Why We Need Alternative Models for Water Provisioning than 24x7 Continuous Water Supply in India

Описание: This talk focused on the need for alternate water supply models in India other than 24x7 water supply. There exist different regimes for water supply in practice; however, the guidelines for water supply focus on only a “continuous supply - continuous delivery” approach. Contrary to the common belief that Intermittent Mode Supply (IMS) is due to lack of availability of source, it is the poor water management that leads to the failure of Water Supply Systems (WSS). Dr. Kalbar mentioned that systems are trapped in a vicious cycle of failure wherein, irrelevant design methods and a lack of focus on Operation and Maintenance (O&M) lead to poor infrastructure. Poor infrastructure leads to poor service, causing consumer dissatisfaction and affecting their willingness to pay, leading to poor revenue generation for utilities. As a result, insufficient funds affect O&M and degrade the infrastructure irreversibly.
In the IMS, over-withdrawal of water is observed in most cases, and as a result, tanks get empty, lowering the hydraulic gradient line below the low supply level of the tank. Furthermore, household storages are common in Indian households. These aspects are neglected in the traditional modelling approach and there is a gap in the design and practice.
In such cases, the immediate aim of the designer should be to provide consumers with adequate water with sufficient pressure. Considering the limited funds with a utility and resistance towards increasing water tariffs, 24x7 Continuous Mode Supply (CMS) is financially unsustainable. There are many challenges in the current pilot 24x7 projects and their up-scaling is questionable. Direct conversion of IMS to CMS without understanding the driver of IMS will only reinforce the vicious cycle of ignoring the network conditions to implement 24x7 water supply leading to more consumption due to leakages. The consumers will not use water as envisaged in the design. Such 24x7 project will cause more financial loss to ULBs in the long run.
Alternative pathways of water provisioning through scaled decentralized systems and other emerging concepts such as non-grid, small grid, and hybrid systems must be implemented as there cannot be only a one-size-fits-all solution.