Empowered Community – Secured Water Supply in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh

Community Water Plus, a research project, has investigated twenty case studies of successful community managed rural water supply programmes across 17 states in India. Through these case studies, the research has gained insight into the type and amount of support to community organisations that is needed, and the resources implications of this 'plus' – in terms of money, staffing, and other factors. This note presents the approach of the NGO, Vasudha Vikas Sansthan, in Madhya Pradesh in partnership with the State's Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) water in selected fluoride- affected villages of Dhar, a tribal dominant district of Madhya Pradesh (MP).

They do this by reviving traditional open dug wells, having lower fluoride levels and linking them to piped water supply systems. The PHED manages hand pumps but piped water supplies are handed over to Gram Panchayats after construction. The case study describes the way drinking water supply is organised in villages with PHED-managed hand pumps and piped water supplies managed by communitybased DWSCs with direct support from VVS and the PHED. It classifies the institutional set-up as 'community-managed with direct support'. Though water is supplied that is free from dangerous fluoride levels, this is only a first crucial step on the service level ladder.