Bihar Water supply & Sanitation- Study on Social...

Bihar Water supply & Sanitation- Study on Social Assessment, including Capacity Building and Communication Strategy

Intermediate Status Report V2

March 2013

Bihar State Water and Sanitation Mission (BSWSM)

Confidential

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317983 MCB ISA 00 0

P:\Noida\DMC\Projects\317983-Bihar Water\Report\Intermediate Report\Revised\Intermediate Status Report V2.docx

18 February 2013

Bihar Water supply & Sanitation- Study on Social Assessment, including Capacity Building and Communication Strategy

Intermediate Status Report V2

March 2013

Bihar State Water and Sanitation Mission (BSWSM)

Confidential

Mott MacDonald, A20, Sector 2, Noida 201 301, India

t +91 (0)120 254 3582 f +91 (0)120 254 3562 w www.mottmac.in, W www.mottmac.com

Chief Engineer (Urban) – cum – Member Secretary, Bihar State Water and Sanitation Mission (BSWSM), Public Health Engineering Department, Vishveshwariya Bhawan, Bailey Road, Patna 800 001

317983/MCB/ISA/00/0 18 February 2013 P:\Noida\DMC\Projects\317983-Bihar Water\Report\Intermediate Report\Revised\Intermediate Status Report V2.docx

Bihar Water supply & Sanitation- Study on Social Assessment, including Capacity Building and Communication Strategy Confidential

Revision Date Originator Checker Approver Description

01 16.2.2013 RB, TK, AA NR SM Intermediate Status Report

02 6.3.2013 RB NR SM Intermediate Status Report V1 -revised

03 18.3.2013 NR NR SM Intermediate Status Report V2 -revised incorporating comments received from the World bank

Issue and revision record

This document is issued for the party which commissioned it

and for specific purposes connected with the above-captioned

project only. It should not be relied upon by any other party or

used for any other purpose.

We accept no responsibility for the consequences of this

document being relied upon by any other party, or being used

for any other purpose, or containing any error or omission which

is due to an error or omission in data supplied to us by other

parties

This document contains confidential information and proprietary

intellectual property. It should not be shown to other parties

without consent from us and from the party which

commissioned it.



ABBREVIATIONS

APL Above Poverty Line

AWC Anganwadi Centre

BPL Below Poverty Line

BRLP Bihar Rural Livelihood Project

BSWSM Bihar State Water Sanitation Mission

BWSC Block Water and Sanitation Committee

CBO Community Based Organization

CCD Community Driven Development

CCDU Communication and Capacity Development Unit

DANIDA Danish International Development Agency

DDWS Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation

DFID Department for International Development

DoHFW Department of Health and Family Welfare

DWSC District Water and Sanitation Committee

DWSM District Water and Sanitation Mission

EBC Extremely Backward Caste

FGD Focus Group Discussion

GOI Government of India

GP Gram Panchyat

HRD Human Resource Development

IEC Information, Education and Communication

IHHL Individual Household Latrine

IPDP Indigenous Peoples Plan

M & E Monitoring and Evaluation

MIS Management Information System

MNREGA Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

NBA Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan

NGO Non Government Organization

NRDWP National Rural Drinking Water Programme

O & M Operation and Maintenance

OBC Other Backward Caste

PHED Public Health & Engineering Department

PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal

PRI Panchyati Raj Institutions

PWS Piped Water Schemes

RWSS Rural Water Supply and Sanitation

SA Social Assessment

SC Scheduled Caste

SHG Self Help Group

SPMU State Project Management Unit

ST Schedule Tribe

SWASTH Sector Wide Approach to Strengthen Health

SWOT Strength Weakness Opportunity & Threat

TSC Total Sanitation Campaign

UNDP United Nation Development Programme

UNICEF United Nation International Children’s Education Fund

VWSC Village Water and Sanitation Committee

VHNSC Village Health Nutrition & Sanitation Committee



ABBREVIATIONS

WSS Water Supply and Sanitation

WSSO Water and Sanitation Support Organization



Chapter Title Page

Executive Summary i

1. Introduction 1

1.1 State Profile _______________________________________________________________________ 1 1.2 Project Background (RWSS) ___________________________________________________________ 2 1.3 The Assignment ____________________________________________________________________ 4 1.4 Need for Social Assessment ___________________________________________________________ 5 1.5 Scope of Work _____________________________________________________________________ 5 1.6 Approach and Methodology ___________________________________________________________ 9 1.7 Methodology ______________________________________________________________________ 11 1.8 Report Structure ___________________________________________________________________ 20

2. Beneficiary Assessment 21

2.1 Analysis of Community Level Findings __________________________________________________ 21 2.2 Analysis of Qualitative Findings at Community Level _______________________________________ 52 2.3 Conclusions based on Beneficiary Assessment ___________________________________________ 59

3. Institutional Analysis 62

3.1 Institutions related to Policy, Planning and M&E on Water & Sanitation _________________________ 62 3.2 Development Partners ______________________________________________________________ 68 3.3 Conclusions ______________________________________________________________________ 69

4. Stakeholder Analysis 70

4.1 Role of different Stakeholders in Service delivery __________________________________________ 70 4.2 Key Strengths and Weaknesses of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation in Bihar __________________ 79

5. Diversity in Bihar 81

5.1 Socio Cultural & Economic ___________________________________________________________ 81 5.2 Rural Governance __________________________________________________________________ 83 5.3 Available water Resources ___________________________________________________________ 84 5.4 Rural Drinking Water Status __________________________________________________________ 85 5.5 Gender related issues in Bihar ________________________________________________________ 89

6. Anticipated Impact of the Project 91

7. Key Risks & Possible Mitigation 94

7.1 Key Risks ________________________________________________________________________ 94 7.2 Possible Mitigation of Identified Risks ___________________________________________________ 94

8. Issues & Recommendations 97

8.1 Issues ___________________________________________________________________________ 97 8.2 Recommendations _________________________________________________________________ 99

9. Social Safeguard issues 104

Content



9.1 Land Acquisition __________________________________________________________________ 104 9.2 Indigenous People ________________________________________________________________ 104

10. Monitoring & Evaluation of social development indicators 105

10.1 Monitoring _______________________________________________________________________ 105 10.2 Evaluation _______________________________________________________________________ 106

Appendices 109

Appendix A. Sampling Plan and Data ____________________________________________________________ 110 Appendix B. Study Tools – Qualitative ___________________________________________________________ 111 Appendix C. Study Tools – Quantitative __________________________________________________________ 112 Appendix D. Contact List ______________________________________________________________________ 113

Tables

Table 1.1: Habitations Covered with Piped Water Scheme in Bihar,Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Assam _______ 3 Table 1.2: Data on Habitations Covered with Piped Water Scheme in Selected Districts under The Project of Bihar 4 Table 2.1: Type of roofing material used in Respondent’s House ______________________________________ 26 Table 2.2: Distance of stand post from house _____________________________________________________ 33 Table 2.3: Who collecting water from stand post (Multple response) ____________________________________ 33 Table 2.4: Distance of public hand pump from house (Hand pump) ____________________________________ 34 Table 2.5: Initial setup cost for hand pump/bore well ________________________________________________ 35 Table 2.6: In which year did you set up the facility? _________________________________________________ 35 Table 2.7: Is the water from hand pump/ bore well potable ___________________________________________ 36 Table 2.8: Most important source of drinking water for family _________________________________________ 37 Table 2.9: How to you treat water to make it potable? _______________________________________________ 37 Table 2.10: Requirement of water per day for various household purpose on per person basis (in litres) _________ 38 Table 2.11: Nature of complaint _________________________________________________________________ 40 Table 2.12: How many hours you expect to get water per day and willingness to pay _______________________ 41 Table 2.13: When do you wash hands ____________________________________________________________ 42 Table 2.14: Awareness of water borne diseases ____________________________________________________ 42 Table 2.15: Family members have fallen sick due to water borne disease in last three months ________________ 43 Table 2.16: How is the Household Soild Waste like plastic waste, glass waste or metal waste getting disposed (%) 44 Table 2.17: Desposal of liquid waste _____________________________________________________________ 44 Table 2.18: News papers generally being read _____________________________________________________ 48 Table 2.19: Preferred media language____________________________________________________________ 49 .Table 2.20: Preferred media channel _____________________________________________________________ 49 Table 2.21: Time of watching TV ________________________________________________________________ 50 Table 2.22: Time for listen to radio ______________________________________________________________ 50 Table 2.23: Preferred point of contact in case of grievances ___________________________________________ 51 Table 4.1: Stakeholders involved in Rural Water Supply Scheme ______________________________________ 70 Table 5.1: Bihar: Demographic Indicators ________________________________________________________ 82 Table 5.2: Income Details in per capita __________________________________________________________ 83 Table 5.3: Water Availability in Details ___________________________________________________________ 85 Table 5.4: Status of Rural Habitation with Respect to Drinking Water Supply _____________________________ 86 Table 5.5: Status of Rural Habitation with Respect to Drinking Water Supply (BY Caste) ____________________ 88 Table 5.6: Proportion of Rural Habitations Covered with Type of Water Supply Schemes in Bihar _____________ 88 Table 5.7: Distribution of population by literacy and rural urban in Bihar _________________________________ 89 Table 5.8: Health Indicators for Women in Bihar ___________________________________________________ 90



Table 5.9: Health Indicators for Women in Bihar & India _____________________________________________ 90 Table 6.1: Anticipated Impact of the Project ______________________________________________________ 91 Table 10.1: Indicators to be Monitored___________________________________________________________ 105 Table 10.2: Indicators to be Evaluated___________________________________________________________ 106

Figures

Figure 2.1: Gender of the respondents (%) ________________________________________________________ 21 Figure 2.2: Age group of the respondents (%) _____________________________________________________ 22 Figure 2.3: Religion of the head of the household (%) _______________________________________________ 22 Figure 2.4: Social group of the respondents (%) ____________________________________________________ 22 Figure 2.5: Government cards of the contacted households (%) _______________________________________ 23 Figure 2.6: Education of household head (%) ______________________________________________________ 23 Figure 2.7: Type of Family (%) _________________________________________________________________ 24 Figure 2.8: Ownership of the house (%) __________________________________________________________ 24 Figure 2.9: Type of house (%) __________________________________________________________________ 24 Figure 2.10: Main source of income for household (%) ________________________________________________ 25 Figure 2.11: Households having seperate kitchen (%) ________________________________________________ 25 Figure 2.12: Number of Rooms of the households (excluding bathroom and kitchen) % ______________________ 25 Figure 2.13: Type of roofing used in respondent's house (%) ___________________________________________ 26 Figure 2.14: Ownership of cultivable land (%) _______________________________________________________ 26 Figure 2.15: Availability of livestock in the house (%) _________________________________________________ 26 Figure 2.16: Various assests owned by the households (%) ____________________________________________ 27 Figure 2.17: Household having cable TV connection (%) ______________________________________________ 27 Figure 2.18: Main source of lighting for the household (%) _____________________________________________ 28 Figure 2.19: Type of fuel used at household for cooking (%) ___________________________________________ 28 Figure 2.20: What is used to cook food (%) ________________________________________________________ 28 Figure 2.21: Monthly expenditure details of the household (%) _________________________________________ 29 Figure 2.22: Household monthly income (%) _______________________________________________________ 29 Figure 2.23: Source of water for the household (%) __________________________________________________ 30 Figure 2.24: Frequency of water at household connections (%) _________________________________________ 30 Figure 2.25: Time of water supply (%) ____________________________________________________________ 30 Figure 2.26: Availability of pit dug to collect water (%) ________________________________________________ 31 Figure 2.27: Usage of pump to get water from connection (%) __________________________________________ 31 Figure 2.28: Type of tariff paid (%) _______________________________________________________________ 32 Figure 2.29: Periodicity of billing (%) ______________________________________________________________ 32 Figure 2.30: Frequency of water in the stand post (%) ________________________________________________ 32 Figure 2.31: Timing of water supplied from stand post (%) _____________________________________________ 32 Figure 2.32: Average time taken for collection of water every time( stand post) % ___________________________ 33 Figure 2.33: Number of people involved in collecting water (%) ________________________________________ 33 Figure 2.34: Average time taken for collection of water every time (from Hand pump) % ______________________ 34 Figure 2.35: Number of people involved in collecting water (%) ________________________________________ 34 Figure 2.36: Depth of Hand pump/bore well (Feet) % _________________________________________________ 36 Figure 2.37: Problem in getting water from hand pump/bore well (%) ____________________________________ 36 Figure 2.38: Reaspon for not having municipal HH water connection (%) _________________________________ 37 Figure 2.39: Would you prefer to have HH water connection (%) ________________________________________ 37 Figure 2.40: Consumption of water per day for various household purpose on daily basis (%) _________________ 38 Figure 2.41: Level of satisfaction (%) _____________________________________________________________ 39 Figure 2.42: Complaint regarding water supply (%) __________________________________________________ 40 Figure 2.43: Lodged complaint with (%) ___________________________________________________________ 40



Figure 2.44: Average time taken for resolution of the problem (%) _______________________________________ 41 Figure 2.45: Would you expect a better water supply (%) ______________________________________________ 41 Figure 2.46: Material used for handwashing (%) _____________________________________________________ 42 Figure 2.47: How is the Household Soild Waste from Kitchen Getting Disposed (%) _________________________ 43 Figure 2.48: How is the Household Soild Waste like paper being disposed (%) _____________________________ 43 Figure 2.49: Availability of toilets in the households (%) _______________________________________________ 45 Figure 2.50: Type of toilets available in the households (%) ____________________________________________ 45 Figure 2.51: Household having own septic tank (%) __________________________________________________ 45 Figure 2.52: Total expenditure on toilet construction by the household (%) ________________________________ 45 Figure 2.53: Total monthly expenditure on toilet maintenance (%) _______________________________________ 46 Figure 2.54: If do not have toilet, where do your family member go for defecation? (%) ______________________ 46 Figure 2.55: Responsibility of cleaning the toilet (%) _________________________________________________ 47 Figure 2.56: Frequency of cleaning toilet (%) _______________________________________________________ 47 Figure 2.57: Material used for cleaning toilet (%) ____________________________________________________ 47 Figure 2.58: Do you read news paper (%) _________________________________________________________ 48 Figure 2.59: Do you do any of the following? (Multiple Responses) % ____________________________________ 49 Figure 2.60: What programme do you watch/ Listen (Multiple Responses) % ______________________________ 49 Figure 2.61: Availability of pollution related messages in media (%) _____________________________________ 50 Figure 2.62: Awareness regarding water and sanitation sector reform programme in your city (%) ______________ 50 Figure 2.63: Main source of information about government programmes (%) ______________________________ 51 Figure 2.64: Media which influences most (%) ______________________________________________________ 51 Figure 3.1: Existing Institutional Structure for Delivery of Water and Sanitation Services in Bihar ______________ 64 Figure 5.1: Distribution of Habitations by Water Availability ___________________________________________ 86 Figure 5.2: Distribution of Population by Water Availability ____________________________________________ 86


i


Study Background

Bihar is 12th largest state of India in terms of geographical size (94,163 sq. km) and 3rd largest in terms of

its population (10.38 crores as per Census 2011). The state is well known for its abundant natural

resources, perennial rivers, fertile lands and a long glorious history. In spite of abundant natural resources

the state remained one of the poorest in the country since independence. The condition further deteriorated

after the state’s division and separation of Jharkhand as Bihar retained almost 75 percent of the population

but was left with 54 percent of the land bereft of almost all mineral resources, thus inducing a lot of strain

on the available resources.

The state is densely populated with 880 persons per square kilometres as against the national average of

324. Of 104 million, 92 million live in rural areas (88.7 percent census 2011). The state has about 15.7

percent of Scheduled Caste (SC) population and 0.9 percent Schedule Tribe (ST) population (as per 2001

census).The sex ratio of the state at 916 females per 1000 males is lower than the national average of 940

females per 1000 males (census 2011). The social life in Bihar heavily gravitates around the villages as

only 11.2 percent of total population resides in urban areas. Vast majority of them is still illiterate (63.82

percent are literate as per census 2011). Comparing the per capita income of the state, a substantial

difference could be noted from India (INR 25661) and Bihar (INR 9586) for the year 2008-09. The above

mentioned income is as a result of increase i.e 17.37 percent from 2006-07 to 2008-09, which is 13.64

percent increase for India.

Providing safe drinking water to its people is the responsibility of the State Government. Till last decade,

coverage of habitations was the priority of the Government. However, currently safe drinking water and

other related issues like sanitation and hygiene have become the priority. Of the total habitations (107642)

in Bihar, 20248 habitations are in the status of Partial Population Coverage and remaining 87394

habitations are in 100 percent population coverage. In about 14580 habitations the water quality is affected,

of which 10877 are affected with Iron, followed by 2698 with Fluoride, 1004 with Arsenic and 1 with Nitrate

(Source: DDWS website). Ground water table is quite high and hence water availability is not an issue in

major parts of the State. In terms of quantity, the average population served per source is 110 which is

quite good when compared to the Government of India norm of 250 persons per source. The rural

population of the state is served by public as well as private hand pumps (India Mark III and shallow well

hand pumps).About 79.73 percent of habitations are covered by Hand pumps / Bore well schemes followed

by 3.88 percentage piped water scheme and 15.62 percentage by other schemes (Source: DDWS

website).

The National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) guidelines that came into effect from April 2009

puts more emphasis on decentralization and devolve the power to PRIs so that they can take up

construction, operation and management of water & sanitation related infrastructure. As part of NRDWP,

the DDWS has prepared its long term strategic plan (2011-2022) for ensuring drinking water security to all

rural households. The strategic plan aims to cover 90 percent of households with piped water and at least

80 percent of households with tap connections during this period. While analyzing the physical progress of

availability of piped water supply (PWS) schemes to different states it was observed that Assam, Bihar,

Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh are lagging states of India. In view of the above mentioned backdrop, the

Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MoDWS), Government of India has requested the World Bank to

support the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project for the lagging states including Bihar.

Executive Summary


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The Bihar Rural Water Supply & Sanitation Project which is funded by the World Bank (The Project) has

selected 10 districts, viz, West Champaran, Saran, Muzaffarpur, Begusarai, Purnia, Nalanda, Patna,

Nawada, Munger and Banka for implementation of multi and single village/habitation piped water scheme

in different phases.

The socio-economic conditions in the selected districts of the Project and the beneficiary profile may not be

homogeneous, rather, quite diverse comprising a number of sub-groups identifiable on the basis of their

differential endowment, gender, ethnicity, different economic groups and other regional features. Therefore,

the challenge lies in addressing the requirements of all the sub-groups with special attention on the rural

and tribal poor and other normally socially excluded sub-groups. Besides, there are a large number of

stakeholders, some internal and others external to the project, who would have varying degrees of

influence and impact on project activities and outcomes. This makes it necessary for the project to provide

a framework for participation of all key stakeholder groups and solicit their contributions towards project

design and delivery mechanisms. To this effect, as a part of the project preparation, it is intended to

conduct this consulting assignment on Social Assessment (SA). The broad elements of the study shall

include:

beneficiary assessment,

stakeholder analysis,

social impacts,

Institutional assessments and risks analysis.

Study Objective

As per requirement, the social assessment (current study) was carried out with an aim to identify social

diversities in the State, the identified diversities which has potential to impact the project was further

discussed and mitigation plan was suggested. The social assessment was carried out consistent with GOI

and the World Bank safeguard requirements, policies, regulations and guidelines. The scope of the study

also covers aspects related to capacity building and communication. The study was conducted using

participatory approaches adopting participatory tools like Participatory Rural Appraisal, interactions with

women group, SWOT analysis etc. The study intended to identify stakeholders at all levels i.e. from the

policy level to field operations to beneficiary level. In this line, first the stakeholders were identified and then

they were contacted during each stage of the assignment so that comprehensive coverage is ensured.

Study Findings

Beneficiary Assessment

The study findings depicts that the villages in Bihar are heterogeneous in nature so far content/

establishment/ social setting is concerned, it was seen on an average a panchayat has 11 to 12

habitations, 115 habitations were found in 10 selected panchayats. Further interestingly it was observed

that the economically empowered caste generally resides in the main village of the panchayat and the SC

and Mahadalits reside in distant villages from the main panchayat village. Further the villages which are at

a distance from the panchayat main village had relatively less infrastructure like hand pumps and toilets.

Further the average family size of the contacted households was found to be 6.5 (however it ranges from 7

to 15). As per census 2011, in villages of Bihar a household has an average of 6 members. The literacy


iii


rate of the households contacted was found to be low, about 38 percent of respondents were illiterate. It

was observed that villages were not aware (84%) about government programmes related to water &

sanitation. During qualitative interactions it was sensed that women are not adequately empowered, the

main reason is their low literacy and awareness levels. Many women participants reported that they

generally attend panchayat meetings but their concerns are not heard by the PRIs and thus, they do not

find any use attending these meetings. Poverty is acute in these villages, as high as 83.2 percent of the

respondents were found living in non pucca houses (of which 51.1 percent were having semi pucca

houses), about 78.3 percent are earning their livelihood by working as agricultural laborer. Further about 85

percent of the contacted households do not have separate kitchen, about 67 percent of the households

covered have monthly income below INR 5000/-. The situation is further bad in case of marginalized

community and mahadalits. The monthly expenditure of most of the respondents (79%) is within INR 5000/-

During Participatory Rural Appraisal, it was observed that habitation/villages are clustered according to the

caste, and poor families. Mahadalits are very poor and also unorganized. Supply of water depends on the

availability and quality of electricity in the villages, though more than 90 percent of the households were

found having electric connection in their household (mostly illegal connections) but the electric supply was

found very erratic in covered villages. Due to irregular electric supply, the operation of water pumps and

supply remains erratic. It could be seen that water comes to many of the PWS villages once in a week.

Further, latrine coverage is inadequate- only 17.5 percent of contacted households have individual

household latrine in sampled GPs. During Focus Group Discussion it was reported that about 48 LPCD of

drinking water is required for daily needs. The major issues that were highlighted by the respondents are as

mentioned below:

Respondents are not satisfied with the quality of water. Problems of water contamination with Arsenic,

Fluoride and Iron and water being muddy were mentioned.

Due to quality problems in drinking water, villagers reported isolated cases of Typhoid and Diarrhea

and other stomach related problems

Community is not satisfied so far supply duration and pressure of water is concerned, even timing of

water supply was also not acceptable to the respondents.

The media habit of villagers mostly leads to radio (84 percent listen to radio, 18 percent watch television

and only 20 percent read newspaper). Hindi is the preferred language as respondents prefer to watch/listen

programmes in Hindi. Radio is the most popular media of communication. The preferred time for watching

television was either morning or evening.

Institutional Assessment

Bihar State Water & Sanitation Mission (BSWSM) is the nodal agency for implementation of total Sanitation

Campaign & Swajaldhara in the state of Bihar. BSWSM has been constituted as a registered society as per

Para 2.2 IA Restructured Central Sponsored Rural Sanitation Programme (RCRSP) guidelines and under

Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission, GOI, New Delhi. The approval on the constitution and

registration of BSWSM was given by Apex committee of the State Government body in its meeting on 7th

October 2004 and by executive of the BSWSM in its meeting on 22nd

September 2004(a resolution was

taken to register BSWSM). Principal Secretary, PHED is the Member Secretary of BSWSM and PHED is

the main Government body for delivering water and sanitation services in Bihar.PHED has its own

structured organizational setup for service delivery which is placed from State to Sub-Divisional Offices. But

there is no structured organization at Block and Gram Panchayat level. Block Resource Coordinators are

appointed on contractual basis and they report to the Assistant Engineer, PHED. They are appointed for


iv


reinforcing service delivery at village level. At panchayat level, in some of the panchayats, Village Health &

Sanitation Committees (VHNSCs) (which are formed under NRHM project and is chaired by the Sarpanch,

the elected head of the Gram Panchayat) are functional. Thus, it was observed that there is no structured

organization / office at Block / GP level. Thus, establishment of bottom up approach of project delivery as

desired in NRDWP and NBA guideline is not being undertaken. Further this is also delaying the process of

decentralisation.

Key Risks

Community Support & participation:- The activities of the project may not get community support and

participation due to following reasons

Lack of education and awareness among the community

Socially backward groups are also not well-off economically and thus, they may not be able to pay for

the capital cost

Local level casteism and politics, which may not support community mobilization

Lack of women participation, their lack of economic empowerment, illiteracy, no say in decision making

of the family etc

Equity and inclusion:- The issues related to equity need to be addressed. Currently the villages that are

dominated by socially backward groups have comparatively lesser functional infrastructure (water &

sanitation).They are also economically backward thus cannot afford construction and maintenance of the

infrastructure.

Regular water Supply: The community having piped water supply were not satisfied with the water supply

timings and pressure at which water is supplied. Thus, the community may not like to take the connections

till these issues are resolved.

Irregular Power Supply: Availability of power is a major issue in Bihar which will be a potential risk for

piped water schemes dependant on power supply. Due to erratic power supply, the operation of water

pumps and thereby the supply may get stalled and money invested in the construction will be futile. If the

water supply is not made to the community, they will be forced to use their old water sources; thereby the

health issues will persist mainly in case of villages with water contamination (fluoride and arsenic)

Weak PRIs and non availability of VWSCs: The operation and maintenance of the schemes may be an

issue if the dedicated structure at grassroot level is not established.

Political influence:- Looking into the importance of VWSCs, it is possible that political and economically

dominating groups would try to control the VWSCs. This can also initiate a conflict between VWSCs and

Gram Panchayat, mainly in the constituencies reserved for socially backward groups.

Delay in project delivery:- There is lack of coordination and capability gaps in the different wings of

PHED , which may lead to the project unable to deliver its objective within its stipulated time.

Contamination of Ground Water:- Leech pit toilets with deep pits (as reported by the households having

toilet) could lead to groundwater contamination, if proper measures are not taken on urgent basis.


v


Possible Mitigation of Identified Risks

Lack of Community participation

Multiple rounds of stakeholder consultations should be held prior to conceptualizing and during preparation of the project. Each sub project should have a local level communication office with a grievance redressal officer. The activity of each sub project should be further overseen by a high level coordination committee (at state level.)

Establishing Village Level Structure i.e VWSCs

It is important that each VWSC is represented by all the sections of the society of the village and their

members are trained to assist the W&S service delivery.

Capacity building of VWSC members

Ensuring women participation

One-third of the VWSCs members should be women and they should be provided mandatory training

The social mobilization agency should deploy women members to get women’s participation

Women should also be contacted by the Anganwadis and schools through their wards and motivated

Women education and empowerment programmes should be reinforced

Women groups organised by Mahila Samakhya could be involved for active participation in W&S

related issues

In the model of Mahila Samakhya, groups could be developed at village level for active participation in

W&S related issues

Women could be trained for providing services related to W&S, may be through rural sanitary marts

Establishment of bottom up approach and involvement of PRIs and community in O&M of W&S

programmes

Capacity building of PRIs in O&M

Equity and inclusion: Pro poor policy is to be taken up which could;

Provide concessions to rural poor in the matter of water supply.

Identify the rural poor through wealth ranking as those residing in houses measuring up to 200 square

feet, built-up area regardless of whether they live in or outside the village.

Waive the normal one time connection deposit for such rural poor and to collect only the cost of

providing meters (to be fixed by the PRIs themselves), to inculcate the sense of ownership;

Fix a lifeline supply of 7,200 litres per household (considering 40 lpcd for 6 member household) per

month for rural poor, at a concessional rate (to be fixed by the PRIs themselves).

Simplify procedures of taking connection and any proof of residence such as ration cards and ID cards

would be considered sufficient to provide a connection.

Provide water free of charge through public kiosks / cisterns / taps to vulnerable sections such as

nomads, destitute, homeless poor, beggars etc. who cannot afford to pay anything.

Promote structured participation of NGOs and CBOs in organizing the vulnerable sections for

managing free water supply through public kiosks.

Regular water Supply

Work out the most feasible way of water supply, appropriate with duration, time, quality, and quantity.

Alternative power supply arrangements are required for restoring regular water supply which could be solar based systems.


vi


Irregular Power Supply

Policy dialogues to be initiated with the power supply department for ensuring regular power supply.\

The tariff for unit rates for community PWS system should be lower than the minimum domestic tariff/unit.

Weak PRIs and non availability of VWSCs

PRIs should be empowered and mandatorily be members of VWSCs and other respective committees at different levels. The whole idea will be initiating planning from village level through involvement of community especially PRIs and VWSCs which will be scrutinized by the DWSM and will be sent for approval to SWSM. Further they should be involved in following activities;

In motivating community for taking part in water and sanitation management for sustainability of

service delivery so that financial viability of the schemes is not affected.

Should be trained in participatory development models

They should play an active role in the planning, implementation and management of W&S services

including domestic waste disposal.

They also need to be involved in dialogue with the community for ensuring piped water connections, timely payment of tariff and management support.

It is important that each village VWSCs and PRIs have their adequate participation and they are also trained for supporting service delivery. Appropriate and regular IEC will also be equally important.

Strong Political influence

Community mobilisation and empowerment so that they are able to identify the requirements related to

water, sanitation, health and hygiene and not come under any such influence.

Delay in project delivery

Project Management Unit is to establish good rapport with the Government of India and State PHED for timely release of funds and sanctioning of contracts respectively.

Project delivery in Mission mode so that Project management Unit has a complete structure up to the level of panchayat and able to monitor the project closely.

Contamination of Ground Water

Capacity building of PHED officials on soft skills so that communication on technical aspects could be delivered to the community.

Hiring of professional agencies for developing and implementing communication strategy for sanitation, hygiene, and conjunctive use of water

Issues

Organizational Structure for Service Delivery

During interactions with different level it was observed that the institutional structure of BSWSM is up to

district level only, below district there is no available structure. The activities of Block and GP level are

governed by the DWSC. Due to absence of four-tier system of governance, establishment of bottom up

approach for project delivery is not being undertaken. Further, this is also delaying the process of

decentralisation.


vii


Top Down Approach

Currently, top-down approach is followed in planning, implementing and operation and maintenance of the

schemes. Thus, PHED is totally responsible for service delivery. Though, there is initiation of devolution of

power to ZP and GP but it has not happened due to issues in capacity of PRIs and also lack of supervision

from PHED.

