Gravity-based piped water supply in Meghalaya

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.

In this document we capture the inputs that contributed in improving water supply to households by gravity-based piped water supply in Meghalaya. Located in the North-Eastern part of India, Meghalaya has a very unique ethnicity, strong traditions of governance and is endowed with abundant water from mountain springs and streams. To provide safe drinking water to the households, the support agency has constructed gravity-based piped water supply schemes, promoted 'spring tapping chambers' or commonly called 'community wells'. The difficult terrain and the high labour cost in laying pipelines make the capital investment high in the piped water supply schemes here.