out was to decentralise, leaving water schemes to the panchayats, to fix accountability, and explore private partnerships.