Staff Strength and internal Communication

Acute shortage of manpower was observed at the level of Assistant Engineers, Junior Engineers, Pipe

Inspectors, Khalasi, Plumber, Mistry and Operators affecting project formulation, implementation,

monitoring and repair of schemes. While interactions with the junior level staff, their capability gap was also

observed. It is to be noted that junior level staff are regularly interacting with the community for project

delivery and currently the emerging project needs are dynamic in nature. Thus, augmentation of soft skills

for better service delivery could be adopted.

Mechanical and civil are the major wings providing technical service. Construction is being taken up by the

civil wing while Mechanical wing looks after operations like getting electricity connection and operation of

machines. Both wings are headed by technically expert groups however, lack of coordination was observed

among them at district and sub-divisional level which generally leads to delay in project delivery.

Absence of village level structure i.e. VWSCs

During field visits it was observed that VWSCs are not formed at village level, during interaction with PHED

officials it was confirmed that no Government Order was issued by the Department for constitution of

VWSCs as a subcommittee of gram panchayat.

Due to absence of VWSCs, involvement of panchayats remains limited in planning, implementation,

operation & maintenance of the schemes. Very few schemes have been transferred to panchayats that too

only hand pump schemes. It was also observed that gram panchayats are not adequately equipped with

requisite resources to handle Operation & Maintenance of the schemes. Thus, devolution of power

including fund for O&M of water supply schemes has not happened in the State.

Technical/Water Quality

About 12% habitation has water quality issues and the Department is not being able to complete all its

water testing as planned for year 2011-12 (only 52147 sample tested against target of 120000 sources in

lab and further only 540 FTK tests were done as against target of 204692). As per NRDWP guideline all

drinking water sources should be tested at least twice a year for bacteriological contamination and once a

year for chemical contamination. (Source: DDWS data of 2011-12). However, since sub divisional labs are

not set up as planned (target 228 as per PHED website but none of them are functional however, approval

on 76 of such labs are under process) thus, district labs are putting additional effort to meet targets for

water quality testing.


viii


Inclusion

Since the panchayat is spread and has 11 to 12 habitations in it and they are clustered according to the

caste. Many a times the core village (i.e the panchayat village) is dominated by economically sound section

of the society and the distance village which is majorly dominated by poor families and mahadalits lacks

infrastructure facility related to water and sanitation. Moreover if the facility is provided they are so poor that

they will not be able to pay the connection charges.

Limited participation of Community

Limited participation of the community was observed, in planning, implementation and O&M of RWSS

facilities, is a key issue to be tackled in the RWSS sector. The limited community involvement is partly

because of the supply driven approach and partly due to lack of awareness and illiteracy among users

about the benefits that could accrue from active involvement. Significant IEC efforts need to be effectively

channelled to improve community participation.

Limited or non participation of women-Gender

Women comprise about half of the population and they are not empowered enough to participate in

community meetings and provide their inputs in service delivery related to water & sanitation.

Weak PRIs less participation of women

Though the PRIs have been given mandate of operation of water supply (hand pumps) and sanitation but

no funds were transferred for this purpose as they are technically weak and are not in a position to

dispense their responsibility. Too much politics and casteism involved as Mukhiya or a member of the

dominant caste (powerful) decides who will get what benefit. They are not actively involved in a dialogue

with the community on tariff for maintenance of water supply systems and public welfare.

Moreover women member of the panchayats were also not found vocal thus, a holistic approach for the

benefit of each section of the society in a sustainable manner was found missing.

Poor Supply of Power

Supply of water depends on the availability and quality of electricity in the villages, though more than 90

percent of the households were found having electric connection in their household (mostly illegal

connections) however, electric supply was found very erratic in covered villages. Due to irregular electric

connection operation of water pumps and supply remains stalled. It could be seen that water comes to

many of the PWS villages once in a week.

Low Coverage of safe Drinking Water & Latrine

About 12 percent of habitations have quality affected water sources (Source secondary data from PHED).

A significant number of households (82.6%) using hand pump spend 1 to 2 hrs daily for collecting water for

various household purposes such as drinking, cooking, cleaning, washing & bathing purposes (survey

data). During discussions it was reported that about 48 liters of water is required for one person. Further,


ix


latrine coverage is very inadequate- only 17.5 percent of contacted households had individual household

latrine in sampled GPs.

Usage of latrine

During Participatory Rural Appraisal, it was reported that despite having toilets in some of the houses, the

males are still practicing open defecation. They think that productivity of land will reduce if they do not use

their own agricultural land for open defecation.

Recommendations

Organization Structure for Service Delivery:

In case of absence of four-tier system i.e. State-District-Block-VWSC, the process of decentralisation is

delayed and bottom up approach has not been established. Thus, it is suggested that institutional structure

is established and strengthened at block and village level. Further, PRIs should be involved in the process

so that community driven approach could be setup.

Establishing Bottom up Approach

The project should address the issue of decentralized governance for proper implementation and

sustainable operation and maintenance of the schemes. Thus, establishment of bottom up approach by

forming and strengthening VWSCs and other respective committees at different levels is suggested. The

whole idea will be initiating planning from village level through involvement of community especially

VWSCs which will be scrutinized by the DWSM and will be sent for approval to SWSM.

Improving Water Quality testing

Setting up Sub division Labs as planned (target 228 as per PHED website) to enhance of lab testing of

water at grass root level. The services of private labs or labs under other governmental bodies like State

Universities, Institutes under Council of Scientific Industrial Research can also be an option to be explores.


In order to establish bottom up approach it is important that Village Water Supply and Sanitation Committee

(VWSC) are constituted and strengthened adequately to take up different activities related to water &

sanitation. Thus, it is recommended that;

VWSC should be formed within Gram Panchayat as Standing Committee.

VWSC should have 6 to 12 member, the committee should have adequate participation of ST, SC,

Women, elected members of panchayat, ANM, ASHA etc.

All the water & sanitation related work should be carried out by the VWSCs which will be a

subcommittee of Gram Panchayat including;

Identification of water sources

operation of Piped Water Schemes

supply of water to households

bulk water transfer

inter-village distribution for multi village schemes


x


maintenance of water grid

collection of water user charges for Operation & maintenance as per 12th etc.

assistance for quality testing of each of the water sources

IEC and awareness generation

At least five members of VWSCs are trained by CCDU for a minimum of three days on issues like

Water quality issues including health related diseases

Water quality monitoring

Sanitation and hygiene

Social mobilization & IEC

Staff Strength and internal Communication

Staff should be placed at each level as per guideline and state requirement of NBA or NRDWP. BWSWSM

can also conduct a separate study on staff’s requirement for smooth implementation, operation and

maintenance of the services.

While interactions with the junior level staff, a capability gap was observed. It is to be noted that junior level

staff is regularly interacting with the community for project delivery and currently the emerging project

needs are dynamic in nature. Thus, augmentation of soft skills for better service delivery could be adopted.

It is important that the capacity the staff is built-up so that they are capable of coming up with innovations

and community friendly methods like pro-poor policy for providing services. Also, there is acute need for

building soft skills among the staff so that they could see users as customers and give them the desired

respect.

Ensuring inclusion

Water is a basic necessity for all more importantly for the socially economically weaker section of the

society who generally is not able to afford the services and is facing serious problems due to unhygienic

and unhealthy condition. They expect good quality water for domestic purposes and also for livestock as

well. In order to have inclusion following measures could be taken;

Pro poor policy is to be taken up which could




Waive the normal one time connection deposit for such rural poor and to collect only the cost of

providing meters (to be fixed by the PRIs themselves), to inculcate the sense of ownership;

Fix a life line supply of 7,200 litres per household (considering 40 lpcd for 6 member household) per






Promote structured participation of NGOs and CBOs in organizing the vulnerable sections for

managing free water supply through public kiosks.


xi


For enhanced participation of Community

Social mobilization and capacity building of community should be done through formation of VWSCs and

following community mobilization techniques like resource mapping (water & sanitation), problem tree

analysis, sustainability analysis involving technically competent agency.

It is important that each village VWSC is participated by all the respective sections of the society of the

village and their members are trained for supporting W&S service delivery.

Proper and regular IEC is also suggested.

Livelihood groups formed under Bihar Rural Livelihood Project (Jeevika) could be involved for active

participation in W&S related issues

In the model of Jeevika, similar groups of socially backward and marginalized could be developed (this

also has a mandate in State Rural Livelihood Mission) at village level for active participation in W&S

related issues

They can also be involved for O&M of W&S programmes

For enhanced participation of women

Water is a basic necessity for all, more importantly women as they are primary users, providers, and

managers of water in their households and are the guardians of household hygiene and health related

issues. However, women are the most deprived section of the society so far rural Bihar is concerned as

they do have much say in their families leave alone their participation in the public meetings. In order to

activate their participation following measures could be taken:

One-third of the VWSCs members should be women and they should be provided training mandatorily





related issues

In the model of Mahila Samakhya, similar groups could be developed at village level for active



For strengthening PRIs


sustainable operation and maintenance of the schemes. Thus, PRIs should be empowered and

mandatorily be members of VWSCs and other respective committees at different levels. The whole idea will

be initiating planning from village level through involvement of community especially PRIs and VWSCs

which will be scrutinized by the DWSM and will be sent for approval to SWSM. Further they should be

involved in following activities;

In motivating community for taking part in water and sanitation management for sustainability of service

delivery so that financial viability of the schemes is not affected.




They also need to be involved in dialogue with the community for ensuring piped water connections,

timely payment of tariff and support in management.


xii


Thus, it is important that each village VWSCs and PRIs have their adequate participation and they are

also trained for supporting service delivery. Proper and regular IEC is also suggested.

Alternative arrangement for Power Supply

Alternative arrangements for power supply are required for restoring regular water supply which could be

solar based systems. However, solar based systems will not work in foggy and cloudy weather conditions

thus, a complete separate study is recommended to overcome this situation. Alternatively, policy dialogues

could be initiated with the Power Supply Department for ensuring regular power supply.

For enhancing coverage of water & sanitation infrastructure

Awareness on government programmes was found very low thus, implementation of awareness generation

program is recommended. Communication regarding water & sanitation is not only technical but also a

sensitive issue. Thus, we recommend hiring of professional agencies for developing and implementing

communication strategy for sanitation, hygiene, and conjunctive use of water. The key recommendations

are;

Intensification of awareness generation programmes on water and sanitation

Implementation of scientifically designed customized & effective communication strategy for behaviour

change

Awareness generation involving community

Involvement of community for planning, implementing and maintaining water & sanitation programmes

to inculcate sense of ownership

For Ensuring usage of Toilets

During visit to GPs it was also observed that toilet provided under government programmes are not tailor

made thus, tall members of the family are not using the units and prefer to go outside. Thus, tailor made

scientifically designed toilets needs to be incorporated in Government Programmes as well.

Further, due to absence of local level sanitation supply chain i.e. Rural Sanitary marts and production

centers, APL households living in interior areas were facing problems in constructing toilets in their houses.

Thus, it is recommended that;

Customized designed toilet models are made available for the community

Rural Sanitation Marts are established and production centers at panchayat level

Facilitation and training is provided to village youth for construction, operation and maintenance of rural

toilets (training of masons)

Social Safeguard

The applicability of social safeguard issues related to Indigenous People (OP 4.10) and Involuntary

Resettlement (OP 4.12) to the demonstration zones and priority investments were examined under this

section. Field visits to the demonstration areas and pipeline routes were conducted to examine if the

proposed project (demonstration zones and priority investments) would attract the provisions of OP 4.10

and OP 4.12. During these field visits, a number of persons were met including government officials,

community, PRIs, Development Partners and NGOs.


xiii


Land Acquisition

Water supply schemes in Bihar are planned under four broad categories -- Single Habitation Scheme

(SHS), Multi Habitation Scheme (MHS), Small Multi Village Scheme (covering 2-3 GPs) and Large Multi

Village Scheme (covering 4 or more GPs). Land is required for building infrastructure for different purposes

like;

Water sources (Bore well, Open wells and pump houses)

Water treatment plants (Generally, groundwater is treated with chlorination for bacteriological

contamination. land may or may not be required for this purpose if the chlorinator is fitted into the pump

house)

Water transmission (for laying of transmission lines and this could also be laid along the public roads)

Storage (Land is required for storage, though, generally, the storage is built in public places in the

villages)

Distribution (required, but pipes are laid along roads and public places are used for stand posts. Hence

no lands will be acquired)

During study, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted in each panchayat and during these FGDs

the study team tried to find out on availability of land. It was reported by the villagers as well as the

panchayat head that ample land is available under possession of panchayat and this could be transferred

to project for construction of public infrastructure. During discussion with PHED officials it was found that

most of the schemes will be ground water based schemes and land requirement for single habitation

scheme would vary between 0.01 to 0.03 hectares and for multi village schemes 1 to 1.5 hectare land may

be required.

Indigenous People

The present study indicates that the households belonging to the Scheduled Tribes category range from as

low as 0.72% in Saran district to 7.19% in Pashchim Champaran district. During field visits, interactions

with ST community was undertaken and it was observed that though they are living in exclusive clusters/

habitations but have ownership of land and other assets in few cases. This study records no distinct

livelihood pattern – nor in cultural identities – between the Scheduled Tribes and non-Scheduled Tribes. On

the basis of these factors, this study concludes that the OP 4.10 on Indigenous Peoples need not be

triggered.


1


1.1 State Profile

Bihar is 12th largest state of India in terms of geographical size (94,163 sq. km) and 3rd largest in terms of

its population (10.38 crores as per Census 2011). The state is well known for its abundant natural

resources, perennial rivers, fertile lands and a long glorious history. In spite of abundant natural resources

the state remained one of the poorest in the country since independence. The condition further deteriorated

after the state’s division and separation of Jharkhand as Bihar retained almost 75 percent of the population

but was left with 54 percent of the land bereft of almost all mineral resources, thus inducing a lot of strain

on the available resources.

Bihar is located between 24°20'10" and 27°31'15"N latitude and 82°19'50" and 88°17'40"E longitude in the

eastern part of the country and situated at about 52.73 m height above mean sea level. It is a completely

land-locked state, although sea port at Kolkata is not far away. Bihar lies mid-way between the humid West

Bengal in the east and the sub humid Uttar Pradesh in the west which provides it with a transitional position

with respect to climate, economy and culture. It is bounded by Nepal in the north and by newly formed

Jharkhand State in the south. The river Ganga traverses the state from west to east rendering the region

extreme fertile for agriculture. The Bihar plain is divided into two unequal halves by the River Ganga which

flows through the middle from West to East.

Bihar lies in the tropical to sub tropical region. Rainfall is the most significant factor in determining the

nature of vegetation in Bihar. The state has predominant monsoon season with an average annual rainfall

of 1200 mm. The sub Himalayan foothills of Someshwar and Dun ranges in Champaran constitute the belt

of moist deciduous forests.

The state is densely populated with 880 persons per square kilometres as against the national average of

324. Of 104 million, 92 million live in rural areas (88.7 percent census 2011). The state has about 15.7

percent of Scheduled Caste (SC) population and 0.9 percent Schedule Tribe (ST) population (as per 2001

census).The sex ratio of the state at 916 females per 1000 males is lower than the national average of 940

females per 1000 males (census 2011)

In the specific context of rural poverty indicators, the latest estimates of 1999- 2000 indicate that Bihar has

44.3 percent as compared to national average of 27.1 percent. This level of rural poverty of Bihar is second

highest in the country. Bihar, being a part of the Gangetic plains, its soil fertility and water resources are

high for substantial part of the state while some portions of the state also fall in the relatively infertile

Deccan plateau. In absolute terms, about 54.35 million people live below the poverty line in Bihar (Source:

UNDP Economic and Human Development Indicators).

The state has 38 districts, 532 blocks, 8741 Panchayats and 107642 habitations. Bihar is blessed with

abundant surface and ground water resources for substantial part of the state that is sufficient to cater to

the demand for various end uses. The state receives average rainfall of 1250-1350 mm but 87 percent of

this precipitation is limited to three monsoon months. The water table of the state varies from as low as 5m

in the North Eastern region to 20m in the Southern districts (Source: DDWS website).

Providing safe drinking water to its people is the responsibility of the State Government. Till last decade

coverage of habitations was the priority of the government. However, currently safe drinking water and

1. Introduction


2


other related issues like sanitation and hygiene have become the priority. Of the total habitations (107642)

in Bihar, 20248 habitations are in the status of Partial Population Coverage and remaining 87394

habitations are in 100 percent population coverage. In about 14580 habitations the water quality is affected,

of which 10877 are affected with Iron, followed by 2698 with fluoride, 1004 with arsenic and 1 with nitrate

(Source: DDWS website).

Ground water table is quite high and hence water availability is not an issue in major parts of the State. In

terms of quantity, the average population served per source is 110 which is quite good when compared to

the Government of India norm of 250 persons per source. The rural population of the state is served by

public as well as private hand pumps (India Mark III and shallow well hand pumps).About 79.73 percent of

habitations are covered by Hand pumps / Bore well schemes followed by 3.88 percentage piped water

scheme and 15.62 percentage by other schemes (Source: DDWS website).

1.2 Project Background (RWSS)

The National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) guidelines that came into effect from April 2009,

seeks to correct the water supply situation by emphasizing the involvement of Panchayati Raj Institutions

and communities in planning, implementing and managing drinking water supply schemes. The states are

incentivized to hand over management of their schemes to PRIs. The funds for sustainability of schemes

are provided on 100 percent central sharing basis. A separate component of support activities to fund IEC,

HRD, MIS, Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance and other support activities has been introduced.

Recently, as part of the NRDWP, the DDWS has prepared its long term strategic plan (2011-2022) for

ensuring drinking water security to all rural households. The strategic plan aims to cover 90 percent of

households with piped water and at least 80 percent of households with tap connections during this period.

The strategy emphasizes achieving water security through decentralized governance with oversight

and regulation, participatory planning and implementation of sources and schemes. The following

paradigm shift has been made in the National Rural Drinking Water Programme guidelines for ensuring

sustainable and environmentally friendly drinking water supply projects:

Move forward from achieving habitation level coverage towards household level drinking water

coverage.

Move away from over dependence on single source to multiple sources through conjunctive use of

surface water, groundwater and rainwater harvesting.

Focus on ensuring sustainability in drinking water schemes and prevent slipping back.

Encourage water conservation including revival of traditional water bodies

Achieve household level drinking water security through formulation of proper water demand and

budgeting at the village level.

Convergence of all water conservation programmes at the village level.

Move consciously away from high cost treatment technologies for tackling arsenic & fluoride

contamination to development of alternative sources with respect to arsenic and alternate

sources/dilution of aquifers through rainwater harvesting in respect of tackling fluoride contamination.

Treatment of catchment area of drinking water sources through simple measures such as fencing and

effective implementation of TSC programme, prevention of sewage/animal waste leaching into surface/

underground water sources, promoting ecological sanitation to reduce use of inorganic fertilizers so as

to prevent nitrate pollution in drinking water sources.

Promotion of simple to use technologies such as terracotta based filtration systems, solar distillation

and dilution through rainwater harvesting for tackling iron, salinity and suspended particulate matters.


3


Linkage of water quality monitoring and surveillance with the Jalmani scheme for implementation of

standalone drinking water purification systems in rural schools.

The five grass root level workers trained for testing water quality to be the ambassadors for achieving

household level drinking water security in rural India.

Move away from offline unconsolidated figures to online data entry and linkage with Census village

codes.

The data on physical progress of availability of piped water supply (PWS) schemes to different states

indicates that the states of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh are lagging behind the rest of India

(details of all states is attached as Appendix A and these 4 states in following table). Further, the states are

also facing issues of water quality that require supply of water from distant safe sources.

Table 1.1: Habitations Covered with Piped Water Scheme in Bihar,Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Assam

S.No. State

Habitations Covered With PWS

Total Habitations

Coverage of PWS

(in percent)

Ongoing Completed New Total

1 Bihar 1470 2363 0 3670 107642 3.4

2 Jharkhand 2919 7005 0 9135 119191 7.7

3 Uttar Pradesh 805 5036 10 5768 260110 2.2

4 Assam 11576 13508 75 23633 86976 27.2

5 All India 171646 410363 8944 510607 1666075 30.6

Source: DDWS.nic.in

In view of the above mentioned backdrop, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MoDWS),

Government of India has requested the World Bank to support the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation

Project for the lagging states including Bihar.

The World Bank supported program will be a separate component of NRDWP focusing on lagging states

with different allocation criteria and funding components, but implemented within the framework of

NRDWP, supporting the following key elements of the reform program:

Placing GPs and communities in the central role, supported by higher levels of PRIs, the State

government and the local non‐governmental and private sector, for facilitating, planning, implementing,

monitoring and providing a range of O&M back‐up services.

Using sustainable, community or local government managed models for intra‐GP RWSS schemes and

using State‐PRI partnership models for multi‐GP schemes.

Putting water resources security as a core theme of the new model, including increased community

management of scarce resources.

Moving the RWSS sector to recover at least 50 percent O&M and replacement costs and initiating

contribution to capital costs keeping affordability and inclusiveness in mind. .

Moving towards metered household connections, with 24/7 water supply where feasible, as a basic

level of service.

Promoting professionalized service provision management models, and/or back‐up support functions,

for the different market segments (simple/small single village/GP schemes; large single village/GP

schemes; multi village/GP schemes).

Integrating water supply and sanitation, with effective sanitation promotion programs for achieving

“clean villages”.

Establishing M&E systems with independent reviews and social audits.


4


For achieving the above mentioned objective Capacity building programs will be required for communities

to monitor and prudently use their water resources.

1.2.1 RWSS Project Coverage in Bihar

The Bihar Rural Water Supply & Sanitation Project ( The Project) has selected 10 districts, viz, West

Champaran, Saran, Muzaffarpur, Begusarai, Purnia, Nalanda, Patna, Nawada, Munger and Banka for

implementation of multi and single village piped water scheme in different phases. As per the State

Government, the districts have been selected based on the following:

Agro climatic zones

Availability of piped water schemes (PWS)

Transfer of PWS schemes to panchayats

Habitations having water quality problems (different type of water quality issues including Arsenic, Iron, Fluoride etc.)

The data on these issues of these selected districts has been provided in Table 1.2 and that for all the

districts in Bihar is included as Appendix A.

Table 1.2: Data on Habitations Covered with Piped Water Scheme in Selected Districts under The Project of Bihar

Agro Climatic Zone

District Habitations Covered With PWS Total Habitatio

ns

Coverage of PWS

(in percent)

Schemes handed over to

GP (in

percent)

Habitations having

quality issues (in percent) Ongoing Completed New Total

I Begusarai 26 167 0 193 3091 6.2 0 48.0

I Muzaffarpur 0 75 0 75 2868 2.6 0 0.0

I Pashchim Champaran 22 73 0 94 4428 2.1 14.29 0.0

I Saran 14 20 0 31 4765 0.7 0 0.4

II Purnia 31 57 0 77 4768 1.6 6.67 25.9

IIIA Banka 487 147 0 615 3069 20.0 0.44 65.4

IIIA Munger 9 49 0 55 1601 3.4 14.29 37.0

IIIB Patna 37 121 0 146 2554 5.7 0 2.1

IIIB Nalanda 24 103 0 126 2519 5.0 6.67 5.9

IIIB Nawada 13 59 0 71 2242 3.2 0 0.0

Total 1470 2363 0 3670 107642 3.4 8.71 13.5

Source: DDWS.nic.in

1.3 The Assignment

As part of the Project preparation, the Bihar State Water Sanitation Mission (nodal agency) intends to carry

out a Social Assessment (SA) study to understand and address social development issues and accomplish

the outcomes of inclusion, cohesion, equity, security and accountability. This would also enable assessing

the social impacts of the proposed project interventions; develop measures to mitigate negative impacts


5


and enhance positive impacts; examine the legal, policy and institutional aspects to enable accomplish the

principles underlying the approach.

Thus, the key objective of this study is to understand and address social development issues in terms of

inclusion, cohesion, equity, security and accountability. The specific objectives of the study are to

Identify and conduct a detailed stakeholder analysis

Assess the social impacts of the proposed project interventions

Develop measures to mitigate negative impacts and enhance positive impacts

Review and suggest, as appropriate, the legal, policy and institutional aspects to enable accomplish

the principles underpinning the approach

1.4 Need for Social Assessment

We understand that under the current socio-economic conditions in the selected districts of the Project, the

beneficiary profile may not be homogeneous, rather, quite diverse comprising a number of sub-groups

identifiable on the basis of their differential endowment, gender, ethnicity, different economic groups, and

other regional features. Therefore, the challenge lies in addressing the requirements of the all the sub-

groups with special attention towards the rural and tribal poor and other normally socially excluded sub-

groups. Besides, there are a large number of stakeholders, some internal and others external to the

project, who would have varying degrees of influence and impact on project activities and outcomes. This

makes it necessary for the project to provide a framework for participation of all key stakeholder groups and

solicit their contributions towards project design and delivery mechanisms. To this effect, as a part of the

project preparation, it is intended to conduct this consulting assignment on Social Assessment (SA). The

broad elements of the study shall include:

beneficiary assessment,

stakeholder analysis,

social impacts,

Institutional assessments and risks analysis.

The assessment was carried out consistent with GOI and the World Bank safeguard requirements, policies,

regulations and guidelines. The scope of the study also covers aspects related to capacity building and

communication.

1.5 Scope of Work

The scopes of services as per the ToR are divided in three parts:

Part A Social Assessment

Part B Capacity Building

Part C Information, Education and Communication (IEC)

1.5.1 Part A: Social Assessment

Beneficiary Assessment – comprising socioeconomic profiles at state, district and village level; the

project beneficiaries' assessment on the current status of RWSS management and services; and the

linkages thereof with governance mechanisms and PRI functioning.

Stakeholder Analyses – Identifying stakeholders at different levels. Mapping Key Expectations,

Impacts, Issues and Concerns as related to each stakeholder and the subgroups thereof.


6


Impact Assessments – identifying positive and negative social impacts likely to occur for different sub‐

groups or beneficiaries as a result of project interventions; assessing and prioritizing impacts based on

their significance; and suggesting measures to minimize negative impacts and derive the maximum

from positive impacts;

Institutional Analysis – documenting the existing institutional and implementation arrangements,

covering all key actors – government departments, sector institutions (such as PHED), and Panchayat

Raj Institutions (PRIs).

Preparing Work flow chart along with fund flow arrangements so as to lead to a SWOT exercise. The

analyses ultimately would lead to recommendations on institutional and implementation arrangements

for each of the investment streams.

Ascertaining and analyzing key social risks, internal and external, to the project and measures to

address them;

Building the elements of a Community Driven Development (CDD) approach ‐ ‐ Listing issues and the

suggestive measures towards building CDD approach.

Reviewing rules for securing lands and drawing up plans for rehabilitation/construction activities by:

documenting the practices commonly adopted in the state;

conducting a SWOT exercise of the current practice; and

identify issues that need to be taken into account,

Development of Indigenous Peoples Plan (IPDP) by addressing the issues related to tribals, mainly to

enhance their participation in the project and to ensure that the project benefits are focused on them.

Defining principles and developing a framework in accordance with the Bank’s OP 4.10, to address

tribal issues up‐front and provide culturally compatible benefits and promote transparent consultations

for informed decision making.

1.5.1.1 Generation of a baseline data

Undertaking primary survey for:

Identifying and assessing the settlement pattern in Bihar.

Mapping the existing water supply and sanitation systems and the pattern of usage and the related

knowledge, attitude and practices. This would lead to a status note on of the current water supply /

usage, environmental sanitation and health & hygiene status which will include the following:‐

Socio-economic data: sub‐groups identifications, habitation, housing and household amenities (space

for bathing, defecation, cattle etc) family structure / size, occupation, income, literacy, gender spread,

land ownership and use, water supply, hygiene and sanitation, common ailment and medical

expenses, relationship between tribal habitations and main villages and gram Panchayats, political

representation, special attention to women, reactions to project rules and regulations.

Optimal Water use: Number and characteristics; sources and availability (quantity, quality); reasons

for preferences, if any; reliability (continuum of supply); distance to source; time taken in fetching

water, general aspects of water use; water requirement by purposes such as cooking, drinking,

bathing, vessels and washing clothes, cattle etc, time allocation (share of household members),

focused on women, management aspects such as source protection, method of distribution,

ownership of water sources, accessibility tariffs and general maintenance.

Water use (hygienic): Personal habits in relationship to using water. Water quality at home (drawing,

caring, storage and drinking). Water collection, transport and storage practices (condition of

containers and ladles, presence of covers and degree of exposure, place of storage including child

/animal access, contact with hands and other objects); and practices, if any, to improve water quality.


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Personal hygienic practices: Hand cleansing practices. Disposal of household refuse. Disposals of

animal and farm residues. Defecation and ablution. Status of latrine, if any including the type /

technology, construction details etc.

Water sanitation‐health relationship: Knowledge about the causes of some water‐borne / washed /

based / related diseases, extent of disease prevalence, spatial / temporal spread and remedies

practiced. Concepts regarding good health and illness. Building a cause and effect relationship matrix.

Special focus will be on ascertaining the knowledge about hygiene status of the existing household

latrine i.e., the extent to which this could be polluting water in the nearby wells and drawing inputs

from the water quality study.

1.5.2 Part B Capacity Building

To design the capacity building strategy and implementation action plan for the RWSS sector institutions

and the Panchayati Raj Institutions, in accordance with the requirements of the Sector Development

Program. The tasks to be accomplished are:

Phase 1

General Assessment of the existing capacity of sector institutions to face the new functions, in terms of

personnel, knowledge instruments, information systems, procedures etc. This would include financial

management systems, planning systems and operational and administrative functions. the type and

levels of risks / gaps, and recommendations for enhancements, along with the pre‐requisites for/

limitations in carrying out such enhancement, and recommendations on institutional capacity building to

improve financial management practices for Sector Institutions and the PRIs.

Conducting a Training Needs Assessment to assess the training / learning requirements of the

personnel of the RWSS sector institutions and Panchayati Raj Institutions at various levels (based on

an identification and analysis of the gaps), for enabling them to perform their functions effectively,

efficiently and economically.

Formulating Capacity building strategy and plan. Preparing an inventory of existing institutions in the

State (public or private) including WSSO/CCDU and assess their resource capacity to undertake

capacity building for the project and prepare a short list of institutions for sector institutions and

Panchayati Raj Institutions personnel along with their strengthening requirements (if need be) thereof.

Based on the above assessments, proposing a strategy and a general plan for building capacity

in sector institutions and PRIs.

Capacity building programs. The initial (2‐3 years) effort for capacity building will be designed in

detail as indicated below. Individual plans must be considered for each institution and each

level of the PRIs. This will include building of knowledge, skills, attitude, management practices

for financial and institutional development & management. Broad categories of interventions

could be in the spheres of technical, managerial and financial aspects. Specific programs will

be developed, based upon need analysis of different stakeholders. Program content should be

apt and adequate and appropriate methods for imparting capacity building are essential. It

should be ensured that the initiatives are participatory in nature and field oriented, and less of

classroom type i.e. lecture mode. All these need to be supplemented by qualified personnel

who have an aptitude for the job. Also, specific institutions need to be identified for carrying out

the capacity building. No single institute will be able to cater to all categories of interventions.

Different institutions will have to be identified, with the possibility of an institutional linkage

mechanism, including some institutions outside the state / country. Conducting workshop for

dissemination of the same.


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Action plan formulated should included budgeted costs for the proposed activities and a time line.

Phase 2

Preparation of detailed action plans - for each type of institution (sector institutions) and each one of the

three levels of the PRI. These plans will be detailed to identify activities, costs and calendar. Activities to be

financed under the RWSS should be specifically identified, including a recommendation of corresponding

procurement plan. Activities should be grouped separately into training, information system and

communication requirements, development of methodologies, procedures, technical and economic studies,

and equipment. This phase will include conducting workshops for dissemination of results.

1.5.3 Part C: Information, Education and Communication (IEC)

The objectives of this task is to develop a communications strategy and action plan to support GoI, the

project States and sector institutions in the project states (nodal line departments, PRIs and other related

institutions) and local communities in planning, implementation and subsequent operations of the project.

Hence the communication plan should include strategic elements (getting the buy-in of key decision

makers) and operational elements. The communication strategy should take into account the concerns of

the key decision makers and stakeholders and the socio-economic characteristics of the target population.

This is to ensure that the project is successfully implemented and delivers sustainable and satisfactory

water and sanitation1 services to communities at large and poor and vulnerable groups [such as women,

Scheduled castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs)] in particular. Key tasks would include:

Conduct structured Stakeholder analysis - Identify of key stakeholders (Central, State, District, Block,

Gram Panchayat, Village levels). Gain an understanding of views, perceptions and assumptions held

by different stakeholders towards the proposed reform approach (expectations of water and sanitation

services, perceptions on tariff, roles and beliefs) through consultations with different stakeholder

groups. Carry out a detailed stakeholder analysis (decision makers, implementers, beneficiaries,

winners/losers, influencers/opinion makers - proponents and opponents), identifying

interests/expectations of each group, their characteristics, implications/potential for the project (positive

and adverse) and prioritise them in order of criticality for the proposed project. The stakeholder

analysis should analyse the critical stakeholders, their importance and power relationships of each

stakeholder in the whole process.

Carry out communication needs assessment – For different stakeholder groups prepare a

communications need assessment identifying clearly their assumptions/perceptions and develop key

messages that need to be delivered and the method/mode/media and frequency/timing.

Develop overall communications strategy and action plan - in the form of message and means of

delivery for different stakeholders (street corner meetings, ward level consultations,

workshops/seminars, individual/collective meetings, presentations to institutions, mass media – print

and electronic, other publicity materials – display hoardings, pamphlets, fliers etc) and sequence of

events. Develop strategies to promote participation of all the primary stakeholders in the project,

promote sustainability and development of local institutions. The draft communication strategy must be

discussed in a workshop with key stakeholders and feedback received suitably incorporated in the final

version. This strategy and action plan should group the interventions, identifying clearly, items that

would be included in the capacity building plan activities that would be undertaken by facilitating

agencies at the village level activities that would be undertaken using mass media development and

production of IEC materials.


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Institutional analysis and inventory - Identify existing local level institutions (formal/Informal) including

nongovernment organisations, their strengths and their present potential role in carrying out

communication activities.

The consultant will also prepare the draft terms of reference for the actual implementation of the

communication strategy, to be carried out subsequently with the help of local NGOs or other

institutions. Action plan formulated should included budgeted costs for the proposed activities, tools

and outline of communication materials.

While preparing the communication strategy, the consultant will consider the following elements:

Initial communication will be targeted to key decision makers in the state governments to build a

supportive environment for sector reforms

Communication needs will vary depending on the stage of project (Initial, pre-planning, planning,

implementation, and post implementation phases).

Much of the operational communication to village communities will be in the form of capacity building

(likely to be delivered by support agencies, NGOs, CBOs) and IEC campaigns.

There are excellent communication practices developed in Bank assisted projects (Karnataka, Kerala,

Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab) and other states. Similarly good IEC materials

have been prepared by these projects, UNICEF and GOI. The consultant is expected to collect these best

practices, readily available IEC materials and synthesize them for easy adaptation by the project states.

The consultant should consider Gender and vulnerability analysis to develop a detailed understanding of

the issues involved. The main issue is to ensure access for these groups to services and decision making

process. The study should develop strategies to enhance the participation of these groups in the

implementation of the water and sanitation sector services.

1.5.4 Disclosure workshops

The consultant will hold consultations with stakeholders as a means to elicit explicitly the views of the

community, beneficiary groups and women on their participation at all stages of the project. The findings of

the draft report will be discussed with the primary stakeholders in the field to get their feedback. The

findings of the final draft report will be discussed in a stakeholder workshop. All consultations should be

properly documented and submitted to the client with the final report.

1.6 Approach and Methodology

The study was conducted using participatory approaches adopting participatory tools like Participatory

Rural Appraisal, interactions with women group and SWOT analysis, etc. The study intended to identify

stakeholders at all levels i.e. from the policy level to field operations to beneficiary level. In this line, first the

stakeholders were identified and then they were contacted during each stages of the assignment so that

comprehensive coverage is ensured.

The process of consultation will be continued till the end of study and our previous experience of the

working for similar sectors and settings in the state has enabled us to plan and choose proper data

collection methods for each stakeholders.


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1.6.1 Study Approach

The scope of work in the TOR document outlines the various requirements of the proposed consultancy.

The detailed methodology adopted for each component addressed is outlined in the subsequent sections.

In nutshell our approach was linked with the output is detailed in the table below:

Steps involved in Assignment

Actions to be taken up Outputs to be generated

Preparatory Phase (Project Inception and Secondary Research)

Detailed discussions with project staff at state level & collection of project documents like project wise and district wise activities already undertaken and proposed to be taken up

Secondary review of project documents

Identifying monitoring indicators

Finalising levels to be covered for monitoring

Designing and finalizing sampling framework

Sampling plan

Planning and finalizing resources at regional and district level

The submitted Inception report included;:

Tools for data collection from households for baseline

Sampling Framework

Report Formats

Data collection formats for impact assessment

To undertake a social assessment Training of survey team for data collection

Planning the actual sample and sites to be visited and commencing field visits

Data collection, collation and analysis

Report preparation on Beneficiary assessment, identification of key stakeholders at various levels, identification of positive and negative social impact, documentation of the existing institutional and implementation arrangements, such as work flow chart, fund flow arrangement, etc.

Identification of key social risks to the project (internal and external), development of indigenous people’s plan for inclusive growth of vulnerable population

Mapping the existing water supply and sanitation systems and the pattern of usage and the related knowledge, attitude and practices

Generation of Social Assessment report including Baseline data

To design Capacity Building strategy and implementation action plan for RWSS sector institutions

Undertaking assessment of the existing capacity of sector institutions in terms of personnel, knowledge requirements, information systems and procedures

Conducting a training needs assessment to assess the training/learning requirements of the personnel at various levels

Preparation of inventory of existing institutions and assessment of their

Capacity Building action plan report

Detailed Action plans for each type of Institutions

Submission of Action plan including budgeted cost for the activities proposed and timeline

Dissemination workshop


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Steps involved in Assignment

Actions to be taken up Outputs to be generated

resource capacity to undertake capacity building

To develop a communication strategy and action plan to support sector institutions and local communities

Conduct structured stakeholder analysis by identifying the key stakeholders and gaining understanding of views, perceptions and assumptions at different levels

Conducting communication need assessment for different stakeholders and identifying their assumptions/perceptions and the method/mode/media and frequency/timing of the messages that need to be delivered

Carrying out institutional analysis and inventory by identifying existing local level institutions and their strengths/potential in carrying out communication activities

Collection of secondary data – IEC material prepared by UNICEF and GOI in Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab

Communication strategy and action plan

Dissemination workshop

As per requirement of the ToR the study team has conducted the study by addressing the process and

outcome underlying the objectives of the study. For this, both primary and secondary data was collected

using different type of schedules at different levels of sample units.

1.7 Methodology

The methodology adopted for achieving the objectives of the project has been elaborated below. The three

key tasks identified are as listed below. Each of these has been further sub-divided in various

tasks/activities and elaborated further bellow.

Social Assessment

Capacity building

Communication Strategy

1.7.1 Part A: Social Assessment

This part of the research had following activities:

1.7.1.1 Activity 1: Inception Phase

Our core team was mobilised in one week after signing of the contract (20.12.0212). During inception

phase, the study team had a day consultative meeting with the key representatives of the client and other

relevant stakeholders associated on the assignment and had gained an understanding of the Project and

the objectives behind the current assessment. In this meeting, the Mott MacDonald team had presented

their understanding and requirements for the proposed assignment and also collect the relevant documents

required for sampling of districts and panchayats.


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After inception meeting the study team has explored the following secondary data in:

Census data 2011 district level population (rural)

Data of NRDWP (up to habitation level)

This has formed a part of the Inception report, which will also detail out sampling.

This document was inception report which included;

Sampling Framework

Detailed methodology to be adopted

Data collection formats for Social assessment including tools for data collection from households

Report Formats (social assessment, IEC strategy, community mobilization)

Field work plan

1.7.1.2 Primary Research for baseline assessment

In line with what was proposed by us in our technical proposal, the study has used both qualitative and

quantitative techniques for primary data collection, but as it is basically a baseline study we have collected

more in-depth information from respective water and other natural resource management organisations

working in the study area. The respondents for this study were basically the District level authorities, policy

level officials, and households/water users association. During the course of study, the study team has

contacted stakeholders using following research techniques;

Qualitative Research Technique:

As part of qualitative research technique we had in-depth interviews;

In-depth interviews (such interviews are free flowing discussions which are weaved around the domain

i.e. water is carried out as per predefined guideline) with the concerned persons of implementing

Department for each of the activities (In depth guide is attached as Appendix B):

Multi lateral Donor World Bank

State Level Project Management Unit

Bihar Rajya Jal Parishad

Officials of State Water & Sanitation Mission

Officials of Panchayati Raj at state level

Officials of Public Health Department

Officials of Department of PHED

Panchayati Raj/Village Councillors

Non Government Organisations/Civil Society

The output from the above enabled us to list various institutions who are working in drinking water and

sanitation in the state .This part of study will help us to:

Familiarise with the nature, scope and phasing of the proposed investments with concerned officials in

the Government of Bihar.


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Identify all key stakeholders (individuals, groups and institutions) and their roles and relationships with

the project;

Identify their interests, concerns and expectations;

Understand the level of inclusion, transparency and accountability during subsequent implementation

and operation phase.

Participatory rural appraisal (PRA - PRA is an approach frequently used in development sector, the

approach aims to incorporate the knowledge and opinions of rural people in the planning and management

of development projects and programmes): Separate PRAs were conducted with community groups- men

and women of the Panchayat. The discussion was carried out using a guide and the issues captured were

around the attributes and perceptions of water sources and how are they used, water scarcity, use of

water, Solid waste management practices that are currently being followed, Sanitation habits, sanitation

and waste management requirements/needs, type of pollution and contaminants in water, attributes of

“good” and “bad” water, willingness to participate and pay for sanitation services, seasonality of water and

ways to meet water needs including distance from clean water source etc.

PRA approaches and methods also included diagramming, mapping, ranking, interviewing, seasonal

calendars, matrices, card sorts, group work, timelines, trend and change analysis, oral testimonies,

participant observation, on-the-spot analysis and more. Further to this we had also conducted free-listing,

pile sorting and ranking of the water and health related practices, diseases due to water, gaining

community’s consensus for active participation in the project and willingness to pay for safe drinking water

etc.

STEP 1: the selected Panchayats were visited a day before actual PRA to get a basic understanding of the

social and physical characteristics of the village, collect demographic data like detailed household specific

information, talk about the study objectives and establish a comfortable forum for discussion. Then the date

for PRAs was fixed with the Panchayat in consultation with the PRIs and villagers.

STEP 2: on the day of PRA, the community was assembled in a convenient place and then after initial

welcome, our study team had introduced the topic to the community and then initiated the discussion after

establishing a comfort level among the group. Once the comfort level was established we slowly moved

towards Focus Group Discussion (FGDs).

STEP 3: FGDs were conducted with the community as per definite guideline (PLA Framework & FGD

guide is attached as Appendix B). During FGD our team tried to collect information on following;

Communities access of water and sanitation infrastructure

Seasonality of water and ways to meet water needs including distance from clean water source

Communities perceptions of water sources and how are they used,

Water Use Practice that are currently being followed,

Water scarcity,

Discrimination in use of water like caste

Sanitation habits and practices

Sanitation and waste management requirements/needs,

Awareness on water contaminants, type and its effects to health

Livelihoods

Personal Hygiene Practices

Health Related Issues


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Water Distribution practices and issues

Perception on Social Issues related to WSS

Willingness and Capacity to Pay

Self Perceptions and Suggestions on Social Impacts and Service levels, etc.

Willingness to participate and pay for sanitation services

Willingness to operate and manage Drinking water infrastructure for its sustainability

Good and bad practices related to water and sanitation

STEP 4: having mapped the problems (problem tree analysis) during the FGD, the team helped the

community to rate the problems as per their severity (by using card method). Then community was

clustered into small groups to brainstorm on possible solutions for the identified problems and the role they

can play in solving the issues.

During this process, the study team tried to find out community’s inclination towards media and belief and

role model who could be further used for communication strategy.

STEP 5: During the course of problem tree analysis in the above mentioned sessions, the team also

probed the willingness of the residents to operate, maintain, and pay for safe drinking water services.

STEP 6: Finally the team completed a transect-walk and validated the information collected.

The FGDs were hand written and then content analysed by the study team. Similarly in-depth interviews

were also content analysed by our senior researchers who have understanding of the sector (water &

sanitation) as well as qualitative research.

Analysis of PRA had enabled us to compile the following information;

Socio-economic factors that influence sustainable delivery of drinking water facilities to the households

including willingness for taking up piped water connections and to pay for the facility

Key stakeholders (individuals, groups and institutions) and their interest, roles and relationships

Community’s interests, concerns and expectations

Diversity of the state, gender and caste analysis for project implementation

Probable measures for inclusion, transparency and accountability as desired by community during

operational and maintenance phase

Issues of conflicts that may arise during planning, implementation and regular operations and probable

remedies as suggested by community

Key social risks and religious beliefs

Probable communication method that would deliver clear message to the community

Quantitative Research:

Semi Structured Interview Guide for households: We had contacted 40 households in each panchayat

with semi-structured interview guide (Quantitative questionnaires attached as Appendix C) mostly pre-

coded but few free flowing questions in order to collect information on following issues:

Socio economic profile of the household

Baseline data collection in terms of present level of services, assess users demand and expectation for

service levels and present cost of services.

Community’s access to water and sanitation infrastructure


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Community’s interests, concerns and behaviour on disposal of waste.

Community’s awareness on processes and institutional arrangements of the project and their interest

for inclusion.

Seasonality of water and ways to meet water needs including distance from clean water source

Communities perceptions of water sources and how are they used,

Water scarcity,

Use of water,

Solid waste management practices that are currently being followed,

Sanitation habits,

Sanitation and waste management requirements/needs,

Type of pollution and contaminants in water,

Good and bad practices related to water and sanitation

Willingness to participate and pay for sanitation services

Willingness to operate and manage Drinking water infrastructure for its sustainability

Likely conflicts that may arise during planning, implementation and regular operations - which may be

sensitive issues for the poor and vulnerable;

Key social risks including caste, gender differences and marginalized section of community.

Community practices for restoring and utilizing water.

Probable communication method that would deliver clear message to the community

The quantitative data was collected from structured interviews and then transferred using CSPRO and then

analysed in SPSS-19.

1.7.2 Study Coverage

The study had covered 4 districts of Bihar representing the agro-climatic zones and socio-economic

situation of the state. In each district, 2-3 Gram Panchayats were covered, thus a total of 10 GPs were

covered under the primary survey.

Number of coverage Districts Number of GPs

4 10

1.7.3 Sampling

1.7.3.1 Selection of Districts

As mentioned above, four districts out of 10 project districts (West Champaran, Saran, Muzaffarpur,

Begusarai, Purnia, Nalanda, Patna, Nawada, Munger, Banka) were sampled depending upon the different

agro climatic regions, water quality issues, and SC/ST habitations. The data for sampling was from DDWS

website (Format E6 for water quality, 2011-12) and B5 for ST/SC habitations.

One district in each agro climatic region was selected; the selected districts are Begusarai, Purnia, Patna

and Banka.


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1.7.3.2 Selection of Blocks

Format E5 of DDWS was referred for collecting block wise data on number of sources in blocks with

chemical contaminants above permissible limit and thus, one block having highest level of contamination

was selected.

1.7.3.3 Selection of Habitations

In each selected blocks, panchayats were selected depending upon the water quality contamination and

availability of piped water scheme. Thus, one panchayat was selected looking at availability of multi or

single village piped water scheme in it and the panchayats were selected looking at different (Arsenic,

Fluoride, Iron) water quality issues adhering to format B 13 of DDWS data.

The selected sample is provided below: Agro climatic Zones

Name of Project Districts

Selected District

Selected Block

Selected GP with Piped water Scheme

Selected GP with water quality issues

Zone 1 West Champaran, Saran, Muzaffarpur, Begusarai

Begusarai Balia Balialakhminiya-I Baribalia North, Balialakhminiya-II (Iron)

Zone II Purnia, Purnia, Banmankhi Banmankhi Dharhara (Iron)

Zone III A Nalanda, Patna, Nawada

Patna Maner Bank Kuitachaunator West, Balua (Arsenic)

Zone III B Munger, Banka Banka Banka Domohun, Dara (Fluoride)

Being social assessment study, we have covered optimum sample for qualitative research. We have

conducted PRAs in each of the 10 Gram Panchayats. Thus, in total 10 PRAs were conducted. The study

being rapid assessment, hence huge sample coverage was not required. In such a case, by covering 40

households in each panchayat with semi-structured interviews we could attain 5 % error margin, no design

effect (100% coverage) and at 95% confidence level, keeping the unit of analysis as Gram Panchayat.

Households were selected within the GPs generating random number in four geographical locations

considering representative sample for each social group.

1.7.3.4 Target Respondents

Multi lateral Donor- The World Bank

State Level Project Management Unit

Bihar Rajya Jal Parishad

Officials of State Water & Sanitation Mission

Officials of Panchayati Raj at state level

Officials of Public Health Department

Officials of Department of PHED

Panchayati Raj/Village Councillors

Non Government Organisations/Civil Society

Community

Households


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1.7.3.5 Data Collection

The team of core team members and field researchers visited the study sites and collected relevant

information from the stakeholders. The researchers were trained by the core team members for conducting

research including PRAs.

A day orientation programme was organised for the team members and researchers. The Team leader was

responsible for orientation and had imparted training on the study, its objectives, interviewing techniques,

filling questionnaire, coding, skip pattern, field procedures etc.

1.7.3.6 Data Analysis

All the filled in questionnaires from the field visit were used for qualitative as well as quantitative analysis

(after scrutinising of the entered data by our office editors). Our in-house expert teams handled the data

processing and data analysis. Based on the analysis from both qualitative and quantitative inputs, the

report has been prepared. The quantitative data has been analysed using CSPRO software which converts

the data into SPSS minimising the time and errors. Qualitative data was content analysed by the expert

team.

1.7.4 Part B: Capacity building

Community participation is a major issue in delivery of Government scheme and it could only be addressed

by involving Panchayati Raj Institutions. Moreover, Gram Panchayat is the most critical unit as it is the point

of delivery and data source (which could be used for monitoring outcomes and influencing policy and can

only impact sustainability). At the same time, their capacity is an issue which needs to be looked into while

implementing the programmes. Considering this, we have conducted the training needs assessment (TNA)

during the visit to various districts and Gram Panchayat.

Capacity building plan would be drafted based on results of TNA. But, in line with our previous experience

we have tried to identify capacity issues for various set of stakeholders including implementers, RWSS

sector institutions and Panchayati Raj Institutions etc.

Based on this, we will come up with a plan for capacity building of different set of stakeholders

(implementers- both government & non government, Community, PRIs). In the subsequent stage of the

study we will design the strategy with an aim to achieve following outcomes;

A reasonable degree of consensus among key decision makers and opinion leaders on the need for

proposed investments/reforms

A good understanding and commitment among sector institutions and PRIs

Equity in service provision (particularly for vulnerable groups)

Institutional forums set up for interaction and consultation with stakeholders and for conflict resolution

Agreement on service levels, tariff, mutual responsibilities and obligations through a transparently

negotiated process with stakeholders (connected - directly or indirectly - with the area)

Transparent monitoring and dissemination of outcomes

Thus, the capacity building strategy and plan will be designed for an inventory of existing institutions in the

State (public or private) including WSSO/CCDU and assess their resource capacity to undertake capacity


18


building for the project and prepare a short list of institutions for sector institutions and Panchayati Raj

Institutions personnel along with their strengthening requirements (if need be) thereof.

There is a need to adopt village-level planning, monitoring and progress reporting mechanisms. Panchayat,

village committees, community based groups, volunteers etc can play an active and significant role in this

context. Further, a system of common social audit for various flagship schemes can also be considered. As

part of Capacity building Strategy we propose to focus on following aspects;

Strategy for community mobilisation and promote participation of primary stakeholders including rural

poor

Strategy for capacity building for different stakeholders for Operation & maintenance

Strategy for conflict management

Strategy for raising community demand for better sanitary services and willingness to pay for the same

1.7.4.1 Capacity building Institutional Strategy

As part of institutional strategy we will focus on following;

Strategy for internal strengthening of community based institutions

Strategy for restructuring implementation authority (if required)

Strategy for inclusion of civil society for delivery, operation, maintenance and monitoring of water and

sanitation related services

Strategy for inclusion of community including different marginalised group for planning, designing and

monitoring of water and sanitation related services to attain ownership

1.7.5 Part C: Communication Strategy

1.7.5.1 Strategy for outreach

As part of outreach strategy we propose to form the message and means of delivery for direct

stakeholders. The communication methods could include:

Interpersonal communication

Panchayat level consultations for agreement on service level and tariffs mutual responsibilities and

obligations

Workshops/seminars

Presentations to institutions

Display hoardings, pamphlets, fliers etc.

An action plan for implementation of communication strategy will be developed during the later stage of the

assignment, which will deal with the answers like what need to be implemented, who will implement how it

will be implemented including process in logical framework model, when it will be implemented and tenure

of implementation, monitoring indicators as per baseline carried out.

1.7.5.2 IEC Action Plan Preparation

The first stage of IEC is stakeholder’s analysis; this will include stakeholders and their interest in the

project. During this phase only we will try to figure out the influence level of each stakeholder so that a

comprehensive IEC strategy could be drafted and then implemented.


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Apart from this, IEC action plan will have following stages:

Objective Broad Parameters Study Output

IEC Action Plan preparation

Stakeholder Analysis Identification of different stakeholders (individuals, groups

and institutions) involved in water & sanitation and

agriculture their roles and relationships with government

Institutional aspect

Institution involved for water and related issues.

Nature, scope and phasing of the proposed investments

with concerned officials in the Government of UP.

Community Aspects

Communities interests, concerns and expectations on

water and related to agriculture

IEC Needs Assessment

Socio economic profile

Data on cast/gender/educational qualification/economic

condition

Community Behaviour Analysis

Religious believes on water and sanitation aspects

Socio-economic factors that influence water use and

personal hygiene

Community practices that seriously contribute to water and

sanitation related issues

Gender analysis Role of female, marginalised and vulnerable in water and

sanitation and their say in community

Involvement of females, marginalised and vulnerable

groups of society in decision making regarding water and

sanitation

Risk Analysis of issues of conflicts that may arise during

planning, implementation and regular operations and

probable remedies as suggest by community

As part of IEC strategy we propose to focus on following aspects;

Strategy for community mobilisation and promote participation of primary stakeholders/ water users

associations/farmers including poor

Strategy for capacity building for different stakeholders for Operation & maintenance

Strategy for conflict management

Strategy for raising community demand for better services and willingness to pay for the same

Strategy for community behaviour change for taking up less water intensive crops and methods.

An action plan for implementation of communication strategy will be developed during the stage of the

assignment, which will deal with the answers like what need to be implemented, who will implement how it

will be implemented including process in logical framework model, when it will be implemented and tenure

of implementation, monitoring indicators as per baseline carried out. Having devised the IEC strategy we

will further devise measures so that broad group of stakeholders in the villages (water users associations)

are kept informed for project interventions, progress and results achieved. The modes of communication

would be as follows;

Nukad Nataks

Print media campaign

Broadcast media campaign


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Campaigns through members of water users groups and civil society organisation.

1.7.5.3 Action Plan for Conjunctive Use of Water

The action plan for conjunctive use of water would be prepared. However, we feel that conjunctive use of

water could be achieved by implementing following;

Awareness generation by intensive IEC activities

Identification of behavior and practices which relate to over exploitation

augmentation of preservation focused attention to over-exploited areas

Increasing water use efficiency at least by introduction of recent less water intensive crops and

cultivation techniques

Developing models of incentivizing for recycling of water including wastewater

Eliminating water intensive crops and convincing community for its alternative

Mandatory water audits by the community

1.8 Report Structure

This is the intermediate report submission for the assignment. The intermediate status report has following

structure

Chapter-1: Introduction

Chapter-2: Beneficiary assessment

Chapter-3: Institutional analysis

Chapter-4 Stakeholders Analysis

Chapter-5 Diversity in the State

Chapter-6: Impact Assessment

Chapter-7: Issues that needs attention

Chapter-8: Mitigation plan

Chapter-9: Social Safeguard issues

Chapter-10: Monitoring & Evaluation of social development indicators


21


2.1 Analysis of Community Level Findings

2.1.1 Socio-economic profile of the respondents

Socio-economic profile of the respondents is based on the sample survey for the social assessment

undertaken by MM, the collected data has been analysed and is presented below. The study has been

undertaken to understand and address social development issues and accomplish the outcomes of

inclusion, cohesion, equity, security, and accountability. This would also enable assessing the social

impacts of the proposed project interventions; develop measures to mitigate negative impacts and enhance

positive impacts; examine the legal, policy and institutional aspects to enable accomplish the principles

underlying the approach.

During the process of social assessment our main focus was to interact with the community to understand

major problems faced by them related to the water supply – those who have access to water through the

hand pumps and those who have household piped water supply connections and also issues related to

solid and liquid waste management.

The graph below presents the gender wise respondents covered under the primary survey. During the

survey, it was found that men are the active members in the community; hence 87 percent of the

respondents were male candidates whereas the remaining 13 percent were female. The data completely

defines that the females of the community are conservative/ reserved and are hesitant to give details

regarding their household. They assure that while interacting male members of the family are present.

Figure 2.1: Gender of the respondents (%)

Source: MM Study

A total of 400 households were contacted during the study in different GPs of the sampled districts of

Banka, Begusarai, Patna and Purina. Majority of the respondents were of middle age group of 41 – 50

(about 44% of the respondents), followed by the age group of 51- 60 years (about 26% of the respondents)

(table below). The data indicates the involvement of the senior people on discussions pertaining to village

welfare issues.

86.5

13.5

Male

Female

2. Beneficiary Assessment


22


Figure 2.2: Age group of the respondents (%)

Source: MM Study

During the study it was found that majority of the respondents are Hindus (80 percent) whereas the

remaining belonged to the Muslim community. It was also found that only 0.3 percent of the respondents

belonged to Sikh community. The table below represents the social groups of the respondents contacted

during the study. It was found that majority of the respondents belong to the Other Backward Castes (OBC)

(almost 52 percent), followed by General Category (corresponding to almost 17 percent of the

respondents), about 16 percent were from the Extremely Backward Classes and about 13 percent to

Schedule Caste group.

Figure 2.3: Religion of the head of the household (%) Figure 2.4: Social group of the respondents (%)

Source: MM Study Source: MM Study

2.5

25.3

44.5

25.8

2

21-30

31 – 40

41 – 50

51 – 60

Over 60

79.8

20

0.3

Hindu

Muslim

Sikh

17.3

13.5

1 52.3

16 General

SC

ST

OBC

Others (EBC)


23


The survey data indicates that majority of the contacted individuals, i.e. 75 percent, were from the BPL

category and had the BPL card while 24 percent had APL card. All the respondents contacted either had

BPL or APL card.

Figure 2.5: Government cards of the contacted households (%)

Source: MM Study

Literacy level of the sampled Gram Panchayats was found to be low. The following table presents the

educational status of the head of the household contacted. It was found that majority of the respondents

were illiterate (almost 38 percent), around 40 percent of the respondents were educated till primary level

while few respondents were educated up to secondary and higher secondary level (corresponding to 14

percent and 4 percent respectively).

Figure 2.6: Education of household head (%)

Source: MM Study

The table below describes the type of family that the contacted individual belongs to. It can be seen from

the table that majority of the contacted individuals live in joint family (almost 70 percent of the households).

Only about 30 percent of the contacted individuals live in nuclear family.

0.3

75.3

24.5

Antyodaya

BPL

APL

38.3

41.8

14.8 4.3

1

Illiterate

Primary

Secondary

Higher Secondary

Graduate


24


Figure 2.7: Type of Family (%)

Source: MM Study

Data on the ownership of the house indicates that all the respondents have their own houses. It may also

be noted that in rural Bihar people mostly have their own houses.

Figure 2.8: Ownership of the house (%) Figure 2.9: Type of house (%)


The graph above presents the type of house owned by the households being contacted. It was found

during the study that majority of the respondents belong to BPL family and hence the type of house owned

by them mainly vary from Kutcha house to semi Kutcha house (majority have semi Kutcha house). Only

about 17 percent of the contacted individuals have Pucca house.

The graph below indicates the main source of income of the respondents. The major source of income is

varied- 78 percent are agricultural labourers and 13 percent are involved in farming or cultivation of their

own land/ leased land. Very few respondents are artisans or involved in petty trade. About 14 percent of

the respondents were found to be associated with farming or cultivation of their own land or leased in land.

None of the respondents contacted were involved in mining/quarrying/manufacturing

69.8

30.3

Particulars

Joint Family

100

Owned

32.1

51.1

16.8

Kutcha

Semi-Pucca

Pucca


25


Figure 2.10: Main source of income for household (%)

Source: MM Study

Majority of the respondents said that they do not have separate kitchen facility in their house (about 85

percent) graph below). It is important to note that there no concept of separate kitchen in rural areas, the

cooking is mostly done on a chullah which is either outside the house or in the living room.

Figure 2.11: Households having seperate kitchen (%) Figure 2.12: Number of Rooms of the households

(excluding bathroom and kitchen) %


On the issue of number of rooms that the respondents have in their house (excluding kitchen and

bathroom) (table below), about 52 percent responded that they have 2 rooms, followed by 30 percent

responding having 1 room. Some of the households had larger sized houses- 16 percent having 3 roomed

house and a few respondents indicated having 4 rooms in their house.

The graph below details the type of roofing of each contacted household. In line with the fact that most

houses are semi pucca type, the roofing of majority of houses was either of Straw/thatch or sod (60 percent

of the roofing material), about 25 percent of the roofing was of tiles and only 10 percent is of concrete.

13.8

78.3

0.8 0.3

3 3

0.8 0.3 Farming/Cultivation

Agricultural labour

Livestock/allied activities

Construction

Petty Trader

Artisan

Business

Service

15

85

Yes

No

30.3

52.8

16.3

0.8

1

2

3

4


26


Table 2.1: Type of roofing material used in Respondent’s House

Particulars Number Percentage

Concrete 42 10.5

Metal 17 4.3

Straw/thatch/sod 240 60.0

Tile 101 25.3

Total households (N) 400 100

Source: MM study

Figure 2.13: Type of roofing used in respondent's house (%)

Source: MM Study

The graph below indicates the ownership of land by individuals in sampled gram panchayats. It was found

that majority of the respondents (about 85 percent) have no land of their own whereas the remaining 15

percent of the respondents have their own land. Average land holding of the respondents who have

cultivable land varies between 1 bigha to 3 bigha.

Figure 2.14: Ownership of cultivable land (%) Figure 2.15: Availability of livestock in the house (%)


10.5 4.3

60

25.3

Concrete

Metal

Straw/thatch/sod

Tile

15.3

84.8

Yes

No

23.5

76.5

Yes

No


27


The availability of livestock in the households surveyed is presented in the graph above, it was found that

about 77 percent of the households did not have livestock whereas remaining 23 percent said that have

livestock. The livestock kept by the respondents is cows and buffalos, few also keep goats.

The graph below indicates the assets of the surveyed households. Majority of the households have the

basic commodities - about 87 percent have telephone or mobile, 77 percent have radio and about 53

percent have bicycles. 65 percent of the households have electric fan. The data analysis indicates that

none of the households have computer, refrigerator, LMV/ LCV, power tiller or combined thresher or

harvester.

Figure 2.16: Various assests owned by the households (%)

Source: MM Study

The table below indicates the cable TV connectivity of each household. Since mostly sampled households did not have

TV, thus the percentage of households with cable TV connection is quite less. Also, there is major issue of availability

of the electricity and frequent power cuts in rural Bihar, thereby discouraging households to have these electrical

appliances.

Figure 2.17: Household having cable TV connection

(%)

Households paying for cable TV connection (%)


65

1.5

70.3 86

8.3 0.3

52.8

7.5 0.3 Electric fan

Pressure cooker

Radio

Telephone/ mobile

Colour TV

Electric kitchen appliances

Bicycle

Mechanized 2 wheeler/ 3 wheeler

Tractor

6.3

93.8

Yes

No

56

44

50 - 100

100 - 150


28


Of 25 respondents who have cable TV connection, around 56 percent pay in the range of INR 50–100

whereas 44 percent pay in the range of INR 100-150 on monthly basis ( graph above).

The graph below presents the main source of lighting available in the households. It was found that almost

all households contacted have electricity connection (it may be noted that most of the connections are

illegal, the households do not have electric meter installed) in their houses (almost 98 percent). Almost 2

percent of the contacted households do not have electricity and use kerosene (kerosene lamps) as their

major lighting source.

Figure 2.18: Main source of lighting for the

household (%)

Figure 2.19: Type of fuel used at household for

cooking (%)


The graph above indicates the type of fuel used for cooking by the households. Wood is predominantly

used as the major fuel (45 percent) and dung cakes are used by almost 36 percent of the households.

Coal, coke or lignite is used as secondary fuel sources for cooking and this is used by almost 18 percent of

the contacted households. None of the respondents use crop residue, charcoal, electricity, NTF products

and biogas as cooking fuel in their household. During the study it was found that 65 percent of the

households use chullah for cooking where as 34 percent cook on open fire.

Figure 2.20: What is used to cook food (%)

Source: MM Study

97.5

2.5

Electricity

Kerosene

45

36

17.5

0.3 1.3 Wood

Dung cakes

Coal/coke/lignite

Kerosene

LPG/gas

0.3

65.5

34.3

0

Stove

Chullah

Open fire

Others


29


Around 42.5 percent of the households have average monthly expenditure in the range of INR 1001 – 2500

followed by 36 percent having monthly expenditure of INR 5000 while 21 percent have expenditure

between INR 5001 – 10,000.

Figure 2.21: Monthly expenditure details of the

household (%)

Figure 2.22: Household monthly income (%)


On the average monthly income, 66% of the respondents informed that their average monthly income

varies between INR 2500 – 5000, about 18 percent had income of range INR 5000 – 10,000 and about 14

percent had income varying between INR 10001 – 30000. During interactions with the respondents, many

of them reported that they are not able to meet their daily needs (basic necessity such as food & medical

expenses) as their income is low, therefore whatever they earn they spend almost all of it. None of the

respondents whom we met had average monthly family income lower than Rs. 1000 or higher than Rs.

50001.

2.1.2 Water Supply Data

The graph below deals with the major source of water for the household. It was found that majority of the

households (63 percent) use public hand pump as the major source of drinking water. This figure

corresponds to the respondents from villages where there is no piped water supply. Even where there is

piped water supply facility due to irregularity of water supply people usually use public hand pump. The

piped water supply in the sample gram panchayats is electricity based, therefore as the electric supply is

erratic so is the water supply. In such a case though the households have piped water connection but are

dependant primarily on the hand pumps. It was also found that about 35 percent of the respondents use

own hand pump or bore well with power pump. Piped stand post connection is approximately used by 5

percent of the respondents. Only about 7 percent of the respondents have piped household connection.

None of the household have own/ locality pipeline supply, use water tankers/ vendors, share with

neighbours or use dug wells.

0.5

42.5

36

21 Less than INR 1000

INR 1001 – 2500

INR 2501 – 5000

INR 5001 – 10000

1

65.5

17.8

14.3

1.5 INR 1001 – 2500

INR 2501 – 5000

INR 5001 – 10000

INR 10001 – 30000

INR 30001 – 50000


30


Figure 2.23: Source of water for the household (%)

Source: MM Study

2.1.2.1 Respondents having piped household connection

It must be noted that out of 400 sampled households, only 27 have households have water connection,

wherein the piped water scheme is operational, hence this section pertains to these households only. The

piped water supply scheme is operational in Begusarai, Purnia and Patna district in the gram panchayats of

Balialakhminiya-I, Banmankhi and Bank.

According to 63 percent of the respondents, the availability of water depends upon the electricity supply,

the respondents stated that though they receive water every day but there is no definite time. In order to fill

the overhead tank with water, power supply for at least 10 hours is required which is not received.

Therefore the overhead tank is not filled and hence the water supply is directly pumped from the tube well

to the households. The respondents also opined that the pressure is low therefore it takes a lot of time to fill

a bucket. 37 percent respondents opined that the water is made available to the community once in 7 days

for 2 hours (the water supply is made on Friday every week or otherwise the supply is done depending

upon the availability of water, electricity and staff).

Figure 2.24: Frequency of water at household

connections (%)

Figure 2.25: Time of water supply (%)

6.8

4.8

63.3

34.8

Piped Household Connection

Piped Stand post

Public Hand pump

Own Hand pump/ Bore well

37

63

Particulars

Once in 7 days for2 hours/ Day 100

No specific time


31



There is no specific time when the water supply is done.

The graph below states the mode of collecting water. About 19 percent of the respondents have dug pit for

collecting water whereas almost 81 percent of the respondents do not have any pit dug to collect water,

though they have other vessels for collecting and storing water.

Figure 2.26: Availability of pit dug to collect water (%) Figure 2.27: Usage of pump to get water from

connection (%)


The graph above indicates that none of the respondents having piped water connection use pump to obtain

water.

63 percent of the respondents said that they do not pay any tariff for water usage as no one comes to

collect any water charges. However about 37 percent of the respondents said that they pay a fixed monthly

tariff of INR10 for water supply. None of the respondents stated that they pay as per the meter. Also, during

interactions, it was observed that the community is not aware that they need to pay for water connection &

supply.

18.5

81.5

Yes

No 100

No


32


Figure 2.28: Type of tariff paid (%) Figure 2.29: Periodicity of billing (%)


The table above depicts the periodicity of billing. It was found that almost all the respondents did not have any knowledge or awareness that they have to give a charge for using water and all those who were aware opined that there is no particular time when water bills are collected.

2.1.2.2 Respondents using piped public stand post

It must be noted that out of 400 households surveyed only 19 respondents collect water from the stand post connection. The following graphs are valid for those 19 respondents. During interactions with the community it was observed that as timing of supply is irregular most of the households depend on the water from hand pump. Whenever there is water supply, a lot of people gather to collect it and have to wait for their turn as the pressure is low.

Figure 2.30: Frequency of water in the stand post (%) Figure 2.31: Timing of water supplied from stand post

(%)


37

63

Fixed

Do not pay as noone comes tocollect

100

Irregular

100

Once in 7 days for2 hours

100

No specific time


33


All the respondents said that the frequency of water supply in the stand post is not at any specific time. The

average distance of stand post from house was found to be less than 100 metres for all respondents using

piped stand post.

Table 2.2: Distance of stand post from house

Particulars Frequency Percentage

Less than 100 mts 19 100

Total (respondents using piped stand post) 19 100

Source: MM Study

It takes about 30 minutes for collecting water, but the respondents opined that they are not able to collect

adequate water for all household chores. It was also observed that on average 3 – 4 individuals of each

household are involved in the process of collecting water. The table below depicts that about 69 percent of

the respondents stated that 3 people of their household are involved in collecting water and the remaining

32 percent stated that 4 people of their household are involved in collecting water.

Figure 2.32: Average time taken for collection of water

every time( stand post) %

Figure 2.33: Number of people involved in collecting

water (%)


The table below details the members collecting water in the family. It was mainly found that the female

member is involved in this activity of which 79 percent are wives and about 63 percent are daughters/

daughters-in-law. Males are usually not associated with the activity of collecting water. None of the

respondents stated that head of the household or granddaughter or servant is involved in fetching water.

Table 2.3: Who collecting water from stand post (Multple response)


Wife 15 78.9

Son 8 42.1

Daughter 12 63.1

Daughter in law 12 63.1

Grand son 4 21

100

Up to 1/2hr 68.5

31.5

3

4


34



Multiple response

Source: MM Study

2.1.2.3 Respondents using public hand pump

It must be noted that out of 400 household surveyed 253 respondents collect water from public hand pump.

The following tables are valid for these 253 respondents. As per the data, hand pump is the major source

of drinking water in the sampled gram panchayats. It was found that 96 percent of the respondents have

indicated that the distance of the hand pump from house hold is less than 100 mtrs whereas 4 percent of

the respondents said that the distance of the hand pump from the household ranges between 100 – 300

mtrs.

Table 2.4: Distance of public hand pump from house (Hand pump)


Less than 100 meters 243 96

100-300 meters 10 4

Total (respondents using public hand pump) 253 100

Source: MM Study

From the table it can be seen that the average time taken for the collection of water is 1- 2 hrs ( 83

percent). Remaining 17 percent said that it takes about 30 to 60 mins on an average to collect water .It was

also found that mainly two people are involved in the process of collection of water (table below). It was

seen that about 69 percent of the respondents said that minimum of 2 persons are involved in the collection

of water.

Figure 2.34: Average time taken for collection of water

every time (from Hand pump) %

Figure 2.35: Number of people involved in collecting

water (%)


17.4

82.6

1/2 - 1 hr

1 – 2 hr 68.3

9.4

15.8 6.3

2

3

4

5


35


2.1.2.4 Respondents having own hand pump/bore well

It must be noted that out of 400 household surveyed, 139 respondents collect water from public hand

pump. The following tables are valid for these 139 respondents

During the study the set up cost for own hand pump was also enquired. It was observed that the costing

depends upon the depth to which pipe was laid. It was found that about 62 percent of the respondents said

the set up cost ranged between Rs 1000 to 4000, followed by 26 percent within the range of Rs.4000 -

7000. About 6 percent said that the costing ranged between Rs 13000 – 15000 (table below).

Table 2.5: Initial setup cost for hand pump/bore well


1000 - 4000 87 62.59

4000 - 7000 37 26.62

7000 - 10000 2 1.44

10000 - 13000 1 0.72

13000 - 15000 8 5.76

15000 - 20000 3 2.16

20000 & above 1 0.72

Total (respondents having own hand pumps/bore well 139 100

Source: MM Study

The table below depicts the year of setting up the hand pump of the household. It was found that the year

varied from respondent to respondent, however 22.2 percent of the respondent said that they had installed

their own hand pump in the year of 2007. During the study it was reported by the respondents that

approximately INR 144/ annum is being spent on the maintenance of the hand pump/bore well facilities.

Table 2.6: In which year did you set up the facility?

Years Frequency Percentage

1997 3 2.2

1998 1 0.8

1999 7 5

2000 14 10

2001 1 0.7

2002 4 2.9

2003 9 6.5

2004 13 9.4

2005 15 10.7

2006 8 5.7

2007 31 22.4

2008 14 10

2009 7 5

2010 4 2.9


36


Years Frequency Percentage

2011 8 5.8

Total (respondents having own hand pumps/bore well

139 100

Source: MM Study

On enquiring on the potability of water of the hand pump, 100 percent of the respondents said that water is

potable from the hand pump

Table 2.7: Is the water from hand pump/ bore well potable


Yes 139 100

No 0 0

Total (respondents having own hand pumps/bore well

139 100

Source: MM Study

The table below indicates the depth of the hand pump (in feet). Majority of the hand pumps have a depth of

35 feet and this corresponds to about 47 percent. However about 29 percent said that their hand pump has

a depth of about 30 feet.

Figure 2.36: Depth of Hand pump/bore well (Feet) % Figure 2.37: Problem in getting water from hand

pump/bore well (%)


On asking about the problem faced by the respondents in getting water from the hand pumps, out of 139 respondents

128 respondents said that they do not mostly face problems in getting water from hand pump(92 percent). On the other

hand about 89 percent of the respondents said that they face problem in getting water from hand pump.

The graph below depicts the reason for not having HH connection of water. It was found that about 80

percent of the individuals said that there is no piped water scheme in their area, however about 10 percent

of the respondents said that they can’t afford water connection. In this regard the PHED should expand

5

2.8

28.7

46.8

0.7

0.7

0.7

14.4

20

25

30

35

50

100

150

Not responded

8

92

Yes

No


37


their coverage for piped water supply and at the same time make it affordable for poorest strata of the

community. Community members of Bank gram panchayats were of the view that the main trunk pipe line

only goes through the main road whereas areas interior in the village are not covered. Therefore to take

connection, the households have to invest their own money for laying the pipe from the main trunk line to

their household.

Figure 2.38: Reaspon for not having municipal HH

water connection (%)

Figure 2.39: Would you prefer to have HH water

connection (%)


Those who do not have access to piped water supply, when asked regarding their willingness to obtain

piped water connection almost 100 percent of the respondents said that they are willing to obtain water

connection at their households provided that they have good supply of water. The total respondents for this

category are 373.

Hand pump is the major source of drinking water for the family and this corresponded to 100 percent of the

respondents. Rural Bihar is primarily dependent on the hand pumps for water.

Table 2.8: Most important source of drinking water for family


Water from hand pump 400 100

Total households (N) 400 100

Source: MM Study

Water contamination is a major problem in certain districts of Bihar. About 99 percent of the respondents

said that they follow no treatment process before drinking the water however less than 1 percent use

candle filters before drinking water. None of the respondents said that they boil, filter by cloth, use aqua

guard or mix herbs etc for treating water.

Table 2.9: How to you treat water to make it potable?


No further treatment 397 99.2

Use candle filters 3 0.8

10.2

80.2

8

1 0.6

Can’t afford

No distribution inthe area

No Pressure/technically notpossibleLengthy processgetting one

Others

100

Yes


38



Total 400 100

Source: MM Study

The graph below presents the consumption of water for various purposes for daily use. It was found that

100 percent of the respondents use less than one bucket of water for drinking and cooking purposes. About

23 percent of the respondents said that they require 5 – 10 buckets (1 bucket = 15 litres) of water for

bathing purposes. However it was also seen that about 12.3 percent of the respondents said that they

require 15 – 20 buckets of water for washing clothes.

Figure 2.40: Consumption of water per day for various household purpose on daily basis (%)

Source: MM Study

During Focus group discussions respondents were asked about their requirement of water on per person basis and it

could be seen from table below that about 48 litres of water is required per person.

Table 2.10: Requirement of water per day for various household purpose on per person basis (in litres)

Particulars Begusarai Patna Purnea Banks All

Drinking 5.0 6.0 5.5 6.0 5.6

Cooking 4.0 3.0 5.0 4.0 4.0

Cleaning Utensils 10.0 8.0 10.0 6.0 8.5

Bathing (Personal Hygiene)

10.0 10.0 10.0 10.0 10.0

Cleaning floor space 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0

Washing Clothes 10.0 10.0 10.0 10.0 10.0

Cleaning Toilets 7.0 8.0 8.0 7.0 7.5

Total water required for one person

48.0 47.0 50.5 45.0 47.6

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Drin

king (Litres)

Co

okin

g

Clean

ing U

tensils

Bath

ing (P

erson

al Hygie

ne)

Clean

ing flo

or sp

ace

Wash

ing C

loth

es

Waterin

g garde

ns

Clean

ing V

ehicles

Clean

ing To

ilets

Cattle

/An

imals

15-20 Bucket

10-15 Bucket

5-10 bucket

1-5 Bucket

Less than 1 bucket


39


Source: MM Study

2.1.2.5 Satisfaction level of households having household piped water connection

The table below details the level of satisfaction of respondents on drinking water taking into account certain

parameters such as hours of supply, pressure of supply, timings of supply, quality of water, access etc.

Almost all the respondents said that they are not satisfied for all categories of questions as asked and

tabulated below. In all 63 percent of the respondents were satisfied with the access to water supply. The

total number of respondents who have household piped water connection was 27. With regard to overall

satisfaction level, one can clearly see that the community having piped water connection is not satisfied

due to various reasons such as number of hours of supply, pressure and timing of water supply etc. PHED

officials (Assistant & Junior engineers and block coordinators) should on a regular basis (monthly/

quarterly) interact with the community members having issues with water supply and resolve them at the

earliest. Assistant/ Junior engineers and block coordinators should regularly monitor the piped water supply

schemes as well as take care for it proper operation and maintenance. Regarding the time and pressure of

water supply, if any technical issues are there they should resolve it and instruct the operator on the same.

As can be from (figure 2.43) around 40 percent of the community members lodge their complaints

regarding the water supply with the operator (incharge of operating the scheme). Therefore PHED should

ensure that the operator gets adequate and timely support from its officials in resolving issues.

Figure 2.41: Level of satisfaction (%)

Source: MM Study

During the study the respondents were asked as to whether they have lodged any complaint regarding

water supply or not. It was found that 63 percent of the respondents had lodged compliant - about 30

percent of the respondents had lodged to assistant engineer, about 41 to the operator and about 29

percent to the Panchayat member ( graph below).

020406080

100N

o. o

f ho

urs o

fw

ater sup

ply

Pressu

re o

f water

sup

ply

Timin

g of w

ater

sup

ply fro

mm

un

icipality

Qu

ality of w

atersu

pp

ly

Access to

water

sup

ply

Grievan

cered

ressal & Fau

ltrep

air

Bill p

aymen

tFacility

Overall level o

fsatisfactio

n

Can’t say

Not satisfied

Satisfied

Highly satisfied


40


Figure 2.42: Complaint regarding water supply (%) Figure 2.43: Lodged complaint with (%)


The graph below depicts the reasons for which the complaints were lodged. It was found that the major

complaints include inadequate water supply, timing of water supply and insufficient pressure. It was

observed that all people having water connection have lodged complaint on the issues discussed earlier.

None of the respondents had complained about inappropriate billing, bursting of water pipeline etc.

Table 2.11: Nature of complaint


Inadequate water supply 17 100

Timing of water supply 17 100

No sufficient pressure 17 100

Multiple Response

Source: MM Study

The table below depicts the average time taken to solve or resolve the problem. 53 percent of the

respondent opined that the problem was never resolved while 47 percent respondents said that it took

about a week to solve the problem.

63

37

Yes

No

29.4

41.1

29.5 Assistant engineer

Operator

Panchayatmember


41


Figure 2.44: Average time taken for resolution of the

problem (%)

Figure 2.45: Would you expect a better water supply

(%)


The graph above presents the willingness of having better water supply. This was asked to all the

respondents having a household connection. The number of individuals having household connection was

17. All the respondents said that they are expecting a better household connection.

The number of households having water connection among the total was 17. It was seen that almost all the

respondents said that they expect water supply for 10 hours a day. When asked regarding the charge they

are ready to pay for having a better water connection, 100 percent of the respondents said that they are

ready to pay a maximum of INR 20 per month.

Table 2.12: How many hours you expect to get water per day and willingness to pay


10 Hours per day 17 100

Total (Respondents having HH connection) 17 100

Willingness to pay per month

20 Rupees 17 100

Total (Respondents having HH connection) 17 100

Source: MM Study

2.1.3 Hand washing habits

The graph below depicts the materials which were used for washing hand in the study villages. About 71

percent of the respondents said that they wash their hand only with water. About 37 percent of the

respondents said that they wash their hand with ash and about 29 percent of the respondents said that

they use nothing for washing their hand.

47

53 Within a week

Never 100

Yes


42


Figure 2.46: Material used for handwashing (%)

Source: MM Study

The table below summarises the time when the contacted individuals usually wash their hand. It was

observed that 78 percent of the individuals wash their hand after defecating and about 52 percent of the

respondents said that they wash their hand before eating.

Table 2.13: When do you wash hands


Before eating 208 52

After defecating 312 78

Before cooking 0 0

Before feeding child 0 0

Others 0 0

Multiple Responses

Source: MM Study

2.1.4 Medical expenditure

The table below presents the awareness of water borne disease among the individuals in the study

villages. It was observed that majority respondents corresponding (61 percent) stated that they have

knowledge of the water borne disease. Respondents indicated that approximately INR 10 per month is

being spent on the medications.

Table 2.14: Awareness of water borne diseases


Yes 245 61.2

No 155 38.8

Total 400 100

Source: MM Study

29

71

37

19.8

Nothing

Water

Ash

Soap


43


From the following table it can be seen that majority of the respondents have fallen sick due to typhoid in

the last three months (almost 32 percent). In the ailments approximately INR 75 per head was spent on

medication.

Table 2.15: Family members have fallen sick due to water borne disease in last three months

Particulars Typhoid Diarrhoea Gastroenteritis Cholera

No. of persons fallen sick 130 27 0 0

Percentage 32.5 6.7 0 0

Total (N) 400 400 400 400

Source: MM Study

2.1.5 Solid Waste handling

Solid waste management is a vital component in order to lead a hygienic life. In order to assess the waste

management practise followed in the study villages several questions were asked. It was observed that

waste from kitchen is usually thrown in the nearby agricultural land. The same is followed in cases of waste

paper and newspaper. It was also seen that waste from kitchen and waste papers are also thrown directly

in the open area outside the house. Plastic waste material, metal waste and other small waste material are

usually thrown away in the open outside the house by almost all the people contacted during the study

(tables below regarding the sold waste management)

Figure 2.47: How is the Household Soild Waste from

Kitchen Getting Disposed (%)

Figure 2.48: How is the Household Soild Waste like

paper being disposed (%)


53.3

35 Thrown inAgriculture field

Thrown into theopen

100

Thrown into theopen


44


Solid waste like paper is being disposed in the agricultural field or into the open which is not hygienic

practice.

Similarly the waste like plastic glass are also thrown into the open, this clearly indicates that there is no

existing management of the solid waste in the sampler gram panchayats in Bihar.

Table 2.16: How is the Household Soild Waste like plastic waste, glass waste or metal waste getting

disposed (%)

Particulars Percentage

Thrown into the open 100

Total Households (N) multiple response 400

.During the study contacted individuals were asked about the place where they dispose liquid waste. 93

percent of the respondents said that water from kitchen flows out into the open area whereas 7 percent

said that the water gets collected in a soak pit. Similarly when asked about the water which flows out of

their bathroom, maximum respondents said that the water flows into open area (80%), only 20% mentioned

that the water flows into a soak pit.

Table 2.17: Desposal of liquid waste

Particulars Into the drain

Thrown in open

Kitchen garden/agricultur

al land

Directly to a water body

near the house

soak pit

Other (specify)

Where does the waste water from your kitchen go?

0 93 0 0 07 0

Where does the waste water from your bath area/ clothes washing area go?

0 80 0 0 22.8 0

Multiple responses

Source: MM Study

2.1.6 Availability of Toilets

The graph below presents the availability of toilets in the sampled gram panchayats. It was observed that

only about 18 percent of the respondents have toilet facility and others do not have this facility. Also it was

seen that about 70 percent of the respondents have dry pit toilet and the remaining have pour flush toilet.


45


Figure 2.49: Availability of toilets in the households

(%)

Figure 2.50: Type of toilets available in the

households (%)


It was found that only 21 households have flush toilet. All the 21 respondents having pour flush latrine

responded that they have their own septic tank. No sewer network is available in the sample gram

panchayats.

Figure 2.51: Household having own septic tank (%) Figure 2.52: Total expenditure on toilet construction by

the household (%)


The 21 households which have pour flush type of toilet were asked the reason of not having sewer

connection; it was reported that since there is no facility of sewer connection they are unable to link their

toilet with sewer connection.

From among the household having toilet facility, it was found that almost 73 percent said that the cost of

toilet varies between Rs 7000 – 10,000 and about 25 percent said that the cost varies from Rs 5000 –

7000. Only very few respondents said that the costs of the toilet is INR 10,000 and above.

17.8

82.3

Yes

No70.4

29.6

Dry pit

Pour flush

100

Own septic tank

25.4

73.2

1.4

5000-7000

7001-1000

10001 & above


46


Figure 2.53: Total monthly expenditure on toilet

maintenance (%)

Figure 2.54: If do not have toilet, where do your family

member go for defecation? (%)


The graph above depicts the expenditure for maintenance of the toilet. It was observed that about 47

percent of the respondents said that they spend an amount of INR 50 on an average monthly for the

maintenance of toilet.

It was found that majority of HH do not have toilets in their own household. In that case the respondent and

the family members go to the field and practise open defecation. Regular awareness campaigns should be

conducted in the villages for creating awareness about health, hygiene and water & sanitation related

practices. This should be done in the form of storytelling, natak/ nautanki which creates interest amongst

the community members and is an effective communication tool in rural areas where majority of the

population is illiterate. For this the CCDU should train certain trainers (could be members of VWSC) who in

turn would dessiminate the awareness/ information regarding health, hygiene and water & sanitation

related practices.

As per the data collected 78.9 percent male members of the household are responsible for cleaning the

toilets, rest 21.1 percent is being cleaned by the female members.

2.8 1.4

46.5

49.2 10

20

50

No response

100

Fields


47


Figure 2.55: Responsibility of cleaning the toilet (%) Figure 2.56: Frequency of cleaning toilet (%)


Frequency of cleaning toilet is presented in graph above. It suggests that above 52 percent clean toilets

on monthly basis. However, 39.4 percent clean it once in every 15 days.

Data collected reflects that nearly 70 percent household clean their toilet with water while the rest clean

with acid.

Figure 2.57: Material used for cleaning toilet (%)

Source: MM Study

2.1.7 Communication medium and behaviour

During the visit to the selected GPs it was observed that literacy rate is quite low. And most of the areas

have no access to newspapers. Nearly 20 percent respondents read news papers. Same is given in the

graph below.

78.9

21.1

Male of thehousehold

Female of thehousehold

8.4

39.4 52.2 Daily

Once in 15 Days

Monthly

70.4

29.6

Water

Acid


48


Figure 2.58: Do you read news paper (%)

Source: MM Study

As was reported by the respondents, Prabhat Khabar, and some other news papers such as Hindustan,

Dainik Jagaran, Aaj, Rashtriya Sahara etc are most common newspapers read by respondents.

Table 2.18: News papers generally being read


Prabhat Khabar 15 3.7

Others 64 16

Do not read news paper 321 80.3

Total household (N) 400 100

Source: MM Study

Findings of the study suggests that approximatly 18 percent of the households watch television, around 20

percent read newspapers and a large number of respondents which is more than 83 percent listen to radio.

Same is depicted in the graph given below.

19.8

80.2

Yes

No


49


Figure 2.59: Do you do any of the following? (Multiple

Responses) %

Figure 2.60: What programme do you watch/ Listen

(Multiple Responses) %


Majority of the respondents watch/listen all kinds of programmes. However, 31.5 percent respondents

prefer news and 3.5 percent respondents like to watch/listen films.

All the respondents prefer to watch Hindi television programmes. Respondents mostly watch Hindi

television programmes such as serials, religious programmes, news etc. All community members do not

have access to television therefore they watch it at a public place such as any shop etc.

Table 2.19: Preferred media language


Hindi 336 100

Total (Respondents using media as medium of information)

336 100

Source: MM Study

Media channel which preferred by the respondents is radio as nearly 60 percent prefer radio as a medium

of information and entertainment followed by TV which is being watched by approximately 32 percent of

respondents. Tabulated response presented below

.Table 2.20: Preferred media channel


News paper 36 9

Radio 237 59.3

TV 127 31.8

Total (Respondents using media as medium of information)

336 100

Source: MM Study

17.8

83.5

19.8 8.8

Watch TV

Listen Radio

Read News paper

Go to religiousplace

31.5

3.5

48.5

News

Films

All


50


As a medium of information and entertainment, most of respondents watch TV both in the morning and

evening (M&E), depending on the availability of electricity .

Table 2.21: Time of watching TV


Both M&E 71 100

Total (Respondents having TV) 71 100

Source: MM Study

Most of respondents listen to the radio both in morning and evening.

Table 2.22: Time for listen to radio


Evening 21 6.3

Both M&E 313 93.7

Total (Respondents having Radio) 334 100

Source: MM Study

38% of respondents opined that availability of pollution related messages on the media was quite easily

available and also easy to understand (detailed response in following graphs).

Figure 2.61: Availability of pollution related messages

in media (%)

Figure 2.62: Awareness regarding water and

sanitation sector reform programme in your city (%)


Level of awareness regarding water and sanitation reform was found to be very low as 84 percent

respondents have no idea about the water and sanitation reform in their city.

Around 58 percent respondents opined that local ward worker/ official is the main source of information

about government programmes. About 35 percent opined that they get information from their family and

friends while 7 percent seem to be getting information from governmental officials.

38.5

15.3

25.5

20.8

Fairly easy

Neither easy nordifficult

Fairly difficult

Very difficult

16

84

Yes

No


51


Figure 2.63: Main source of information about

government programmes (%)

Figure 2.64: Media which influences most (%)


It was found that the most influential media was the visual (television) mode (57 percent believe that TV

influences most), print media was picked up by 6 percent, and about 7 percent believe that public

consultation to be more influential.

2.1.8 Problems faced by the respondents regarding water supply, solid and liquid

waste management

During the interactions with the respondents, it was found that in summer season the water table goes

down which causes scarcity of water in some areas. Some GPs which have the piped water supply scheme

face irregular supply of water. As far as the waste management is concerned, there is no drainage in most

of the areas. Hence, water was seen flowing on the roads. There is no provision for solid waste

management either. Therefore, the respondents keep dumping household waste in nearby lands. It was

reported by the respondents that 96.7 percent would prefer local ward worker/official as a point of contact

in case of any problem or grievances. However, 3.3 percent prefer administration officials for the same.

Details in following table.

Table 2.23: Preferred point of contact in case of grievances


Friends and family 0 0

Media (print, visual or audio) 0 0

Local ward workers/officials 387 96.7

Administration officials 13 3.3

Religious leaders 0 0

MLA 0 0

Local NGO 0 0

Others 0 0

Total 400 100

Source: MM Study

35

58

7 Friends and family

Local wardworkers/officials

Administrationofficials

6

57.3

2 1

3.8

23 7

Print media

Visual

Audio

Hoardings

Pamphelets

Nukkar natak

Publicconsultation


52


2.2 Analysis of Qualitative Findings at Community Level

2.2.1 Gram Panchayat Profile (Banmankhi, Purnia)

Participatory rural appraisal was conducted in the Banmankhi

Panchayat of Purnia district. Banmankhi is located 35

kilometres from the district head quarters on National Highway

107. The data collected from the PRA exercise suggests that

the population of the panchayat is approximately 25,000 with

5000 houses, mainly comprising OBCs (nearly 60 percent).

There are other social groups - 20 percent Muslims, 10 percent

SC and rest are extremely backward classes. The percentage

of APL families is 70 and rest are BPL.

Agricultural labour is the main occupation. Almost 60 per cent of

the population is engaged in agriculture & related activities while the balance earn their livelihood from

other sources. The agricultural land is owned by 30-40 percent population. Small business, petty trade etc

are the other sources of income.

2.2.2 Participatory rural appraisal (Banmankhi, Purnia)

According to the participants, sanitation in the area is not

good. The area does not have drainage system. Therefore,

waste water flows on the road and is strewn everywhere.

Few participants reported that they have soak pits in their

houses for the disposal of waste water. Public dust bins are

kept at selected places but they are hardly being used.

Heap of the waste could be seen near the newly

constructed Panchayat Bhawan in ward no. 10. Lack of

toilet facilities at homes and improper management of solid

waste make the sanitary condition worst. It was reported

during the PRA that about 30 percent households have toilet

facilities, rest are doing open defecation. In the rainy season when fields are swampy nearby National

Highway No. 107 and Katihar- Saharsa railway track is being used for defecation. Participants are well

aware of the ill effects of these malpractices.

In the Banmankhi Gram Panchayat, Piped water scheme

work was initiated in year 2006-07 with a capital cost of INR

1.098 crore. In 2010-11, the services were started and

subsequently handed over to the panchayat in November,

2012. Since inception of the project, only one house and that

of Ramesh Aggarwal has the connection. However, there are

approximately 20-25 stand posts in the area. As reported by

the participants of PRA, the area has abundant water and

there is no problem with the quality of water. The

responsibility of giving connection to households was given

to the contractor who is charging either INR 1000 or INR


53


2000 depending on from which side of the road one is getting the connection to. User charge/fee has not

been decided so far. At present, no water is being supplied through the pipes. The Panchayat is taking

steps to provide connections to the household. As soon as there will be enough household connections,

water supply will be resumed. In Banmankhi Panchayat, most of the households own hand pumps. Also,

there are public hand pumps for the water. Collection of water is generally done by the female members of

the household who generally spends nearly 1 hour daily on this chore. In rainy season diarrhoea, cholera

and typhoid etc are prevalent. No caste related exclusion issues for water suplly was reported during the

PRA.

In the PRA most of the participants displayed the desire and willingness to get piped water scheme and

manage the same with a condition that they would get sufficient water- at least twice on daily basis.

Participants are ready to pay monthly user charge up to INR 20-25, however the connection charges of

either INR 1000 or 2000 as was to be paid to the contractor was considered to be a hefty amount by some

participants. It was found that there are no existing water related associations or groups in the panchayat.

The PRA exercise reflects that there are wall paintings and graffiti messages available specifically on the

topic of sanitation. However, there is no significant change reported due to these messages. Availability of

sanitation related messages are quite insufficient on the other media. Radio, TV and newspaper were

reported to be the most common medium of information in the area. However, the accessibility of radio is

common in the area.

A number of festivals are being celebrated in the area such as

Dashera, Diwali, Holi, Eid, Moharram etc. It was also observed

that men and women were given equal opportunity to express

their views in any social and local gatherings. The area had

witnessed severe disaster caused by flooding of Kosi River in

year 1945, 1977 and 2008. Drought had never caused any

serious harm to the GP earlier but in 2010 the area faced a

drought like situation.

2.2.3 Gram Panchayat Profile (Dharhara, Purnia)

Participatory rural appraisal was planned by visiting this Gram Panchayat in advance. In Purnia district

there were two Gram Panchayats which were selected for the primary survey

Banmankhi

Dharahara

The PRA was however conducted in the village in village

called “Makhnaha” in Dharhara GP. During the PRA it was

observed that most of the participants do not own any land.

Hence, most of the villagers are agricultural labourers. The

agricultural land is owned by approximately 20 percent

population of the village. It was also observed that migration

to Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata for the livelihood is also

alternative option for villagers. According to the participants,

sanitation practices in the village is not good and absence of

drainage, lack of toilet facilities at homes and improper


54


management of solid waste make the condition worst. It was reported during the PRA that hardly 10

percent household have toilet facilities, while the remaining do open defecation. In the rainy season, when

fields are swampy, the nearby National Highway (Katihar- Saharsa) is being used. Participants to some

extent understand the ill effects of the malpractices but in the absence of toilet facilities and provision of

waste management they do not have any other alternative. Lack of awareness and economic conditions of

the participants can be attributed for the same. As reported by the participants, the village has abundant

water. However, the quality of water is not good as the water contains iron contamination.

At the depth of 30-35 feet potable water is available. Hence, almost all households own hand pump.

Installation of hand pump in the area is cheap, at approximately INR 5000. Collection of water is generally

done by the female members of the households who spend nearly 1 hour daily. As far as solid and liquid

waste management is concerned, there is no provision for drainage or dust bin. Hence, residents dump

waste in the open or throw water from their kitchen or bath area in the nearby land.

During rainy season diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid etc are prevalent. Children are considered to be more

vulnerable as they are easy target of the ailments. Iron contaminated water is also causing severe health

problems of the residents.

2.2.4 Participatory Rural Appraisal (Dharhara, Purnia)

During the PRA, no caste exclusion dynamics was reported. However, the participants opined that few

political figures such as Sarpanch, Mukhiya etc have more influence than a commoner. In the PRA most of

the participants displayed the desire and willingness to get piped water scheme and manage the same.

Participants are ready to pay monthly user charge upto INR 20-25 but the connection charges of INR 500-

1000 in the district is considered to be a high amount by some participants. It was reported that in every

village there are Self Help Groups formed by the “Jeevika” (A programme started by Government of Bihar)

and these are effectively working on the income generation programmes. There were no water related

associations found in the village. Dependency of the community on these SHGs is minimal as the group is

involved in the income generation programme only.

During the PRA exercise it was reported that there are few graffiti messages on display specifically on the

topic of sanitation. However, no significant change is reported in the life of individuals due to these

messages. Availability of sanitation related messages are quite insufficient in the media. Radio is the most

accessible and influential medium of information and entertainment in the area.

A number of festivals are being celebrated in the area such as Dashera, Diwali, Holi, Eid, Moharram etc. It

was also observed that men and women have equal opportunity to express their views in any social and

local gatherings. The area had witnessed severe disaster caused by flooding of Kosi River in year 1945,

1977 and 2008. In 2010, the region had faced drought like situation

2.2.5 Gram Panchayat Profile (Balua, Maner)

Participatory rural appraisal was planned by visiting this Gram Panchayat in advance. In Maner block, there

are 19 gram panchayats out of which three gram panchayats were selected for the study namely Balua,

Kuitachauhator West and Bank. The PRA discussion was held in the Balua GP. There were about 15

village members who joined and actively participated in the discussion, the participation of female members

of the community was low and they had to be persuaded to attend and participate in the discussion.


55


The Balua Gram Panchayat (GP) comprises 10 villages – Balua, Ramnagar, Kathotiya Khurd, Kathotiya

Kala, Rewa, Mahngu tola, Gulabi bagh, Raghuvar tola, Lela tola and a newly formed tola with 15/20

families residing called as Naya tola. The GP has 12 Anganwadis, 6 Government Primary schools, 2

Government Middle schools and 4 Primary Landless

Schools (also called as Jhugi Jhopdi schools).

Total households in the GP are 2029 spread across

the 10 villages, around 50 percent population belong

to Other Backward Castes (Yadav & Kurmis),

followed by 30 percent Extremely Backward Castes

(Ravidas & Kuhar) and 18 percent Scheduled

Castes. The Gram Panchayat is well connected with

road and all modes of transportation are available

including public transport. Main source of livelihood

for the community is based on agriculture and allied

activities. Around 75 percent population is landless

and they work as agricultural labourers. Those

having land are doing cultivation on their own or have leased out their land for cultivation to others. Major

crops of the area are Wheat, Maize and Masoor while Paddy, potato and onions are also cultivated.

Around 25 percent of the households have individual household latrines; of this only 5 percent use latrines,

but the common practice is open defecation. Main source of water is hand pumps, there are around 20

wells available in the gram panchayat but the community does not use it. The community members stated

that physical labour is required to get water from the wells therefore they have stopped using it. They stated

that hand pumps are easily accessible and water is easily available. However, in summers mainly in the

months of May, June & July, the community faces issues regarding water availability as the ground water

level goes down. Level of awareness about the quality of water and water borne diseases in the community

is low, because during the discussion when asked about the water borne diseases that the community had

in last three months, they responded by saying that the community members had cough & cold, fever and

measles which clearly indicates the lack of awareness among the community members. River Ganga flows

at a distance of 5 kms from the gram panchayat and a drain named Daniya Nala also flows outside the

gram panchayat from south towards north direction (currently it is dry and is filled with water only during the

rainy season). The community faced severe drought in 1966 and floods in the years 1970, 1972, 1975

1977 & 1978.

2.2.6 Participatory Rural Appraisal (Balua, Maner)

The community members were enthusiastic about the information on the proposed piped water supply

scheme getting operational in their gram panchayat. It was only then that the female members were

encouraged to discuss the issues related to water supply. The female members stated that a considerable

time, effort and physical labour is required to collect water. Earlier their dependency was on wells for

collecting water and now they rely on the hand pumps. The responsibility for the upkeep of the households

is the sole responsibility of the female members as they have to do the cooking, washing, cleaning etc. for

which water important. Female members shared that if they get piped water supply in their households their

life would be simpler and would be saved of the hardship of fetching water. The female members also

raised certain critical issues which are directly linked to water supply – they stated that during the


56


pregnancy period (initial as well as advanced) they have to carry buckets of water due to which they have

serious health issues and also that some females are weak (as they are anaemic) and sometimes faint.

On being asked about the availability of land within the gram

panchayat for proposed construction of water works including

the overhead tank, the community members said that ample

of land is available with the panchayat which can be used for

the proposed scheme. The Village Water and Sanitation

Committee is available in the gram panchayat but it is mostly

inactive. The issues related to water and sanitation are being

discussed with the local ward members and the panchayat

members. The community members were apprehensive if

the proposed scheme would cover all the villages in the GP

or only some villages will be covered within the proposed

scheme and some would be excluded. MM team felt this is a

critical issue which would require careful thought of the

Department. After the PRA, MM team also visited three other

villages excluding Balua viz. Kathotiya Khurd, Kathotiya Kala

and Rewa, it was observed that where the concentration of

Scheduled Castes and Extremely Backward Castes was high

the level of service delivery related to water and sanitation

was low. Therefore the department would need to adopt

inclusive and pro-poor policy for its proposed schemes

Literacy level is low in the GP, however the younger generation is aware about the importance of education

and do attend school on regular basis.

While discussing about the solid and liquid waste management facility available in the GP, it was observed

that the community had no awareness; therefore the study team had to probe more for getting a clear

picture of solid and liquid waste management. The community members stated that all solid waste such as

vegetable peels, wastepaper, or plastic/ glass bottles are either thrown into the open or in the agriculture

field or the vegetable peels are put on the manure heap to be used as manure in the field. Similarly there is

no facility for liquid waste management as the used water from the household is thrown in the open drain or

soak pit. However the drains (kutcha & pucca) are also not maintained properly as most of them are

blocked. Similarly the soak pits are not made technically, hence water does not get absorbed and gets

collected wherein mosquitoes breed, raising health concerns. There is no provision of appointing sweepers

for cleaning the lanes or drains in the village. The community members say that the waste from their

household is not properly disposed and in turn comes back to their houses. They also added that the

situation could be managed if the community members take initiative and employ sweepers for cleaning

and collecting waste from the households.

During the PRA discussions, the study team also asked about the most effective way of communicating or

generating awareness about Water and Sanitation related activities/ facilities. The community members

stated that they do not get newspapers in the village on daily basis and most of the community is illiterate.

Therefore using print media or hoarding will not be effective. The most effective way according to the

community is to conduct Nukkad Nataks or public consultations on regular basis (once in two months).


57


Moreover they suggested that these activities should be held on the occasions/ festivals, fairs (mela)

wherein the community is gathers at a place in large numbers.

The villagers celebrate all the festivals; Makar Sankranti, Dashera, Diwali, and Chhat being the major

festivals in the village.

2.2.7 Gram Panchayat Profile (Bank, Maner)

Participatory rural appraisal was held in Bhatehri village of Bank gram panchayat, which has operational

piped water scheme in one of its village i. e Gopalpur. There were about 20/25 village members who joined

and actively participated in the discussion, the participation of female members of the community was low.

The Bank Gram Panchayat (GP) comprises 7 villages –

Bank, Lodhipur, Bhatehri, Narhana, Gopalpur, Chitrauli

and Ganauria and is located on National Highway. The

GP has 15 Anganwadis, 4 Government Primary

schools, 4 Government Middle schools, 3 Primary

Landless Schools (also called as Jhugi Jhopdi schools)

and 1 Urdu Primary school.

Total households in the GP are 4092, spread across 7

villages, around 45 percent population belong to Other

Backward Castes (Yadav & Kurmis), followed by 40

percent Extremely Backward Castes (Ravidas & Kuhar)

and 10 percent Scheduled Castes. The Gram Panchayat is well connected with road and all modes of

transportation are available including public transport. Main source of livelihood for the community is based

on agriculture and allied activities. Around 50 percent population have their own land and the rest are

landless and work as agricultural labourers. Those having land are doing cultivation on their own or have

leased out their land for cultivation to others. Major crops of the area are Wheat, Maize, Masoor while

Paddy, potato and onions are also cultivated.

Around 75 percent of the households have individual household latrines, of which only 50 percent use the

latrines while others practice open defecation. Main source of water are hand pumps, there are around 200

hand pumps in the gram panchayat. Earlier wells were used but as hand pumps came in they find it easier

to use hence now wells are not used. They also stated that hand pumps are accessible and water is easily

available. However, in summers mainly in the months of May, June & July the community faces issues on

water availability as the ground water level goes down. Level of awareness about the quality of water and

water borne diseases in the community is low, because during discussions when asked about the water

borne diseases that the community had in last three months, the response was that the community

members have cough & cold and fever (which clearly indicates the lack of awareness amongst the

community members). The community faced severe drought in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and floods in 1975,

1988 and 2007.

2.2.8 Participatory Rural Appraisal (Bank, Maner)

The piped water supply scheme is operational only in one village of the GP since last year, viz, Gopalpur

village. The village has around 300 households, out of which only 105 households have taken household


58


piped water supply connections. The village also has piped stand post connection. On asked about the

satisfaction level of the water supply with regard to timing, duration, quantity, pressure of supply etc. the

community members who have connections responded that the scheme doesn’t work properly. They had

several issues such as there is no definite time for water supply as it depends on the availability of

electricity. They usually get the water 2/3 times in a day for about half an hour. They also stated that the

water is directly pumped from the tube well to the households; the overhead tank meant for storage of

water is not used for storage due to some technical reasons due to which the pressure of water supply to

households is low. The community members raised their concerns about their total dependency on the

piped water as the water through this in not adequate for a household and they have to get most of the

water from the hand pumps. Therefore they were not confident that this piped supply will be sustainable in

the long run, if it works in the present manner. On enquiring about how much the households pay for using

the piped connection, the members responded that nobody comes to collect the charges and they are also

not aware whether they have to pay for it or not.

The community members who use the piped stand post water supply were also not satisfied with the

scheme and had similar issues of pressure, duration and timing of water supply. The other communities

who do not have household piped connection in the village were asked the reason for not having one, they

stated that as per their observation the scheme is not working properly, there is no definite time of water

supply and the pressure is also very low, therefore they are not interested in taking connection. Moreover

they have to pay for getting water connection which they can’t afford. The other nearby villages within the

gram panchayat was not as enthusiastic about the scheme as they felt neglected. The community

members were of the view that the scheme is unequally distributed and should have covered all the

villages in the gram panchayat.

On discussing about the solid and liquid waste management facility available in the gram panchayat, it was

observed that the community has no awareness regarding this; therefore the MM team had to probe more

for getting a clearer picture of solid and liquid waste management. The community members stated that all

solid waste such as vegetable peels, wastepaper or plastic/ glass bottles are either thrown into the open or

in the agriculture field or the vegetable peels are put on the manure heap to be used as manure in the field.

Similarly there is no facility for liquid waste management as the used water from the household is thrown in

the open or drain or soak pit. Moreover, the drains (kutcha & pucca) are also not maintained properly as

most of them are blocked. Similarly the soak pit is not made technically, hence the water is not absorbed

and gets collected on which mosquitoes breed, raising health issues. There is no provision of appointing

sweepers for cleaning the lanes or drains in the village.

2.2.9 Gram Panchayat Profile (Kitachauhator West, Maner)

Participatory rural appraisal was held in Kitachauhator West GP. There were about 20 village members

who joined and actively participated in the discussion, the participation of female members of the

community was low.

The Kitachauhator West gram panchayat (GP) consists of 6 villages – Haldi Chhapra Saat Ana, Purana

tola, Nayka tola, Harijan tola, Badal tola and Ramnagar. The villages are divided into 14 wards. The GP

has 9 Anganwadis and 5 Government Primary schools. Total households in the GP are 2946 spread

across 7 villages, around 67 percent population belongs to Other Backward Castes (Yadav & Kurmis),

followed by 15 percent Extremely Backward Castes (Ravidas & Kuhar) and 15 percent Scheduled Castes.

The Gram Panchayat is well connected with road and all modes of transportation are available including


59


public transport. Main source of livelihood for the community is based on agriculture and allied activities.

Around 75 percent population is landless and work as agricultural labourers. Those having land are doing

cultivation on their own or have leased out their land for cultivation to others. The GP is surrounded by two

rivers, Soan and Ganga, from northern, western and southern side.

Around 21 percent of the households have individual household latrines; 3/4th of them use these, but the

common practice is open defecation. Main source of water is hand pumps and the water is contaminated

with arsenic. The community members stated that it required physical labour to fetch water from the wells

therefore they have stopped using it. They also stated that hand pumps are accessible and water is easily

available. However, in summers, mainly in the months of May and June, the community faces issues

regarding water availability as the ground water level goes down. During the discussion when asked about

the water borne diseases that the community had in last three months, they responded by saying that the

community members generally suffer from diahorrea, jaundice and liver cancer (some cases have been

reported). Though Village Water and Sanitation Committee have been formed but presently it is inactive

and works on need basis.

On the solid and liquid waste management facility available in the gram panchayat, it was observed that the

community has no awareness on this; therefore the MM team had to probe more for getting a clear picture

of solid and liquid waste management. The community members stated that all solid waste such as

vegetable peels, wastepaper or plastic/ glass bottles are either thrown into the open or in the agriculture

field or the vegetable peels are put on the manure heap to be used as manure in the field. Similarly there is

no facility for liquid waste management as the used water from the households is thrown in the open or

drain or soak pit. However the drains (kutcha & pucca) are also not maintained properly as most of them

are blocked. Similarly the soak pit is also not made technically as the water is not absorbed and gets

collected on which mosquitoes breed, raising health issues. There is no provision of appointing sweepers

for cleaning the lanes or drains in the village. However the gram panchayat functionaries have proposed

an initiative which is still under consideration - they have proposed to engage sweepers in all the villages of

the gram panchayat to clean the drains, collect waste like vegetable peels, plastic/ glass bottles and clean

toilets. The households who are keen for clean surroundings and utilizing the service of the sweepers can

pay according to their will.

During the PRA discussion the study team asked about the most effective way of communicating or

generating awareness about Water and Sanitation related activities/ facilities. The community members

stated that they do not get newspapers in the village on daily basis and most of the community is illiterate.

Therefore using print media or hoarding will not be effective. The most effective way according to the

community is to conduct Nukkad Nataks or public consultations on regular basis (once in two months).

Even radio is a popular mode but they do not pay attention to the advertisements regarding water &

sanitation and health and hygiene.

2.3 Conclusions based on Beneficiary Assessment

Geographical Structure of Panchayat: Villages are heterogeneous in nature so far content/

establishment/ social setting is concerned, it was seen on an average a panchayat has 11 to 12

habitations, 115 habitations were found in 10 selected panchayats. Further interestingly it was

observed that the economically empowered caste generally resides in the main village of the

panchayat and the SC and Mahadalits generally reside in distant villages from the main panchayat

village. Further the villages which are distant from the panchayat main village were found with relatively

less number of infrastructure like hand pumps and toilets.


60


Family Size: The average family size of the contacted households was found to be 6.5 (however it

ranges from 7 to 15). As per census 2011, in villages of Bihar a household has an average of 6

members. Thus, the toilet facility created for one household is not adequate for the family size

mentioned above

Literacy: The literacy rate of the households contacted was found to be low, about 38 percent of

respondents were illiterate. Further most of the females contacted during participatory rural appraisal

and focus group discussions were found to be illiterate.

Awareness about Government Programmes: The contacted respondents in the villages were not

aware (84%) about government programmes related to water & sanitation. They reported that such

messages are not frequently heard/seen (46%). Local ward officials (as reported by 97% of

respondents) are the major source of information about government programmes.

Gender issue: In most of the contacted households, women were found responsible for fetching water

(78.9% households) and also for cleaning toilets in the households (having toilet). During interactions

(FGDs) with women groups, it was found that they were not aware of most of the issues related to

development of their village. During discussions, it was reported that women do not have say in the

household decisions. Though due to current education system, girls are availing education at least upto

primary level.

Women Empowerment and participation: During qualitative interactions it was sensed that women

are not adequately empowered, the main reason is their low literacy and awareness levels. Many

women participants reported that they generally attend panchayat meetings but their concerns are not

heard by the PRIs and thus, they do not find any use attending these meetings.

Poverty: Poverty is acute in these villages, as high as 83.2 percent of the respondents were found

living in non pucca houses (of which 51.1 percent were having semi pucca houses), about 78.3 percent

are earning their livelihood by working as agricultural labourer. Further about 85 percent of the

contacted households do not have separate kitchen, about 67 percent of the households covered have

monthly income below INR 5000/-. The situation is further bad in case of marginalized community and

mahadalits. The monthly expenditure of most of the respondents (79%) is within INR 5000/-.

Inclusion: During Participatory Rural Appraisal, it was observed that habitation/villages are clustered

according to the caste, and poor families and mahadalits are very poor and also unorganized.

Supply of Electricity: Supply of water depends on the availability and quality of electricity in the

villages, though more than 90 percent of the households were found having electric connection in their

household (mostly illegal connections) but the electric supply was found very erratic in covered

villages. Due to irregular electric supply, the operation of water pumps and supply remains erratic. It

could be seen that water comes to many of the PWS villages once in a week.

Coverage of safe Drinking Water & Latrine: About 12 percent of habitations have quality affected

water sources (Source secondary data from PHED). A significant number of households (82.6%) using

hand pump spend 1 to 2 hrs daily for collecting water for various household purposes such as drinking,

cooking, cleaning, washing & bathing purposes (survey data). During discussions it was reported that

about 48 liters of water is required for one person. Further, latrine coverage is very inadequate- only

17.5 percent of contacted households had individual household latrine in sampled GPs.

Usages of latrine: During Participatory Rural Appraisal, it was reported that despite having toilets in

some of the houses, the males are still practicing open defecation. They think that productivity of land

will reduce if they do not use their own agricultural land for open defecation.

Media Coverage: The respondents mainly listen to audio media (84 percent listen to radio, 18 percent

watch Television and only 20 percent read newspaper). Hindi is the preferred language as respondents

prefer to watch/listen programmes in Hindi. Radio is the most popular media of communication and

preferred time for watching television was either morning or evening


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Grievance Redressal: Most of the people file their complaints with PHED’s local office and also to the

Gram Panchayat office. There is no proper grievance redressal system in the villages with regard to

water and sanitation issues as reported by the respondents.


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BSWSM Headed by Principal

Secretary, PHED

CCDU (Capacity Building)

PMU (M&E)

DWSM/DWSC Executive Engineer

3.1 Institutions related to Policy, Planning and M&E on Water &

Sanitation

Bihar State Water & Sanitation Mission (BSWSM) is the nodal agency for implementation of total Sanitation

Campaign & Swajaldhara in the state of Bihar. BSWSM has been constituted as a registered society as per

Para 2.2 IA Restructured Central Sponsored Rural Sanitation Programme (RCRSP) guidelines and under

Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission, GOI, New Delhi.

The approval on the constitution and registration of BSWSM was given by Apex committee of the State

Government body in its meeting on 7th October 2004 and by executive of the BSWSM in its meeting on

22nd

September 2004(a resolution was taken to register BSWSM). Principal Secretary, PHED is the

Member Secretary of BSWSM and PHED is the main Government body for delivering water and sanitation

services in Bihar.

PHED has its own structured organizational

setup for service delivery which is placed from

State to Sub-Divisional Offices. But there is no

structured organization at Block and Gram

Panchayat level.

However, Block Resource Coordinators are

appointed on contractual basis and they report

to the Assistant Engineer, PHED. They are

appointed for reinforcing service delivery at

village level. At panchayat level, in some of the

panchayats, Village Health & Sanitation

Committees (VHNSCs) (which are formed under NRHM project and is chaired by the Sarpanch, the elected

head of the Gram Panchayat) are functional.

The organization structure of Bihar State Water and Sanitation Mission, its different wings and their roles

are detailed in subsequent sections.

3.1.1 Bihar State Water and Sanitation Mission

The Bihar State Water and Sanitation Mission (BSWSM) is the main body for implementation of Drinking

Water Supply and Sanitation Programme in the State. This is a registered society under Society Act 1958.

The Committee has been constituted under the Chairmanship of Development Commissioner, Government

of Bihar. There are State level committees namely Apex Committee & Executive Committee which governs

BSWSM.

The Apex Committee constitutes of Development Commissioner, Government of Bihar as the

Chairman, Principal Secretary/Secretary, PHED, Government of Bihar as Member Secretary and

Principal Secretary/Secretary of the other department as either Member of the Committee.

Similarly, Executive Committee has Principal Secretary/Secretary, PHED, Government of Bihar as

Chairman, and Engineer in Chief cum Special Secretary/Chief Engineer, PHED, Government of Bihar

3. Institutional Analysis


63


as Member Secretary and Joint Secretary/Deputy Secretary level officer of the other department as

Member of the Committee.

The Chairman presides over all meetings of Governing Body (GB) and has the overall powers of

supervision, direction, and control over all affairs of the Mission and the functioning of the office bearers; he

may invite experts other than the members of the Governing Body to the meetings of the GB as for

specialized inputs and expertise. All executive and financial power of the mission is vested on the Member

Secretary who is responsible for planning, implementation and monitoring of activities as per the mission

policies. He/she is the overall charge of the funds of the Mission and operates the Mission’s accounts in the

Banks.

The Governing Body is responsible for overall policy guidance & co-ordination of programmes implemented

by the District WATSAN missions / Zila Parishads;

ensures co-ordination with various departments, agencies and convergence of different activities

related to water supply & sanitation in rural areas;

approves and sanctions the Annual Plan, Budget and Audited Accounts; makes, alters and amends the

objectives, rules and regulations by laws of the Mission,

constitutes committees from time to time as and when considered necessary for effective execution of

the programmes and schemes and

delegates powers and function to the employee’s committees and the consultants of the missions.

The Executive Body implements the policies/decision of the Government Body, interacts with

GOI/RGNDWM and supports the implementation of various Rural Water Supply and Sanitation schemes

and other related activities as well as programmes funded by external donors like DFID, UNICEF, DANIDA

etc. Other activities of Executive Body are mentioned below;

liaise & co-ordinate with various line departments, State Govt. & other sector partners and ensuring

participation of the SHGs and the communities in different projects,

Identify; mobilize NGO’s to undertake work as per schemes notified by the Department of Rural

Development.

Also includes providing technical assistance, guidance, and training, ensuring establishment and

constitution of Missions in the District Level and Panchayat Level, ensuing opening of separate Bank

account at District Level and Panchayat Level etc.

organise meeting/ Workshop/ Study tours/ Seminars with involvement of all concerned prepare IEC/

Publicity materials for Sanitation and Sector reforms projects

other related activities by adoption of demand driven & participatory approach, service delivery

maximizing empowerment of villagers in decision making on the choice of service levels.

It also monitors and evaluates the implementation of the schemes by the various agencies including

NGO’s.

It is the state nodal agency responsible for providing drinking water and sanitation facilities in the rural

areas of the state and implements the drinking water supply and sanitation projects under the National

Rural Drinking Water Plan (NRDWP), Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA), State Plan and other external

assistance programs.

It has two missions – Project Management Unit (PMU) and Communication and Capacity Development

(CCDU).


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STATE PHED OFFICE

Principal Secretary

Administrative

Technical

Additional Secretary

Joint Secretary

Dy. Secretary

Assistant Secretary

Engineer in Chief

Figure 3.1: Existing Institutional Structure for Delivery of Water and Sanitation Services in Bihar

ST

AT

E L

EV

EL


65


CE Design

CE Urban

CE Mechanical

EE

SE

SE

SE (2)

EE

AE, JE and

other

support staff

EE(5)

DIV

ISIO

NA

L &

SU

B D

IVIS

ION

AL

LE

VE

L

3.1.2 District Water & Sanitation Mission (DWSM) & District Water & Sanitation

Committee (DWSC)

District Water & Sanitation Mission (DWSM)/District Water & Sanitation Committee (DWSC) is set up at

district level to oversee and coordinate the implementation of NBA and NRDWP. The DWSC is headed by

the Chairman Zila Parishad who is District Development Commissioner and the Superintending Engineer

(SE), BSWSM is the member secretary of the committee.

DWSM/DWSC is the executing agency for successfully implementing & providing safe drinking water to

rural population through different water supply programme i.e. hand pumps, tube wells and executing rural


66


piped water supply scheme with the help of district administration. At the district level, the activities related

to water supply are looked after by the Executive Engineer and at sub divisional level by the Assistant

Engineer & Junior Engineer. Similarly sanitation activities come under the NBA, whereas at district level it

is looked after by the District Coordinator.

District Magistrate is the acting head of this institution. The institution convenes meetings in each quarter

for planning, implementing and monitoring programmes related to water & sanitation. The meetings are

attended by Project Director DRDA, District Education Officer, District Health Officer, District Panchayati

Raj Officer, District Social Welfare Officer, and District Information & Public Relations Officer. The functions

of the District Water & Sanitation Committee (DWSC) are as follows:

Formulation, management and monitoring of NRDWP and NBA projects

Scrutiny and approval of the schemes submitted by the Gram Panchayat

Selection of agencies and/ NGOs and enter into agreements for social mobilization, capacity

development, communication, project management and supervision

Sensitizing public representatives, officials and the general public about the NRDWP principles

Engaging institutions for imparting training for capacity development of all stakeholders, and

undertaking communication campaign; and

Interactions with SWSM, State Government and the Government of India

During interactions at district level it was observed that constituted DWS Mission & DWS Committee are

continuously reinforcing implementation of the schemes. However, very few schemes have been

transferred to panchayats. Due to non availability of VWSCs, involvement of panchayats is also limited so

far planning, implementation, operation & maintenance of the schemes is concerned. It was also reported

by the DWSC officials that the panchayats that have taken charge of operation and maintenance are not

adequately equipped and they also do not have requisite resources and capabilities to handle O & M of the

schemes. Non availability of VWSCs was found to be a serious gap in project delivery and it was also

mentioned by development partners (UNICEF, BTAST etc).

3.1.3 Block Resource Coordinators (BRC)

As such there is no setup at block level however, Block Resource Coordinators are placed at the block

level on contractual basis called the block coordinator (but he reports to the Assistant Engineer, PHED) and

he ensures the expansion of the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan and timely completion of projects/ schemes.

However, Block Coordinators are placed only in 413 blocks out of 534 total Blocks. They are responsible

for community mobilization for formation/activation of Village Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSC)

and enhanced IEC activities for awareness generation, technical support, and capacity building for Gram

Panchayats (GP) to enable them to fulfil their role in sustainable water supply and sanitation; water quality

monitoring and managerial aspects of operation and maintenance of the water supply systems.

Block Coordinator is responsible for all day to day of the programme. She/He is responsible for process

implementation, provide guidance for preparation of GP plans, collection, & collation of information, monitor

progress of implementation, and verify the construction of IHLs, Schools, and Anganwadis. He provides all

the information collected to the Junior Engineer and Assistant Engineer.


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3.1.4 Panchayati Raj Institutions

After the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, Government of Bihar enacted the Panchayati Raj Act 1993

(Replaced by BPR Act, 2006) and three tier system of Panchayat Raj Act 1993 (replaced by BPR ACT

2006) and three-tier structure of local governance with Zila Parishad, Panchayat Samiti and Gram

Panchayat of which Zilla Parishad at the district level and gram panchayat at panchayat level. In Bihar

there are 9 Divisions, 38 Districts, 101 Sub divisions, 534 Blocks and 8,463 Panchayats.The

responsibilities of GP include:

Rendering assistance in the implementation of developmental schemes pertaining to the village;

Identification of beneficiaries for the implementation of developmental schemes pertaining to the

village. Provided that in case the Gram Sabha fails to identify the beneficiaries within a reasonable

time, the Gram Panchayat shall identify the beneficiaries;

Procuring voluntary labour and contributions, in kind or in cash or both, for community welfare

programmes

Providing all assistance in the programmes of mass education and family welfare within the village

Providing all assistance in the programmes of mass education and family welfare within the village;

Promotion of unity and harmony among all sections of society in the village;

Seeking clarifications from the Mukhiya, Up-Mukhiya and members of the Gram Panchayat about any

particular activity, scheme, income and expenditure; and

Discussing and recommending appropriate action with regard to reports of the Vigilance Committee

such other matters as may be prescribed.

As per Bihar Panchayati Raj Act 2006 every gram panchayat will be constituted as a standing committee

and will be lead by a Mukhiya and one member from each territorial constituency. All the members of gram

panchayat are to be selected through direct elections and 50 percent of the posts should be kept reserved

for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes. Further 50 percent of the seats in each

category- general and special caste should be reserved for women. Each gram panchayat has tenure of 5

years during which the mukhiya convenes gram sabhas and presides over its meetings.

As per Bihar Panchayati Raj Act 2006 gram panchayats are responsible for Construction, repair and

maintenance of drinking water wells, tanks, ponds, hand pumps, prevention and control of water pollution,

and maintenance of rural water supply schemes. Similarly panchayat has given responsibility of rural

sanitation like; Cleaning of public roads, drains, tanks, wells and other public places, maintenance and

regulation of burning and burial grounds, construction and maintenance of public latrines, disposal of

unclaimed corpses and carcasses, management and control of washing and bathing ghats and upgradation

of environment and prevention of its degradation.

However, as per information collection from PHED, Bihar (Government Order), panchayat has been given

responsibility of construction and maintenance of public infrastructure like hand pumps but they can only

assist PHED for construction and maintenance of piped water supply schemes (PWS). Thus, devolution of

power for operation and maintenance of PWS is not being handed over to panchayats.

Further each block will have a PANCHAYAT SAMITI having jurisdiction over the entire Block excluding

such portions of the Block as are included in or are under the authority of a Municipality or a Cantonment

Board constituted under any law for the time being in force. The Panchayat Samiti shall have directly

elected members from the Panchayat Samiti’s territorial constituencies, members of Lok Sabha/members

of the Legislative Assembly of the State falling in the Panchayat Samiti area, members of Rajya Sabha and


68


members of the State Legislative Council, who are registered as electors within the Panchayat Samiti Area

and all the Mukhiyas of the Gram Panchayats falling within the Panchayat Samiti area.

At district level Zila Parishads will function with jurisdiction of the entire district excluding such portion of the

district as are included in or under the authority of a Municipality or Cantonment Board constituted under

any law for the time being in force. Zila Parishad shall consist of the members directly elected from

territorial constituencies in the district, the Pramukhs of all Panchayat Samitis in the District, members of

the Lok Sabha and the members of the State Legislative Assembly who represent any part which falls

wholly or partly within the district and whose constituency falls within the district, the members of the Rajya

Sabha and the members of the State Legislative Council who are registered as electors within the district

3.1.5 Village Heath, Nutrition & Sanitation Committees (VHNSCs)

No dedicated structure like Village Water & Sanitation Committees (VWSCs) was found in selected

panchayats of Bihar, however, the structure of VHNSCs was found in some of the contacted Panchayats.

VHNSCs were actually created under NRHM mandated to look into health issues moreover, these

empowered committees were found inactive during filed visits. VWSC are chaired by the Sarpanch (the

elected head of the Gram Panchayat).

3.2 Development Partners

These development partners are working in the rural Bihar in areas of livelihood, health issues, capacity

building/skill development, and also providing policy level as well as technical support to PHED.

3.2.1 UNICEF

UNICEF is providing technical support to PHED for providing water and sanitation related services.

UNICEF has placed 3 consultants within the PHED department; one consultant with the water quality cell

and other two with the CCDU cell

UNICEF has prepared manuals to enhance understanding of Arsenic, its impact, and mitigation.

UNICEF has also organised rigorous training for chemists and analysts

UNICEF is assisting Bihar with a range of other issues, including its high rates of child labour, school

dropouts, and low learning levels and illiteracy, particularly among girls, Muslims and scheduled caste

children, who face discrimination in the education system and society in general

3.2.2 DFID-SWASTH-WATSAN-Bihar

SWASTH programme has been designed for convergent actions primarily from three service delivery

departments of the Government of Bihar, viz, the Department for Health and Family Welfare (DoHFW),

Social Welfare Department (SWD) and Public Health Engineering Department (PHED). DFID-SWASTH is

working closely with the PHED on the issue of water quality in an integrated manner addressing the critical

gaps in the rural water quality management of Bihar. Large scale interventions are ongoing under

SWASTH, to support this Reform Support Unit (RSU) set up within Bihar State Water & Sanitation Mission.

The RSU effectively manages, oversees, supports, and monitors the ongoing interventions including

activities undertaken under DFID-SWASTH in water, water quality and sanitation including systems


69


strengthening. RSU is currently involved in strengthening the O&M of water treatment facility; operation and

maintenance policy of water supply schemes; piloting water quality interventions with effective delivery

mechanisms and development of evidence based research & IEC for fluoride management.

3.2.3 Mahila Samakhaya

Mahila Samakya is a central Government project aimed at empowering women through education, and was

initiated in 1992. Originally the programme was focused on social development with women’s groups

mobilised around social issues, but it has now also embraced savings and credit. In Bihar, Mahila Samakya

started federating SHGs in 2000, and is currently working in 13 districts through 8039 SHGs and 166075

members.

3.2.4 Bihar Rural Livelihood Project (Jeevika)

Jeevika, the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Programme (BRLP), started in 2006 as a Government of Bihar and

World Bank programme. BRLP aims to improve rural livelihoods and the social and economic

empowerment of women and the rural poor by organising them into groups, and increasing access to credit

and services. Jeevika supports SHGs taking up social mobilisation activities and addresses health,

nutrition, and water and sanitation issues. The programme is currently ongoing in 8 districts and will be

scaled up across the state under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission. Jeevika has 59105 SHGs and

192000 members.

3.3 Conclusions

During interactions at different levels, it was observed that there is no structured organization / office at

Block / GP level. Thus, establishment of bottom up approach of project delivery as desired in NRDWP

and NBA guideline is not being undertaken. Further this is also delaying the process of

decentralisation. On these lines, we would recommend the establishing and strengthening of

institutional structure at block and village level so that process of decentralisation could be achieved

and community driven approach could be setup.

Further to this it was also seen that DWSM consultants are not placed at DWSC/DWSM level which is

hindering the IEC activities under the project (NRDWP & NBA) thus, it is recommended that DWSMs

are placed for project sustainability.

Mechanical and civil are the major wings providing technical service. Construction is being taken up by

the civil wing while Mechanical wing looks after operations like getting electricity connection and

operation of machines. Both wings are headed by technically expert groups however, lack of

coordination was observed among them at district and sub-divisional level which generally leads to

delay in project delivery.

Further, acute shortage of manpower was observed at the level of Assistant Engineers, Junior

Engineers, Pipe Inspectors, Khalasi, Plumber, Mistry and Operators affecting project formulation,

implementation, monitoring and repair of schemes. While interaction with the junior level staff, the

capability gap was also observed. It is to be noted that junior level staff are regularly interacting with

the community for project delivery and currently the emerging project needs are dynamic in nature.

Thus, augmentation of soft skills for better service delivery could be adopted.


operation & maintenance of the schemes. Very few schemes have been transferred to panchayats as

they are not adequately equipped and do not have requisite resources, they are not been able to

handle O & M of the schemes.


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4.1 Role of different Stakeholders in Service delivery

The proposed social assessment study has a mandate of identifying the stakeholders in water supply in the

rural areas who could impact implementation of water supply project so that Fully Covered (FC) status

could be achieved. This section presents the stakeholder analysis – identifying stakeholders at different

levels, mapping key expectations and issues and concerns thereof. This section has been prepared after

detailed consultations with various stakeholders, diverse inputs received from them and observations of the

study team. The table below presents the key stakeholders with their direct/ indirect roles and the activities

performed by them.

Table 4.1: Stakeholders involved in Rural Water Supply Scheme

Key Stakeholders

Role – Direct/ Indirect

Strengths Weakness Opportunities Threats

State level

Public Health Engineering Department

Direct It is the state nodal agency responsible for providing drinking water and sanitation facilities in the rural areas of the state and implements the drinking water supply and sanitation projects under the National Rural Drinking Water Plan (NRDWP), Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), State Plan and other external assistance programs

Technically competent group which can do effectively if they work through community participation by putting a mechanism of getting community response on all their activities.

Less staffed

Lacks soft skills

Struggling with water related issues

Depletion of ground water level due to low rainfall/flood zone remains under water

Deterioration of water quality due to water depletion, bacterial contamination due to population pressure and open defecation

Ensuring expansion of the organization and timely completion of projects

Should consider users as customers

Have to come out of the thought process of being providers

Building of soft skills so that they could implement participatory development models

Requires orientation on Public Health issues

It may happen that community participation is not achieved as desired

It may happen that due to casteism at local level no support on community mobilisation

Political pressure

Non Convergence of programmes

State Water and Sanitation Mission

Direct Bihar State Water & Sanitation Mission (BSWSM) is nodal agency for implementation of total Sanitation Campaign & Swajaldhara in the

Struggling with following issues

Communities’ lack of sense of hygiene due to illiteracy, lack

Requires customised communication strategy for behaviour change as most of the population is


It may happen that due to casteism at local level, there is

4. Stakeholder Analysis


71


Key Stakeholders



state of Bihar. It has two missions – Project Management Unit (PMU) and Communication and Capacity Development (CCDU).

Technically competent group for project delivery

Implementation of M&E system

Undertakes IEC and capacity building to ensure that people will take care of the maintenance

of awareness, inadequate capacity building at the grass root level and lack of convergence

Lack of co-ordination with related departments like health, education social welfare.

Absence of front line workers at village level

illiterate

Establishment of coordination with related departments like health, education social welfare.

Appointment of VWSCs and training of its members on different aspects

no support for community mobilisation

Political pressure


They may have to pay more for providing services to poor

UNICEF Direct Technically competent body- has huge potential of providing technical support

No issues Is involved at the policy level, therefore assists the PHED which in turn works with the grass root level organizations.

May face problem of poor coordination

DFID-SWASTH-WATSAN-Bihar

Direct Works on convergent actions primarily from three service delivery departments of the Government of Bihar, the Department for Health and Family Welfare (DoHFW), Social Welfare Department (SWD), and Public Health Engineering Department (PHED). Therefore having close working relationship with three main departments working on issues of health, hygiene and social welfare

Technically competent body thus helping PHED on the issue of water quality in an integrated manner addressing

Though a lot of effort has been put on convergence at State & District level but the same process does not trickle down at block & village level- for example resource persons such as Anganwadi workers, ANM and Asha didi does not work in a converged manner

Work closely and provide continuous support for strengthening the O&M of water treatment facility, water quality management, IEC etc.

Should help in establishing coordination with related departments like health, education social welfare.



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Key Stakeholders



the critical gaps in the rural water quality management of Bihar

Development Partners – Mahila Samakhaya

Indirect Working in rural Bihar in the areas of livelihood, health issues, capacity building/ skill development

They have huge potential as they are already working at the grass root level and have community support with 8039 SHGs and 166075 members who could be involved for better governance at community level

The organization has a limited coverage for their interventions.

They can be utilized to reach communities, thereby motivating and generating awareness amongst the rural community regarding the rural water supply schemes

They can also be involved in mobilizing women groups within the villages by spreading their geographical coverage

Can be involved for any kind of campaign for awareness generation


Development Partners – Bihar Rural Livelihood Project (Jeevika)

Indirect They have huge potential as they are already working at the grass root in 8 districts level and have community support with 59105 SHGs and 192000 members who could be involved for better governance at community level

Their community mobilisation models and activity tracking systems are holistic

The organizations have a limited role in current context

They can be utilized to reach communities, thereby motivating and generating awareness amongst the rural community regarding the rural water supply schemes

They can also be involved in mobilizing women groups within the villages by spreading their geographical coverage

Can be involved for any kind of campaign for awareness generation



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Key Stakeholders



District level

District Water & Sanitation Mission & Public Health Engineering Department

Direct District level agency for implementation of total Sanitation Campaign & Swajaldhara

Technically competent group can be effective if they work in community participation by putting a mechanism of getting community response on their activities.

Less staffed

Lacks soft skills

Lack of technical resource persons with expertise in social mobilization, IEC/ HRD activities as well as sanitation, health and hygiene experts to strengthen rural water supply scheme

Lack of efforts to motivate community participation, primarily all the planning of implementation of activities is done by the Junior Engineer and Block Coordination, therefore there is no strong mechanism of getting community response on their activities


Should consider users as customers

Have to come out of the aura of providers




It may happen that due to casteism, local level does not support community mobilisation

Political pressure


Contractors Direct Helping the Department in scheme implementation

Securing steady business revenues at least costs

Less experienced contractors for specialized work of the drinking water supply sector

Potential to inflate the projects costs.

Potential to keep community annoyed by providing poor quality services

They need to be monitored closely so that they deliver better quality output- regulatory control with feedback loop of beneficiaries to be put in place

They may lose business

Low Profit margins due to close monitoring by the department and community, hence no interest at low margins

NGOs Indire Non government They have huge NGOs could be No negative


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Key Stakeholders



ct bodies are engaged in water and sanitation related activities

Know the participatory development models but currently not using them in rural services delivery.

potential as they are close to the community.

They can be utilized to reach communities, thereby supporting W&S program

Can be used for any kind of campaign for connecting households to the main sewers.

appointed for communication and outreach activities of sector program

They can also be involved in mobilizing women groups within the ward

They should be used for social monitoring of sector program like city sanitation committee

They can also be involved for providing water supply and sanitation services like Rural Sanitary Marts and Production centers

impact

Block level

Block Resource Centre (BRC)

Direct They have huge potential if they are properly staffed and oriented towards service delivery

These are grass root level institution involved in effective implementation of all activities related to Water and Sanitation and are directly connected with the Gram Panchayats, Village Water and Sanitation Committees. However these are non functional due to inadequate availability of manpower


Have to come out of the notion of providers





Political pressure


Gram Panchayat level

Panchayati Raj Institutions

Direct They are elected members of community and they are mostly believed by the community.

Too much politics and casteism involved as Mukhiya or a

They should be involved in motivating community for taking part in water

Non capability to handle finance and may land up in trouble

Contributions may


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Key Stakeholders



It is also observed that they enjoy respect of their community in most of the contacted panchayats

Very close to the community

They are basically first point of contact of community thus, have potential in community mobilisation for operation and maintenance of W&S services including delivery of piped water supply and solid waste management.

Expect good quality water

Expect regular water supply

Timely delivery of funds

member of the dominant caste (powerful) decides who will get what benefit

They are not actively involved in a dialogue with the community on tariff for maintenance of water supply systems

There is a dearth of funds, functionaries and infrastructure facilities for PRI as a result of which the actual designated duties and functions as per the Bihar Panchayati Raj Act are not being performed by the local bodies. Presently, they are not actually engaged in implementation of development programs and schemes but their role in governance is at a nascent stage

and sanitation management for sustainability of service delivery so that financial viability of the schemes is not affected.


They should play an active role in the planning, implementation and management of W&S services including domestic waste disposal.

They also need to be involved in dialogue with the community for ensuring piped water connections, timely payment of tariff and support in management.

not be deposited by the villagers

VWSCs may become more empowered than PRI, hence PRIs may not co-operate

May lose community land

Women Direct Water is a basic necessity for all more importantly women as they are primary users, providers and managers of water in their households and are the guardians of household hygiene and health related issues

Interested in safe drinking water and

They are not aware of issues related to unsafe water and improper sanitation They are mostly illiterates and also not empowered

Women are not the empowered section of the


Women groups organised by Mahila Samakhya could be involved for active participation in W&S related issues

Heath hazards due to stagnant water and sewerage

Higher tariffs

May come across social issues due to in migrant labors


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Key Stakeholders



proper sanitation however, not aware of issues related to unsafe water and improper sanitation

Expects Good quality water for domestic purposes and also for cattle purposes as well.

Expects regular water supply with appropriate timings and reasonable durations.

Adequate number of stand posts as per the requirement of villagers

society in rural area

Women do not have much say in their families leave alone their participation in the public meetings.

For taking any decision they are dependent on the male members of the family.

Women are mostly illiterate and are not aware about any development programs or initiatives

Women collect the water for all domestic use from the hand pumps either installed at their houses or from the public hand pumps.

In the model of Mahila Samakhya similar groups developed at village level for active participation in W&S related issues


Community including SC/OBC/EBC

Direct Water is a basic necessity for all, more importantly for the socially economically weaker section of the society who are generally not able to afford the services and are facing serious problems due to unhygienic and unhealthy condition

Interested in safe drinking water and proper sanitation however, not aware of issues related to unsafe water and improper sanitation

Expects good quality water for domestic

They are not aware of issues related to unsafe water and improper sanitation

Are not the empowered section of the society in rural area

They do not have much say in community meetings.

They are mostly illiterate and are not aware about any development programs or initiatives

Pro poor policy is to be taken up

Livelihood groups formed under Bihar Rural Livelihood Project (Jeevika) could be involved for active participation in W&S related issues

In the model of Jeevika, similar socially backward and marginalised groups could be developed (this also has a mandate in State Rural Livelihood Mission) at village level for active


Higher tariffs




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Key Stakeholders



purposes and also for livestock as well.

Expects regular water supply with appropriate timings and reasonable durations.

Adequate number of stand posts in villages

They expect special consideration for their requirements and needs while program planning



Anganwadi Centres (AWCs)

Direct Are the basis institutes of health care system and work under the Integrated Child Development Services program to combat child hunger and malnutrition. It provides basic health care in villages include counselling to pregnant & lactating mothers, adolescent girls and supply, nutrition education and supplementation, as well as pre-school activities. The centres are also used as depots for oral rehydration salts, basic medicines and contraceptives.

They are also point of contact of community thus, have potential in community mobilisation for operation and maintenance of W&S services including delivery of piped water supply and solid waste management.

There are various issues in functioning of AWCs, primarily these do not have their own buildings – are run in rented buildings or at a public place with no water and sanitation facility

As these are the basic centres of health care and hygiene, no proper resources are provided to them

The children attending the Anganwadi either has to go home for urination/ defecation or have to sit in the open as very less Anganwadis have toilet facility within their premises. Similar is the case with water facility, the water for drinking & hand washing is

They should be involved in motivating community towards safe water and sanitation services through students

Should be involved in VWSCs as members and then trained in participatory development models




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Key Stakeholders



stored for the children in the bucket – which is collected from the nearby hand pump. Therefore the children though taught about hygiene are not so keen in practising it.

Schools Direct Schools and teachers are respected among the community. This is a place where children spend most of their time and learn various important things under the supervision and direction of teachers.

They are also point of contact of community thus, have potential in community mobilisation for operation and maintenance of W&S services including delivery of piped water supply and solid waste management.

Due to the non availability of running water supply in the school toilets, the students leave them dirty which cannot be used by other students. In addition to it there is no full time sweeper available in the school for cleaning toilets regularly therefore the school administration has to avail services on contractual/ day to day basis of either sweeper, helper etc for getting the toilets cleaned. Same is the case with teachers, it is not always possible for them to take a bucket of water while going for toilet therefore they prefer to use either the nearby panchayat ghar or go home. Also in most of the schools

They should be involved in motivating community towards safe water and sanitation services through students

Should be involved in VWSCs as members and then trained in participatory development models


They also need to be involved in dialogue with the community for ensuring piped water connections, timely payment of tariff and support in management.



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Key Stakeholders



there is no separate toilet for teachers and they have to use the toilets meant for the students which is mostly very filthy

Village Health Nutrition and Sanitation Committees

(VHNSC)

Indirect Is not an empowered committee for ensuring delivery of services related to water

However, if they are organised they can as well be entrusted the responsibility of looking at water & sanitation issues

In most of the places it is not formed or if formed is non-functional or inactive

The members have been provided with several trainings on sanitation related issues but these are limited to themselves, proper dissemination of information from their end to the community members not there

Primarily inactive institution and requires regular capacity building and awareness generation.

The intended benefit from these capacity building and awareness generation programme does not reach the community therefore more focused approach required

As they do not have mandate to look after water facilities thus, they may not turned up as envisaged

Conflicts may arise on distribution and use of water

VHNSCs can be hijacked by politically influenced groups

VHNSCs may become another bureaucratic setup for the villagers

VHNSCs may overlook PRI and may land in trouble

Source: MM Study

4.2 Key Strengths and Weaknesses of Rural Water Supply and

Sanitation in Bihar

4.2.1 Key strengths

High design standards and reasonable construction quality.

Have support of organizations like UNICEF, JEEVIKA and Mahila Samakhya

Formation of Water & Sanitation Missions being carried up – at state and district levels – to adopt

demand driven approach in the sector

4.2.2 Key weaknesses

The current institutional structure of the BSWSM does not fully subscribe to the principles of the

demand driven approach that the state is contemplating to scale up.

Top down approach of service delivery as there is no structured organization / office at Block / GP

level. Further this is also delaying the process of decentralisation. Devolution of powers to Zilla

Parishad and Panchayat has not happened as desired. Common facilities are under control of PHED

only.


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Further to this, it was also seen that DWSM consultants are not placed at DWSC/DWSM level which is

hindering the soft component / IEC activities under the project (NRDWP & NBA)

Lack of coordination between the mechanical and civil wings at district and sub-divisional level; this

generally end up resulting delay in project delivery.

VWSCs are not formed thus, involvement of panchayats remains limited in planning, implementation,

operation & maintenance of the schemes.

Presently the state is mostly covered by hand pumps (96.43%) and very less number of completed

schemes is available (2.35%)

Currently under the World Bank program, the state is planning an extensive network of rural water

supply infrastructure mostly piped water scheme. However, availability of electricity remains a concern.

The Village Health Nutrition and Sanitation Committees formed under NRHM do not have the mandate

of looking at issues related to water thus, are not in a position to take up the responsibility of O&M


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5.1 Socio Cultural & Economic

The social life in Bihar heavily gravitates around the villages as only 11.2 percent of total population resides

in urban areas. Vast majority of them is still illiterate (63.82 percent are literate as per census 2011). The

study on social assessment was conducted with an objective to examine and analyze the dynamics and

mechanism of community with diverse socio-economic indicators. MM team interacted with community

members, representatives of Gram Panchayat and Panchayat Samiti to carve out the diversity and caste

dynamics in the state

Even as people of Bihar are excessively dependent on agriculture as compared to other states, agriculture

is not in a good shape. Over the years there has been stagnation in the agricultural sector. Agricultural

productivity in Bihar is one of the lowest in the country, as is the income generated from agriculture. In a

rural income dominated economy, sufficient agricultural growth can reduce poverty. However, in the case

of Bihar, low agricultural growth has come in the way of poverty reduction. Despite huge potential, the

agricultural growth rate has remained sluggish due to low productivity, lack of infrastructure, poor linkages

between farms and markets as well as institutional constraints. Environmental factors like floods and

drought also cause fluctuations in agricultural outputs in Bihar. Consequently, allied sectors are also

afflicted with wide gaps in productivity and low realization of potential.

Land still remains the measure of family’s prestige and social standing in rural areas. However, distribution

of operational landholdings is extremely skewed as majority of the population of rural households has less

than 0.001 hectare to cultivate followed by marginal holdings, the reason being that the land has been

divided amongst the sons of the households. According to the 2011 census, the population of the state of

Bihar 103,804,637 persons, consisting of 52.2 percentage males and 47.8 percentage females. The

average population of a district of the state is 2,731,701. The state has recorded 25.07 percent decadal

population growth with a range from 18.83 to 30.65 for Gopalganj and Madhepura respectively.

The population of Hindus in Bihar is about 83 percent, whereas the Muslim population is to 17 percent. The

rest comprise 0.06 percent Christians, 0.02 percent Sikhs, 0.02 percent Buddhists, 0.02 percent Jains,

while 0.05 percent belong to other religions about 0.06 percent did not state their religion (Source: Bihar at

Glance 2009). The state has about 15.7 percent of Scheduled Caste (SC) population and 0.9 percent

Schedule Tribe (ST) population (as per 2001 census).

The 29 notified Scheduled Castes in Bihar are Bantar, Bauri, Bhangi, Bhogta, Bhuiya,Bhumji, Chamar,

Mochi, Chaupal, Dabgar, Dasadh, Dhangad, Dharhi, Dhobi, Dom, Ghasi, Halalkhor, Hari, Kanjar, Kurariar,

Lalbegi, Mehtar, Musahar, Nat, Pan, Pasi, Rajwar, Sawasi and Turi. Vast majority of them are landless and

poor. Their living conditions are pathetic. However, in recent years, there has been growing consciousness

among them of their rights and entitlements.

The Government of Bihar has formed the State Mahadalit Mission for the development of the most

deprived amongst the Scheduled castes. The Commission observed that out of the 22 scheduled castes in

Bihar, 20 are acutely deprived in terms of educational, economic, socio-cultural and political status. The

Commission identified these 20 castes (Bantar, Bauri, Bhogta, Bhuiya, Chaupal, Dabgar, Dasadh,

Dhangad, Hari/Dom/Mehtar, Dhobi, Ghasi, Halalkhor Kanjar, Kurariar, Lalbegi, Musahar, Nat, Pan, Pasi,

5. Diversity in Bihar


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Rajwar, Sawasi and Turi) primarily on the basis of their literacy rate. The literacy rate of Mahadalits is 16.7

percent against 28.5 percent of scheduled castes in Bihar (Source: Mahadalit Mission Document).

The dominant group of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) is the Yadavs, Koeris, and Kurmis. There has

been an improvement in their socioeconomic indicators because of affirmative action and political

ascendancy, and the political power is also in their hands in most cases. At the same time, many OBC

communities remain both economically and socially deprived. Although the OBCs do not suffer social

disabilities as the Dalits do, they seem to have been enjoying lower socio-economic status compared to the

upper castes. Though upper or forward-caste Hindus Brahmins, Bhumihars, Rajputs, and Kayasthas are

also present but in limited numbers.

As per 2011 Census, the literacy rate of the state is 63.82 percent. Out of which male literates are 73.4

percent and female literates are 53.3 percent. Further the urban literacy rate stands at 78.75 percent (Male

84.42 percent and Female 72.36 percent) as compared to compared to rural literacy rate of 61.83 percent

(Male 71.9 percent and Female 50.82 percent).

Table 5.1: Bihar: Demographic Indicators

Particulars Bihar India

Total population (Census 2011) (in millions)

103.8 1210.19

Decadal growth rate (Census 2011) (%) 25.1 17.64

Crude Birth Rate (AHS 2010-11*) 28.9 22.17

Crude Death Rate (AHS 2010-11) 7.3 8.04

Natural Growth Rate (AHS 2010-11) 19.5 17.64 ( 2011 census data)

Infant Mortality Rate (AHS 2010-11) 52 44

Female Sex Ratio (Census 2011) (per 1000 males)

916 940

Schedule Caste population (‘000) (2001 Census)

13049

Literacy rate (Census 2011) (%) 63.82 74.04

Source: * Annual Health Survey 2010-11 and Census of India 2001 and 2011.

Bihar has around 49.6 million women and 54.2 million men. While the sex ratio of the state declined from

919 (Census of India, 2001) to 916 (Census of India, 2011), child sex ratio in the same period declined

steeply from 942 to 933. The age of marriage is increasing and the fertility rate is declining – both of which

are positive developments. However, high level of illiteracy coupled with a high maternal mortality rate –

both indicators of low human development of women – is a cause of alarming concern.

In brief, the society in Bihar reflects a great deal of diversity. Seen through the lens of social and economic

development, the society is divided along several axes. There exist huge socio-economic disparities among

different segments of the population, especially among different social groups. Women participation is

negligible in Gram Sabha, even if they are persuaded to participative they do not voice their issues and

demands.

Social structure of the blocks is fractured along caste lines. Relative positions in the caste hierarchy

determine social relationships, behavioral patterns, and cultural norms. Socio-economic structure revolves

around land ownership. Land reforms in Bihar have had limited impact and land distribution is skewed in

favour of few. Owners of large holdings belong to upper castes with some OBCs. The lower castes are


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small land owners or landless labourers. Although the lower castes form numerical majority in any village,

they reside outside the main village in tolas i.e. settlement clusters or hamlets.

Economic and social inequalities are interlinked. The power structure is concentrated in the hands of the

dominant castes, with people in politics or power. They dominate the activities of the village as well as their

own community. These people control the flow of resources and technology coming from outside, and take

all the benefits meant for the weaker sections. The phenomenon of the dominant caste and dominant

personalities among all castes is a common feature to all villages in this region.

About 80 per cent of workers are engaged in agriculture and allied activities. About two-fifths of workers are

cultivators and another two-fifths agricultural labourers (Census 2001). About 90 per cent of rural labourers

are agricultural labourers (Census 2001). However, the primary survey data is 92 percent for labourers.

Comparing the per capita income of the state, a substantial difference could be noted from India (INR

25661) and Bihar (INR 9586) for the year 2008-09. The above mentioned income is as a result of increase

i.e 17.37 percent from 2006-07 to 2008-09, which is 13.64 percent increase for India.

Table 5.2: Income Details in per capita

Per Capita Income

At Constant Price in INR (Base Year 1999-2000)

At Current Price in INR

2006-07 2007-08 (Provisional)

2008-09 (quick)

2006-07 2007-08 (Provisional)

2008-09 (quick)

Per Capita Income, Bihar

8167 8703 9586 9817 11135 12643

Per Capita Income, India

22580 24295 25661 29524 33283 38084

Source: Bihar at Glance 2009

Poverty is acute in the sampled panchayats, as high as 83.2 percent of the respondents were found living

in non pucca houses (of which 51.1 percent were having semi pucca houses), about 78.3 percent earn

their livelihood by working as agricultural labourer. Further about 85 percent of the contacted households

do not have separate kitchen, about 67 percent of the households covered have monthly income below

INR 5000/-. The situation further bad in case of marginalized community like mahadalits. Similarly the

monthly expenditure of most of the respondents (79%) is within INR 5000/-.

5.2 Rural Governance

In Bihar, strong footholds of caste and patriarchy are everyday realities in women’s lives. These two

institutions define and govern a woman’s status, her work, and agency. Yet, there are slow and steady

changes in the policy. Women’s reservation in the Panchayat is an important milestone in this regard but it

will take decades to get fruitful outcome. The ground reality is that though the women is elected as a

Mukhiya but all the operation and management is in the hands of her husband also called as “Mukhiya

Pati” which clearly demonstrates that women are still not empowered and do not have a say in decision

making.

The role of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) in governance, planning and monitoring of development

programs/schemes is crucial. But, ironically, there is a dearth of funds, functionaries and infrastructure

facilities for PRIs as a result of which the actual designated duties and functions as per the Bihar


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Panchayati Raj Act are not being performed by the local bodies. Presently, they are largely engaged in

implementation of development programs and schemes but their role in governance is at a nascent stage,

therefore they require capacity building support in this regard.

For taking all important decisions relating to any panchayats, a Gram Sabha is held. Gram Sabha is a body

consisting of persons registered in the electoral rolls relating to a village comprised within the area of

Panchayat at the village level. As the Gram Sabha prepares plans and budgets and audits reports, one

may argue that it has effective control over the Gram Panchayat, but not necessarily in reality. The legal

position is different. The Gram Sabha makes recommendations and suggestions, and the Gram Panchayat

gives due consideration to its recommendations and suggestions. There is no legal obligation on the Gram

Panchayat to accept the recommendations and suggestions of Gram Sabha. This has created the problem

of Mukhiya Raj instead of Gram Swaraj. This has made the Gram Sabha meaningless.

In the surveyed villages, a number of people had not even heard the name of Gram Sabha, so participation

is a distant goal. They usually call it Aam Sabha. Panchayat members and Block officials state that Gram

Sabhas are held regularly (26th January, 1

st May, 15

th August, 2

nd October – these are the dates wherein

Gram Sabha is held, apart from these it held on need basis) in these villages but villagers do not

participate. Villagers claim non-participation because their plans and demands are not considered, and

everything is decided by the Mukhiya, officials and dominant personality of major castes and communities.

5.3 Available water Resources

Earlier the rural community in Bihar was

majorly dependant on the wells of their water

needs. Currently it has shifted and people

largely depend on the hand pumps also called

as “Chapakal” in rural Bihar. In spite of ample

water resources because of high dependence

on groundwater for drinking as well as irrigation

purpose (85 percent) the per capita water

availability is declining day by day. Reports of

water portal suggest that the gross per capita

water availability in Bihar may decline from

1,950 m3/yr in 2001 to 1,170 m3/yr in 2050;

reason being decline in surface water coverage

of rivers, shifting of rivers, huge sedimentation

in river beds thus, reducing porosity of water

and ground recharge (Source: Water portal:

Paper of Mr Ghosh, A.N.Collage). Due to over extraction of ground water, absence of water harvesting,

awareness & technology, poor sewage and drainage facilities there is alarming rise of water pollution.

Thus, water is no longer potable. There are also high levels of Arsenic, Fluoride and Iron in groundwater in

some districts which is an area of concern.

Similar to other natural resources, water (both ground water and surface water) is also in abundant in

Bihar. The state received considerable rainfall i.e. 1271.9 mm and the average number of rainy days/year

i.e. 52.5. The Zone-II North East Alluvial Plains receives the highest rainfall ranging between 1200-1700


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mm, the Zone-I North West Alluvial Plains receives rainfall between 1040-1450 mm, and the Zone-III,

South Bihar Alluvial Plains receives the lowest rainfall ranging between 990-1240 mm.

Further the state receives considerable water supply from the rivers which flow within the state territory, of

which Ganga is the main river joined by tributaries with their sources in the Himalayas. The tributaries are

Saryu (Ghaghra), Gandak, Burhi Gandak, Bagmati, Kamla-Balan and Mahananda. Apart from above, there

are few other rivers namely Sone, Uttari Koyal, Punpun, Panchane and Karmnasha which start from the

adjoining plateaus and meet in Ganges or its associate rivers after flowing towards north. The above

mentioned network of rivers makes the water available for irrigation purposes and may help in generating

the hydro-thermal energy for the state (Source: Statistics of water published by Central Water Commission

in 2010).

Table 5.3: Water Availability in Details

Type of water Details

Surface water The surface water resource in the state includes 69000 ha of ponds and tanks, 9000 ha of oxbow lakes, 7200 ha of reservoirs, 3200 km of rivers and 1 lakh ha of riverine and other flood plains.

Groundwater The annual replenishable ground water resource in the state is estimated to be 29.19 BCM. The net annual ground water availability is 27.42 BCM. The annual ground water draft is estimated to be 10.77 BCM making the stage of ground water development 39%. None of the administrative divisions (called blocks) in the state are classified as Over Exploited, Critical or Semi critical with respect to the groundwater status. The stage of groundwater development exceeds 50% in Nalanda, Jehanabad, Begusarai, Siwan, Saran and Patna.

Water quality Groundwater quality in parts of the state is affected by high Fluoride (4157 habitations), Iron (18673 habitations) and Arsenic (1590 habitations).

Contaminant Affected Districts

Fluoride (>1.5 mg/l)

Aurangabad, Banka, Buxar, Bhabua(Kaimur), Jamui, Munger, Nawada, Rohtas, Supaul

Iron (>1.0 mg/l) Aurangabad, Begusarai, Bhojpur, Buxar, Bhabua (Kaimur), East Champaran, Gopalganj, Katihar, Khagaria, Kishanganj, Lakhiserai, Madhepura, Muzafferpur, Nawada, Rohtas, Saharsa, Samastipur, Siwan, Supaul, West Champaran

Nitrate (>45 mg/l) Aurangabad, Banka, Bhagalpur, Bhojpur, Bhabua, Patna, Rohtas, Saran, Siwan

Arsenic (>0.05 mg/l)

Begusarai, Bhagalpur, Bhojpur, Buxar, Darbhanga, Katihar, Khagaria, Kishanganj, Lakhiserai, Munger, Patna, Purnea, Samastipur, Saran, Vaishali

Source: Statistics of water published by Central Water Commission in 2010

5.4 Rural Drinking Water

Status

As per NRDWP norms, the habitations are

categorized into three different categories

basically as per lpcd;

Fully Covered (FC)- Habitations

getting 40 lpcd water supply for all its

population is termed as FC


86


Partially Covered (PC)- Habitations which are getting a supply of 1 to 39 lpcd

Quality Affected (QA)- Habitations with no safe source, ex. Fluoride and A Arsenic affected.

Assessment of the data collected from DDWS website, it could be inferred that about 82 percent of the

habitations in Bihar and 85 percent of the rural population is fully covered so far water availability is

concerned. Further about 7 percent of the habitations are partially covered. Another 12 percent of the

habitations which has only 7 percent of the total rural population has water quality affected (Fig. 5.1 & 5.2).

Figure 5.1: Distribution of Habitations by Water Availability

Figure 5.2: Distribution of Population by Water Availability

Source: Data collected from DDWS, Feb. 2013

Table 5.4: Status of Rural Habitation with Respect to Drinking Water Supply

S. No.

District

Total Fully Covered Partially Covered Quality Affected

Habitation

Population

in lakhs

Habitation

Population in lakhs

Habitation

Population in lakhs

Habitation

Population in lakhs

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1 Araria 2350 25.62 1227 17.34 0 0 1123 8.28

2 Arwal 569 7.11 516 6.29 53 0.82 0 0

3 Aurangabad 3077 22.63 2947 21.7 126 0.9 4 0.03

4 Banka 3069 18.62 1253 10 0 0 1816 8.62

5 Begusarai 3091 30.85 1758 24.26 0 0 1333 6.58

6 Bhagalpur 2807 23.56 2491 20.62 22 0.28 294 2.65

7

Bhojpur(Aara) 1282 22.27 1242 21.93 40 0.34 0 0

8 Buxar 2542 15.42 2351 14.23 52 0.49 139 0.7

9 Darbhanga 3120 37.84 2606 32.91 511 4.92 3 0.01

10 Gaya 5715 40.07 5197 35.85 465 3.67 53 0.55

11.7

6.7

81.6

QualityAffectedPartiallyCoveredFullyCovered

7.0

8.3

84.6

QualityAffected

PartiallyCovered

FullyCovered


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S. No.

District

Total Fully Covered Partially Covered Quality Affected

Habitation

Population

in lakhs

Habitation

Population in lakhs

Habitation

Population in lakhs

Habitation

Population in lakhs

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

11 Gopalganj 6025 21.49 5648 18.88 377 2.61 0 0

12 Jamui 3373 15.51 3207 14.73 1 0 165 0.77

13 Jehanabad 1198 9.81 1148 9.18 50 0.63 0 0

14

Kaimur (Bhabua) 3087 15.1 3033 14.46 48 0.61 6 0.03

15 Katihar 1838 25.66 1727 24.35 2 0.06 109 1.25

16 Khagaria 1031 13.46 978 12.74 0 0 53 0.72

17 Kishanganj 3084 12.92 2463 11.37 0 0 621 1.55

18 Lakhisarai 1532 7.68 894 5.28 499 1.95 139 0.45

19 Madhepura 2494 21.07 1710 17.75 0 0 784 3.32

20 Madhubani 2644 42.03 2248 36.91 396 5.12 0 0

21 Munger 1601 9.58 1032 5.43 0 0 569 4.16

22 Muzaffarpur 2868 35.79 2804 35.08 64 0.71 0 0

23 Nalanda 2519 23.74 2051 19.7 338 3.11 130 0.93

24 Nawada 2242 19.97 2083 18.38 158 1.6 1 0

25

Pashchim Champaran 4428 34.01 4219 31.78 209 2.24 0 0

26 Patna 2554 33.76 1869 27.6 641 5.73 44 0.43

27

Purba Champaran (Motihari) 4285 45.59 2950 28.92 1335 16.67 0 0

28 Purnia 4768 30.03 3741 25.36 0 0 1027 4.67

29 Rohtas 1568 24.21 1384 21.74 122 1.42 62 1.04

30 Saharsa 2895 17.1 1251 10.49 0 0 1644 6.61

31 Samastipur 3971 39.92 3840 39.3 1 0.01 130 0.61

32 Saran 4765 35.76 4447 32.3 310 3.36 8 0.09

33 Sheikhpura 316 5.31 214 4.13 0 0 102 1.18

34 Sheohar 438 6.42 332 4.11 106 2.31 0 0

35 Sitamarhi 1926 33.8 1729 29.75 197 4.05 0 0

36 Siwan 5558 30.33 5055 25.13 503 5.2 0 0

37 Supaul 3940 19.46 1762 11.68 0 0 2178 7.78

38 Vaishali 3072 30.68 2454 23.71 581 6.54 37 0.43

Total 107642 904.18 87861 765.37 7207 75.35 12574 63.44

Source DDWS

It is reported that out of total 107,642 habitations in Bihar 21.9 percent are dominated by SC followed by 20

percent minority and about 2 percent ST. Further about 27 percent are left wing extremist effected

habitation. As per policy of Government of Bihar most of the fully covered habitations are more in above

mentioned marginalized habitations.


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Table 5.5: Status of Rural Habitation with Respect to Drinking Water Supply (BY Caste)

Type of Habitations

Total Fully Covered

Partially Covered due to Slipped Back

Percentage of fully covered (%)

Percentage of partially covered (%)

Total 107,642 87,394 20, 248 81.19 18.81

SC 23,520 21,987 1,533 93.48 6.52

ST 1,952 1,885 67 96.57 3.43

Minority 21,514 20,318 1196 94.44 5.56

LWE 28,784 27,604 1,180 95.9 4.1 Source PHED Bihar

Table below reveals that only 3.57 percent of the habitations are covered by piped water supply schemes

of which 2.35 percent of the schemes are completed and remaining 1.22 percent is ongoing. Further 96.43

percent of the habitations are covered by hand pumps.

Table 5.6: Proportion of Rural Habitations Covered with Type of Water Supply Schemes in Bihar

S. No.

District Total Number of Habitations

Percent habitations covered with Piped Water Scheme

Percent habitations covered with Hand pumps

Completed On going

1 Araria 2350 1.66 1.45 96.89

2 Arwal 569 4.39 1.23 94.38

3 Aurangabad 3077 0.06 0.06 99.87

4 Banka 3069 6.19 14.47 79.34

5 Begusarai 3091 5.31 0.97 93.72

6 Bhagalpur 2807 1.46 8.8 89.74

7 Bhojpur(aara) 1282 7.1 1.87 91.03

8 Buxar 2542 2.87 0.2 96.93

9 Darbhanga 3120 0.9 0.83 98.27

10 Gaya 5715 3.5 0.12 96.38

11 Gopalganj 6025 0.15 0 99.85

12 Jamui 3373 4.71 0.09 95.20

13 Jehanabad 1198 12.85 0.92 86.23

14 Kaimur (Bhabua) 3087 0.68 0.13 99.19

15 Katihar 1838 1.9 0.22 97.88

16 Khagaria 1031 2.81 1.26 95.93

17 Kishanganj 3084 3.27 0.52 96.21

18 Lakhisarai 1532 0.52 1.37 98.11

19 Madhepura 2494 2.09 1.56 96.35

20 Madhubani 2644 2.61 2.12 95.27

21 Munger 1601 3.06 0.56 96.38

22 Muzaffarpur 2868 2.58 0.03 97.38

23 Nalanda 2519 4.17 0.87 94.96

24 Nawada 2242 3.17 0.0 96.83

25 Pashchim Champaran 4428 1.65 0.5 97.85


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S. No.

District Total Number of Habitations

Percent habitations covered with Piped Water Scheme

Percent habitations covered with Hand pumps

Completed On going

26 Patna 2554 4.74 1.41 93.85

27 Purba Champaran (Motihari) 4285 2.26 1.31 96.43

28 Purnia 4768 1.47 0.38 98.15

29 Rohtas 1568 0.96 0.32 98.72

30 Saharsa 2895 1.83 0.86 97.31

31 Samastipur 3971 1.31 1.06 97.63

32 Saran 4765 0.42 0.29 99.29

33 Sheikhpura 316 2.22 0.32 97.47

34 Sheohar 438 0.91 0.23 98.86

35 Sitamarhi 1926 2.02 0.73 97.25

36 Siwan 5558 0.49 0.07 99.44

37 Supaul 3940 2.28 1.24 96.47

38 Vaishali 3072 2.31 0 97.69

Total (N) and (%) 107642 2.35 1.22 96.43

Source DDWS

During Focus Group Discussion it was reported that about 48 LPCD of drinking water is required for daily

needs. The major issues that were highlighted by the respondents are as mentioned below;

Respondents are not satisfied with the quality of water. Problems of water contamination with Arsenic,

Fluoride and Iron and water being muddy were mentioned.

Due to quality problems in drinking water, villagers reported isolated cases of Typhoid and Diarrhea

and other stomach related problems

Community is not satisfied so far supply duration and pressure of water is concerned, even timing of

water supply was also not acceptable for the respondents.

5.5 Gender related issues in Bihar

Women constitute nearly 48 percent of the population in the state (Table 5.7) of which about 89 percent

reside in rural areas. On the literacy rate, Bihar has the lowest in the country. The literacy rate of women in

the state is further poor at 53.33 per cent as compared to 73.39 per cent literacy among men (provisional

Census 2011 data) ( Table 5.7) .

Table 5.7: Distribution of population by literacy and rural urban in Bihar

Population Total Rural Urban % Total % Rural % Urban

Persons 103,804,637 92,075,028 11,729,609 88.70 11.30

Males 54,185,347 47,983,851 6,201,496 88.56 11.44

Female 49,619,290 44,091,177 5,528,113 88.86 11.14

Literacy

Persons 54,390,254 46,478,818 7,911,436 63.82 61.83 78.75

Males 32,711,975 28,221,885 4,490,090 73.39 71.9 84.42

Female 21,678,279 18,256,933 3,421,346 53.33 50.82 72.36

Source: Census 2011


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Further, Bihar has a human development index of 0.367 which is much lower than the national figure of

0.472. Table 5.8 provides the health indicators from the National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3) that

support the fact that the status of women in the state is bad.

Table 5.8: Health Indicators for Women in Bihar

Particulars % of women with Low BMI % of Anemic Women

India 35.6 55.3

Highest 45.1 69.5

Lowest 11.2 32.8

Bihar 39.3 68.3

Source: Census 2011

The state has a sex ratio of 916 females for every 1,000 men (Census 2011). The state has high maternal

mortality rates. Though these have reduced over the years, but the figures are worrisome. Table 5.9 gives

the data on health indicators for the same.

Table 5.9: Health Indicators for Women in Bihar & India

Heath Indicators India Bihar

Crude Birth Rate 22.5 26.7

Crude Death Rate 7.3 7.2

Infant Mortality Rate 50 52

Still Birth rate 9 1

Neo Natal Mortality Rate 34 35

Child Mortality rate 14.1 14.7

Total Fertility Rate 2.6 3.9

Polio Rate 89% 69.1%

Maternal Maternity Ratio (MMR) 2007-09 212 261 Source: Annual Health Scurvy 2010-11 and SRS 2009

During focus group discussions, it was reported that in general village women do not own any property in

their names and do not get a share of parental property. It was also reported by the BPL women that

though their family had received Indra Awas dwellings but the land is not registered in name of female of

the households. Due to weak enforcement of laws protecting them, women continue to have little access to

land and property.

During interactions with women, many cases of physical violence (murder, beating, burning of not just the

panchayat candidates but their families as well), threats, and intimidation of women candidates in the 2006

Panchayat elections were narrated. In some cases Women candidates and their families had to face

violence for standing against male candidates who wanted to remain in power and get elected unopposed.

This above mentioned discussion clearly indicates that gender issues need to be addressed in order to

bring the females at par with their male counterparts in the State.


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During the participatory appraisal and focus group discussions at panchayat level our study team could

interact with the population and while discussing with them on different issues related to water and

sanitation the team could assess that the planned project will have mostly positive. However, a few social

impacts (negative) have also been discussed and as detailed in the following table.

Table 6.1: Anticipated Impact of the Project

Key Stakeholders Positive Impact Negative Impact

Public Health Engineering Department

They will be more equipped and staffed to overcome issues like

Depletion of ground water level

Deterioration of water quality Convergence of programmes


It may happen that due to casteism at local level no support on community mobilisation

Political pressure


State Water and Sanitation Mission

Attain sustainability in water and sanitation related service delivery

Can develop community beneficial model like pro-poor initiatives of providing safe drinking water to the poor and then collecting charges in instalments


It may happen that due to casteism at local level, there is no support for community mobilisation

Political pressure


They may have to pay more for providing services to poor

CCDU They will be more equipped and staffed to overcome issues like

Awareness on communities’ sense of hygiene

Co-ordination with related Departments like health, education social welfare.

Availability of front line workers at village level


Behaviour change communication may not work

It may happen that due to casteism at local level does not support community mobilisation

Political pressure

UNICEF Their role and support to the department may enhance


DFID_SWASTH-WATSAN-Bihar

Their role and support to the department may enhance


Development Partners – Mahila Samakhaya



Development Partners – Bihar Rural Livelihood Project (Jeevika)



District level

District Water & Sanitation Mission & Public Health Engineering Department



Deterioration of water quality

Convergence of programmes



Political pressure


Contractors They may get to equipped with better technical competencies

They may lose business

Low Profit margins due to close

6. Anticipated Impact of the Project


92



Timely initiation of project, less time required for land acquisition thus, profit margins will go high

Timely completion of project, as community will cooperate in the villages

monitoring by the department and community, hence no interest at low margins

NGOs Involvement in public outreach and campaign

Can also be involved in mobilizing women groups within the ward

They can also be involved for providing water supply services like sanitation services of Rural Sanitary Marts and Production centers

No negative impact

Block Resource Centre (BRC)



Deterioration of water quality

Convergence of programmes



Political pressure


Panchayati Raj Institutions

Opportunity to get safe drinking water and sanitation services for the community

Involvement in mobilizing fund for implementation, operation and maintenance of services (W&S) related

Opportunity to get Nirmal Gram Puruskar in long run

Scope of capacity building

Better rural governance

Can win support of community

Non capability to handle finance and may land up in trouble

Contributions may not be deposited by the villagers

VWSCs may become more empowered than PRI, hence PRIs may not co-operate


Women They will get quality water for required duration and at a time as required

Reduce drudgery of carrying water from long distances (which they do even if at the stage of pregnancy)

Less disease burden to household kitty and reduction of water borne disease

Saving due to reduced health expenditure

Increase in household income due to productive use of time

Safe sanitation will help them to ensure dignity of their girl child and themselves

Capacity building and better infrastructure

Opportunities for interaction as part of social mobilization and women empowerment

They will have say in family decision due to improved empowerment


Higher tariffs


Community including SC/OBC/EBC

They will get quality water for required duration and at a time as required

Reduce drudgery of carrying water from long distances

Less disease burden to household kitty and reduction of water borne disease

Saving due to reduced health expenditure

Increase in household income due to


Higher tariffs




93



productive use of time

Safe sanitation will help them to ensure dignity of their girl child


Opportunities for interaction as part of social mobilization and capacity building and empowerment

Less migration

Anganwadi Centres (AWCs)

They will get quality water for required duration required and at a time as required

Reduce drudgery of carrying water from long distances



Respect in the community


Schools They will get quality water for required duration required and at a time as required

Reduces drudgery of carrying water from long distances



Respect in the community


Village Health Nutrition and Sanitation Committee (VHNSC)

Participation from different social groups of the community, number may increase

Regular meetings

Capacity building in different procedures including book keeping, accounts management, record maintenance etc

Timely and regular meetings

Involvement of community in financial, non financial issues related to operation and maintenance of water and sanitation services

Vibrant involvement of members in community mobilization for operation & maintenance of sanitation systems

Reduction of difference between groups- poor to rich and general to SC/EBC etc

As they do not have mandate to look after water facilities thus, they may not turned up as envisaged

Conflicts may arise on distribution and use of water

VHNSCs can be hijacked by politically influenced groups

VHNSCs may become another bureaucratic setup for the villagers

VHNSCs may overlook PRI and may land in trouble

Source: MM Study


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7.1 Key Risks

Community Support & participation:- The activities of the project may not get community support and

participation due to following reasons

Lack of education and awareness among the community

Socially backward groups are also not well-off economically and thus, they may not be able to pay for

the capital cost

Local level casteism and politics, which may not support community mobilization

Lack of women participation, their lack of economic empowerment, illiteracy, no say in decision making

of the family etc

Equity and inclusion:- The issues related to equity need to be addressed. Currently the villages that are

dominated by socially backward groups have comparatively lesser functional infrastructure (water &

sanitation).They are also economically backward thus cannot afford construction and maintenance of the

infrastructure.

Regular water Supply: The community having piped water supply were not satisfied with the water supply

timings and pressure at which water is supplied. Thus, the community may not like to take the connections

till these issues are resolved.

Irregular Power Supply: Availability of power is a major issue in Bihar which will be a potential risk for

piped water schemes dependant on power supply. Due to erratic power supply, the operation of water

pumps and thereby the supply may get stalled and money invested in the construction will be futile. If the

water supply is not made to the community, they will be forced to use their old water sources; thereby the

health issues will persist mainly in case of villages with water contamination (fluoride and arsenic)

Weak PRIs and non availability of VWSCs: The operation and maintenance of the schemes may be an

issue if the dedicated structure at grassroot level is not established.

Political influence:- Looking into the importance of VWSCs, it is possible that political and economically

dominating groups would try to control the VWSCs. This can also initiate a conflict between VWSCs and

Gram Panchayat, mainly in the constituencies reserved for socially backward groups.

Delay in project delivery:- There is lack of coordination and capability gaps in the different wings of

PHED , which may lead to the project unable to deliver its objective within its stipulated time.

Contamination of Ground Water:- Leech pit toilets with deep pits (as reported by the households having

toilet) could lead to groundwater contamination, if proper measures are not taken on urgent basis.

7.2 Possible Mitigation of Identified Risks

The identified risks can be minimised by the following proposed mitigation measures;

Risks Proposed Mitigation measures

Lack of Community Multiple rounds of stakeholder consultations is to be organised for

7. Key Risks & Possible Mitigation


95


participation conceptualizing the sub projects. Each sub project can have a local level communication office with a grievance redressal officer. The activity of each sub project could be further overseen by a high level coordination committee (at state level.)


It is important that each VWSC is represented by all the sections of the

society of the village and their members are trained to assist the W&S

service delivery.

Capacity building of VWSC members

Ensuring women participation

One-third of the VWSCs members should be women and they should be

provided mandatory training

The social mobilization agency should deploy women members to get

women’s participation

Women should also be contacted by the Anganwadis and schools

through their wards and motivated


Women groups organised by Mahila Samakhya could be involved for

active participation in W&S related issues

In the model of Mahila Samakhya, groups could be developed at village

level for active participation in W&S related issues

Women could be trained for providing services related to W&S, may be

through rural sanitary marts

Establishment of bottom up approach and involvement of PRIs and

community in O&M of W&S programmes

Capacity building of PRIs in O&M

Equity and inclusion Pro poor policy is to be taken


Identify the rural poor through wealth ranking as those residing in houses

measuring up to 200 square feet, built-up area regardless of whether they

live in or outside the village.

Waive the normal one time connection deposit for such rural poor and to

collect only the cost of providing meters (to be fixed by the PRIs

themselves), to inculcate the sense of ownership;

Fix a lifeline supply of 7,200 litres per household (considering 40 lpcd for 6

member household) per month for rural poor, at a concessional rate (to be

fixed by the PRIs themselves).

Simplify procedures of taking connection and any proof of residence such

as ration cards and ID cards would be considered sufficient to provide a

connection.

Provide water free of charge through public kiosks / cisterns / taps to

vulnerable sections such as nomads, destitute, homeless poor, beggars

etc. who cannot afford to pay anything.

Promote structured participation of NGOs and CBOs in organizing the

vulnerable sections for managing free water supply through public kiosks.

Regular water Supply Work out the most feasible way of water supply, appropriate with duration, time, quality, and quantity.

Alternative power supply arrangements are required for restoring regular


96


water supply which could be solar based systems.

Irregular Power Supply Policy dialogues to be initiated with the power supply department for ensuring regular power supply.

The tariff for unit rates for community PWS system should be lower than the minimum domestic tariff/unit.

Weak PRIs and non availability of VWSCs

PRIs should be empowered and mandatorily be members of VWSCs and other respective committees at different levels. The whole idea will be initiating planning from village level through involvement of community especially PRIs and VWSCs which will be scrutinized by the DWSM and will be sent for approval to SWSM. Further they should be involved in following activities;

In motivating community for taking part in water and sanitation

management for sustainability of service delivery so that financial viability

of the schemes is not affected.


They should play an active role in the planning, implementation and

management of W&S services including domestic waste disposal.

They also need to be involved in dialogue with the community for

ensuring piped water connections, timely payment of tariff and

management support.

It is important that each village VWSCs and PRIs have their adequate

participation and they are also trained for supporting service delivery.

Appropriate and regular IEC will also be equally important.

Strong Political influence Community mobilisation and empowerment so that they are able to identify the requirements related to water, sanitation, health and hygiene and not come under any such influence.

Delay in project delivery Project Management Unit is to establish good rapport with the Government of India and State PHED for timely release of funds and sanctioning of contracts respectively.

Project delivery in Mission mode so that Project management Unit has a complete structure up to the level of panchayat and able to monitor the project closely.

Contamination of Ground Water

Capacity building of PHED officials on soft skills so that communication on technical aspects could be delivered to the community.

Hiring of professional agencies for developing and implementing communication strategy for sanitation, hygiene, and conjunctive use of water.


97


8.1 Issues

8.1.1 Organizational Structure for Service Delivery

During interactions with different level it was observed that the institutional structure of BSWSM is up to

district level only, below district there is no available structure. The activities of Block and GP level are

governed by the DWSC. Due to absence of four-tier system of governance, establishment of bottom up

approach for project delivery is not being undertaken. Further, this is also delaying the process of

decentralisation.

8.1.2 Top Down Approach

Currently, top-down approach is followed in planning, implementing and operation and maintenance of the

schemes. Thus, PHED is totally responsible for service delivery. Though, there is initiation of devolution of

power to ZP and GP but it has not happened due to issues in capacity of PRIs and also lack of supervision

from PHED.

8.1.3 Staff Strength and internal Communication

Acute shortage of manpower was observed at the level of Assistant Engineers, Junior Engineers, Pipe

Inspectors, Khalasi, Plumber, Mistry and Operators affecting project formulation, implementation,

monitoring and repair of schemes. While interactions with the junior level staff, their capability gap was also

observed. It is to be noted that junior level staff are regularly interacting with the community for project

delivery and currently the emerging project needs are dynamic in nature. Thus, augmentation of soft skills

for better service delivery could be adopted.

Mechanical and civil are the major wings providing technical service. Construction is being taken up by the

civil wing while Mechanical wing looks after operations like getting electricity connection and operation of

machines. Both wings are headed by technically expert groups however, lack of coordination was observed

among them at district and sub-divisional level which generally leads to delay in project delivery.

8.1.4 Absence of village level structure i.e. VWSCs

During field visits it was observed that VWSCs are not formed at village level, during interaction with PHED

officials it was confirmed that no Government Order was issued by the Department for constitution of

VWSCs as a subcommittee of gram panchayat.


operation & maintenance of the schemes. Very few schemes have been transferred to panchayats that too

only hand pump schemes. It was also observed that gram panchayats are not adequately equipped with

requisite resources to handle Operation & Maintenance of the schemes. Thus, devolution of power

including fund for O&M of water supply schemes has not happened in the State.

8. Issues & Recommendations


98


8.1.5 Technical/Water Quality

About 12% habitation has water quality issues and the Department is not being able to complete all its

water testing as planned for year 2011-12 (only 52147 sample tested against target of 120000 sources in

lab and further only 540 FTK tests were done as against target of 204692). As per NRDWP guideline all

drinking water sources should be tested at least twice a year for bacteriological contamination and once a

year for chemical contamination. (Source: DDWS data of 2011-12). However, since sub divisional labs are

not set up as planned (target 228 as per PHED website but none of them are functional however, approval

on 76 of such labs are under process) thus, district labs are putting additional effort to meet targets for

water quality testing.

8.1.6 Inclusion

Since the panchayat is spread and has 11 to 12 habitations in it and they are clustered according to the

caste. Many a times the core village (i.e the panchayat village) is dominated by economically sound section

of the society and the distance village which is majorly dominated by poor families and mahadalits lacks

infrastructure facility related to water and sanitation. Moreover if the facility is provided they are so poor that

they will not be able to pay the connection charges.

8.1.7 Limited participation of Community

Limited participation of the community was observed, in planning, implementation and O&M of RWSS

facilities, is a key issue to be tackled in the RWSS sector. The limited community involvement is partly

because of the supply driven approach and partly due to lack of awareness and illiteracy among users

about the benefits that could accrue from active involvement. Significant IEC efforts need to be effectively

channelled to improve community participation.

8.1.8 Limited or non participation of women-Gender

Women comprise about half of the population and they are not empowered enough to participate in

community meetings and provide their inputs in service delivery related to water & sanitation.

8.1.9 Weak PRIs less participation of women

Though the PRIs have been given mandate of operation of water supply (hand pumps) and sanitation but

no funds were transferred for this purpose as they are technically weak and are not in a position to

dispense their responsibility. Too much politics and casteism involved as Mukhiya or a member of the

dominant caste (powerful) decides who will get what benefit. They are not actively involved in a dialogue

with the community on tariff for maintenance of water supply systems and public welfare.

Moreover women member of the panchayats were also not found vocal thus, a holistic approach for the

benefit of each section of the society in a sustainable manner was found missing.

8.1.10 Poor Supply of Power

Supply of water depends on the availability and quality of electricity in the villages, though more than 90

percent of the households were found having electric connection in their household (mostly illegal


99


connections) however, electric supply was found very erratic in covered villages. Due to irregular electric

connection operation of water pumps and supply remains stalled. It could be seen that water comes to

many of the PWS villages once in a week.

8.1.11 Low Coverage of safe Drinking Water & Latrine

About 12 percent of habitations have quality affected water sources (Source secondary data from PHED).

A significant number of households (82.6%) using hand pump spend 1 to 2 hrs daily for collecting water for

various household purposes such as drinking, cooking, cleaning, washing & bathing purposes (survey

data). During discussions it was reported that about 48 liters of water is required for one person. Further,

latrine coverage is very inadequate- only 17.5 percent of contacted households had individual household

latrine in sampled GPs.

8.1.12 Usage of latrine

During Participatory Rural Appraisal, it was reported that despite having toilets in some of the houses, the

males are still practicing open defecation. They think that productivity of land will reduce if they do not use

their own agricultural land for open defecation.

8.2 Recommendations

8.2.1 Organisation Structure for Service Delivery

In case of absence of four-tier system i.e. State-District-Block-VWSC, the process of decentralisation is

delayed and bottom up approach has not been established. Thus, it is suggested that institutional structure

is established and strengthened at block and village level. Further, PRIs should be involved in the process

so that community driven approach could be setup.

8.2.2 Establishing Bottom up Approach


sustainable operation and maintenance of the schemes. Thus, establishment of bottom up approach by

forming and strengthening VWSCs and other respective committees at different levels is suggested. The

whole idea will be initiating planning from village level through involvement of community especially

VWSCs which will be scrutinized by the DWSM and will be sent for approval to SWSM.

8.2.3 Improving Water Quality testing

Setting up Sub division Labs as planned (target 228 as per PHED website) to enhance of lab testing of

water at grass root level. The services of private labs or labs under other governmental bodies like State

Universities, Institutes under Council of Scientific Industrial Research can also be an option to be explores.

8.2.4 Establishing Village Level Structure i.e VWSCs

In order to establish bottom up approach it is important that Village Water Supply and Sanitation Committee

(VWSC) are constituted and strengthened adequately to take up different activities related to water &

sanitation. Thus, it is recommended that;


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VWSC should be formed within Gram Panchayat as Standing Committee.

VWSC should have 6 to 12 member, the committee should have adequate participation of ST, SC,

Women, elected members of panchayat, ANM, ASHA etc.

All the water & sanitation related work should be carried out by the VWSCs which will be a

subcommittee of Gram Panchayat including;

Identification of water sources

operation of Piped Water Schemes

supply of water to households

bulk water transfer

inter-village distribution for multi village schemes

maintenance of water grid

collection of water user charges for Operation & maintenance as per 12th etc.

assistance for quality testing of each of the water sources

IEC and awareness generation

At least five members of VWSCs are trained by CCDU for a minimum of three days on issues like

Water quality issues including health related diseases

Water quality monitoring

Sanitation and hygiene

Social mobilization & IEC

8.2.5 Staff Strength and internal Communication

Staff should be placed at each level as per guideline and state requirement of NBA or NRDWP. BWSWSM

can also conduct a separate study on staff’s requirement for smooth implementation, operation and

maintenance of the services.

While interactions with the junior level staff, a capability gap was observed. It is to be noted that junior level

staff is regularly interacting with the community for project delivery and currently the emerging project

needs are dynamic in nature. Thus, augmentation of soft skills for better service delivery could be adopted.

It is important that the capacity the staff is built-up so that they are capable of coming up with innovations

and community friendly methods like pro-poor policy for providing services. Also, there is acute need for

building soft skills among the staff so that they could see users as customers and give them the desired

respect.

8.2.6 Ensuring inclusion

Water is a basic necessity for all more importantly for the socially economically weaker section of the

society who generally is not able to afford the services and is facing serious problems due to unhygienic

and unhealthy condition. They expect good quality water for domestic purposes and also for livestock as

well. In order to have inclusion following measures could be taken;

Pro poor policy is to be taken up which could




Waive the normal one time connection deposit for such rural poor and to collect only the cost of providing

meters (to be fixed by the PRIs themselves), to inculcate the sense of ownership;


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Fix a life line supply of 7,200 litres per household (considering 40 lpcd for 6 member household) per






Promote structured participation of NGOs and CBOs in organizing the vulnerable sections for managing

free water supply through public kiosks.

8.2.7 For enhanced participation of Community

Social mobilization and capacity building of community should be done through formation of VWSCs and

following community mobilization techniques like resource mapping (water & sanitation), problem tree

analysis, sustainability analysis involving technically competent agency.

It is important that each village VWSC is participated by all the respective sections of the society of the

village and their members are trained for supporting W&S service delivery.

Proper and regular IEC is also suggested.

Livelihood groups formed under Bihar Rural Livelihood Project (Jeevika) could be involved for active


In the model of Jeevika, similar groups of socially backward and marginalized could be developed (this

also has a mandate in State Rural Livelihood Mission) at village level for active participation in W&S

related issues


8.2.8 For enhanced participation of women

Water is a basic necessity for all, more importantly women as they are primary users, providers, and

managers of water in their households and are the guardians of household hygiene and health related

issues. However, women are the most deprived section of the society so far rural Bihar is concerned as

they do have much say in their families leave alone their participation in the public meetings. In order to

activate their participation following measures could be taken:

One-third of the VWSCs members should be women and they should be provided training mandatorily





related issues

In the model of Mahila Samakhya, similar groups could be developed at village level for active



8.2.9 For strengthening PRIs


sustainable operation and maintenance of the schemes. Thus, PRIs should be empowered and

mandatorily be members of VWSCs and other respective committees at different levels. The whole idea will

be initiating planning from village level through involvement of community especially PRIs and VWSCs


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which will be scrutinized by the DWSM and will be sent for approval to SWSM. Further they should be

involved in following activities;

In motivating community for taking part in water and sanitation management for sustainability of service

delivery so that financial viability of the schemes is not affected.




They also need to be involved in dialogue with the community for ensuring piped water connections,

timely payment of tariff and support in management.

Thus, it is important that each village VWSCs and PRIs have their adequate participation and they are

also trained for supporting service delivery. Proper and regular IEC is also suggested.

8.2.10 Alternative arrangement for Power Supply

Alternative arrangements for power supply are required for restoring regular water supply which could be

solar based systems. However, solar based systems will not work in foggy and cloudy weather conditions

thus, a complete separate study is recommended to overcome this situation. Alternatively, policy dialogues

could be initiated with the Power Supply Department for ensuring regular power supply.

8.2.11 For enhancing coverage of water & sanitation infrastructure

Awareness on government programmes was found very low thus, implementation of awareness generation

program is recommended. Communication regarding water & sanitation is not only technical but also a

sensitive issue. Thus, we recommend hiring of professional agencies for developing and implementing

communication strategy for sanitation, hygiene, and conjunctive use of water. The key recommendations

are;

Intensification of awareness generation programmes on water and sanitation

Implementation of scientifically designed customized & effective communication strategy for behaviour

change

Awareness generation involving community

Involvement of community for planning, implementing and maintaining water & sanitation programmes

to inculcate sense of ownership

8.2.12 For Ensuring usages of Toilets

During visit to GPs it was also observed that toilet provided under government programmes are not tailor

made thus, tall members of the family are not using the units and prefer to go outside. Thus, tailor made

scientifically designed toilets needs to be incorporated in Government Programmes as well.

Further, due to absence of local level sanitation supply chain i.e. Rural Sanitary marts and production

centers, APL households living in interior areas were facing problems in constructing toilets in their houses.

Thus, it is recommended that;


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Customized designed toilet models are made available for the community

Rural Sanitation Marts are established and production centers at panchayat level

Facilitation and training is provided to village youth for construction, operation and maintenance of rural

toilets (training of masons)


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The applicability of social safeguard issues related to Indigenous People (OP 4.10) and Involuntary

Resettlement (OP 4.12) to the demonstration zones and priority investments were examined under this

section. Field visits to the demonstration areas and pipeline routes were conducted to examine if the

proposed project (demonstration zones and priority investments) would attract the provisions of OP 4.10

and OP 4.12. During these field visits, a number of persons were met including government officials,

community, PRIs, Development Partners and NGOs.

9.1 Land Acquisition

Water supply schemes in Bihar are planned under four broad categories -- Single Habitation Scheme

(SHS), Multi Habitation Scheme (MHS), Small Multi Village Scheme (covering 2-3 GPs) and Large Multi

Village Scheme (covering 4 or more GPs). Land is required for building infrastructure for different purposes

like;

Water sources (Bore well, Open wells and pump houses)

Water treatment plants (Generally, groundwater is treated with chlorination for bacteriological

contamination. land may or may not be required for this purpose if the chlorinator is fitted into the pump

house)

Water transmission (for laying of transmission lines and this could also be laid along the public roads)

Storage (Land is required for storage, though, generally, the storage is built in public places in the

villages)

Distribution (required, but pipes are laid along roads and public places are used for stand posts. Hence

no lands will be acquired)

During study, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted in each panchayat and during these FGDs

the study team tried to find out on availability of land. It was reported by the villagers as well as the

panchayat head that ample land is available under possession of panchayat and this could be transferred

to project for construction of public infrastructure. During discussion with PHED officials it was found that

most of the schemes will be ground water based schemes and land requirement for single habitation

scheme would vary between 0.01 to 0.03 hectares and for multi village schemes 1 to 1.5 hectare land may

be required.

9.2 Indigenous People

The present study indicates that the households belonging to the Scheduled Tribes category range from as

low as 0.72% in Saran district to 7.19% in Pashchim Champaran district. During field visits, interactions

with ST community was undertaken and it was observed that though they are living in exclusive clusters/

habitations but have ownership of land and other assets in few cases. This study records no distinct

livelihood pattern – nor in cultural identities – between the Scheduled Tribes and non-Scheduled Tribes. On

the basis of these factors, this study concludes that the OP 4.10 on Indigenous Peoples need not be

triggered.

9. Social Safeguard issues


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10.1 Monitoring

10.1.1 Objective

The project monitoring will aims in improving the following;

Status Reporting

Programme implementation

Data sharing with partners

Accountability

Intermediate correction in programme implementation

Services (water & sanitation)

Use of toilet and sustainability of the structures

10.1.2 Type of Monitoring

Internal and external both the monitoring is proposed to ensure accountability.

10.1.2.1 Internal Monitoring

This could be undertaken at each of the levels like VWSC, DWSM and SWSM. At each levels, participatory

monitoring could be adopted under which representatives of VWSCs, NGOs and other stakeholders could

be involved and they can submit report to the upper level i.e. DWSM which will further review the progress

and then submit its report to SWMS.

10.1.2.2 External Monitoring

Consultants could be appointed by SPMU who will monitor the project implementation and then report back

to the SPMU. Indicators on which monitoring could take place is presented below;

Table 10.1: Indicators to be Monitored

Indicators to be Monitored Monitoring Outputs Responsibility User of Information

Creation of posts ad per norms of NBA and NRDWP

At least 1 graduate engineer is available for 1,00,000/- population

At least 5 DWSM consultants in each district

At least 2 BRCs at block level

Establishment of habitations as self sustainable management unit

Prioritization of Habitations based on Region and caste

Devolution of power to ZP and GPs for;

Creation of infrastructure

Policies made in this regard by Government of Bihar

Government orders issued

Guidelines issued in this regard by Government of Bihar

Circulation of these Policies, Government Orders and Guidelines to Districts and blocks

Principal Secretary, BSWSM

SWSM

PD PMU

Engineer-in-Chief, PHED

State Level

Principal Secretary, RWS

SWSM

CCDU

SPMU

Engineer-in-Chief, RWS

World Bank/UNICEF

Experts of different fields (Social,

10. Monitoring & Evaluation of social development indicators


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Indicators to be Monitored Monitoring Outputs Responsibility User of Information

Maintenance of infrastructure

Collection of user charges

Water quality mapping

Participation and formation of VWSCs

One third members of VWSCs should be women

Involvement of Schools and Anganwadis in VWSC

Separation of Governance and Operations functions

Technical and Financial)

Other Development partners

District Level

District Collector

Superintending Engineer

DWSM/ DWSC

Executive Engineer

Experts of different fields (Social, Technical and Financial)

NGOs

Mandal & Village Level

PRIs

VWSC

AE/AEE, PHED

Experts of different fields (Social, Technical and Financial)

NGOs

Appointment of social mobilization agency

The agency has women members

Training of at least 5 VWSC members

Training of all women members of VWSC

Social mobilization agency is appointed for social mobilization and training

CCDU

PD PMU

DWSM/DWSC

ZP

GP

Women groups considered for tariff collection, maintenance, etc

Empowered women groups

CCDU

PD PMU

DWSM/DWSC

ZP

GP

Source : MM study

10.2 Evaluation

Evaluation of project is suggested by appointing external consultants by SWSM at the end of completion of

each batch of sub-projects. The purpose is to evaluate whether the project has achieved the expected

outputs and outcomes planned for. An External agency will carry out the evaluation. There will be two

evaluations, mid-term and end-term. The evaluation framework is given in the following table:

Table 10.2: Indicators to be Evaluated

Indicators to be Evaluated in each term

Evaluation Outputs Research Techniques

Responsibility

Ratio of posts created and staffs appointed as per norms of NBA and NRDWP

At least 1 graduate engineer is available for 1,00,000/- population

At least 5 DWSM consultants in each

Policies made in this regard by Government of Bihar

Government orders issued

Guidelines issued in

Rapid assessment by selecting 20 household’s, two schools and two panchayats

External agency


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Responsibility

district

At least 2 BRCs at block level

Proportion of habitations established as self sustainable management unit

Proportion of habitations prioritized based on Region and caste

Devolution of power to ZP and GPs for;

Creation of infrastructure

Maintenance of infrastructure

Collection of user charges

Proportion of VWSCs are actively participating

Proportion of VWSCs having One third women members

Proportion of VWSCs has involvement of Schools and Anganwadis in VWSC

Separation of Governance and Operations functions

this regard by

Government of Bihar

Circulation of these Policies, Government Orders and Guidelines to Districts and blocks

in 20 Panchayats of 1/3 of the selected districts of Bihar.

Appointment of social mobilization agency

The agency has women members

Training of at least 5 VWSC members

Training of all women members of VWSC

Social mobilization agency is appointed for social mobilization and training

Women groups considered for tariff collection, maintenance, etc

Empowered women groups

Checking indicators at household level

Proportion of household’s having toilet

% of rural households having water supply systems functional at the time of spot checks

% of rural piped water supply systems privately managed

% of rural population within 500 m of an improved water source

Number and nature of protected water Sources

Average frequency of water from domestic/ stand post connection

Average amount paid for water supply per month

Type of storage for water (specify)?

contamination observed in drinking water

proportion of Households using deflurode units/filters

Status improvement


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Responsibility

proportion of Households have water quality testing facility

distance of nearest drinking water source that takes water from ground water (e.g. a hand pump or a well

Access to sanitation services In schools and hygienic standards

% of schools with latrines as per standards

Proportion of schools having toilet

Proportion of schools having functional toilet

Proportion of schools having child friendly toilet

Availability of running water in the toilet

Proportion of schools having hand washing facility

Proportion of schools having drinking water facility

Proportion of schools having Information & Education material (visuals/painting) on water, sanitation & hygiene is displayed

Status improvement

Status of water & sanitation in Anganwadis

Proportion of Anganwadi located in government building

Proportion of Anganwadi having toilet

Proportion of Anganwadi having functional toilet

Proportion of anganwadi having hand washing facility

Proportion of anganwadi having drinking water facility

Proportion of anganwadis having Information & Education material (visuals/painting) on water, sanitation & hygiene is displayed

Status improvement


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Appendix A. Sampling Plan and Data ____________________________________________________________ 110 Appendix B. Study Tools – Qualitative ___________________________________________________________ 111 Appendix C. Study Tools – Quantitative __________________________________________________________ 112 Appendix D. Contact List ______________________________________________________________________ 113

Appendices


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Appendix A. Sampling Plan and Data


111


Appendix B. Study Tools – Qualitative


112


Appendix C. Study Tools – Quantitative


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Purnia

Sl. No. Name Designation Contact No.

1 Mr. Ranjeet Kumar Executive engineer 09939400797

2 Mr. Vipul Kumar Nandan Assistant engineer 09852981863

3 Mr. Abodh Kumar Junior engineer 09905476154

5 Mr. Mukesh Kumar Block coordinator 09431685846

6 Mr. Bechan Sharma Sarpanch 09631091674

7 Mr. Tanveer Ahmad Ansari

Mukhiya 09431666837

8 Mr. Mohd. Ali Ward commissioner 09431276396

9 Mr. Neelam Devi Corporator 08809679878

10 Mr. Shahbaz Alam Community Mobiliser (Jeevika) 09572609723

11 Mr. Jitendra Kumar C.C (Jeevika) 09771479241

Begusarai

1 Mr. Pranveer Singh Executive engineer 09431883769

2 Mr. Verma Assistant engineer 8092836700

3 Mr. Vijay Kumar Verma Junior engineer 09801796051

4 Mr. Mahmood Alam Block coordinator 09708831010

5 Mohd. Rashid Former Mukhiya 09934235021

6 Mohd. Javed Akhtar Voice chairman 09199838695

Banka

1 Mr. Sanjay Kumar Singh District Coordinator(TSC) 9430830658

2 Mr. Kapil Dev Thakur Mukhiya(Dara) 07739130496

3 Mr. Dilip Sharma Mukhiya(Domohon) 8292015982

4 Mr. Prit Bihar Jha Jan Sewa sangsthan(Secretary – Dara) 8051515393

Patna

1 Mr. D P Singh Superintendent Engineer 8292713266

2 Mr. M S Jawaid Director PMU 9835848933

3 Mr. Sanjay Singh Director CCDU 9430677320

4 Mr. Chiranjeev Kumar State Coordinator TSC 9304562306

5 Mr. S. N Mishra Director, NRDWP 9431645422

6 Ms. Lata Chaudhary State Consultant Water Quality

7 Mr. B. P. Ojha Director-water quality

8 Ms.Gloria Unicef Consultant, CCDU

9 Mr. Ajay Singh Executive Engineer, PHED

10 Mr. Dinesh Kumar Block coordinator, PHED

11 Dr. Sulekha Kumar BDO Maner

Societies

1 Mr. Arvind Chaudhary CEO BRLPAS 9934014191

2 Mr. Apolernarius Purty Project Manager (Social Dev) BRLPS 9771478326

3 Mr. Prakash Kumar DFID Dy Team Leader -WATSAN 7250673142

4 Mr. Nanak T. Santdasani WASH Officer, UNICEF

5 Mr. Mamta Chauhan Consultant, UNICEF

6 Ms. Shubraja State Program Officer, Mahila Samakhya

7 Ms Urmila Mahila Samakhya

8 Ms. Sangita Dutta Mahila Samakhya

GP level

9 Mr. Satru Paswan Mukhiya Pati (Bank) 983545614

10 Mrs. Ranju Devi Mukhiya (Bank)

11 Mr. Braj Bhusan Kumar

12 Md. Rafi Ward member (Bank) 9304431504

Appendix D. Contact List


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13 Mr. Ram Singh Community member (Bank)

14 Mr. Narendra Kumar Community member (Bank)

15 Mr. Munsi Paswan Community member (Bank)

16 Mr. Satish Singh Community member (Bank)

17 Mrs. Pratima Devi Mukhiya (Kitachauhator West)

18 Mr. Dilip Rai Social Worker (Kitachauhator West) 9304589339

19 Mr. Amodh Kumar Singh Ward member (Kitachauhator West)

20 Sri Upendra Singh Ward member (Kitachauhator West)

21 Sri Sunil Kumar Singh Ward member (Kitachauhator West)

22 Mr Naomi Paswan Member Panchayat Samiti Balua 7488446221

23 Mr Anilji Community member, Balua 7677062503

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