Gravity-fed water supply in Mandi district, Himachal 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. In this document we capture the inputs that contributed in improving water supply to households and an assessment of costs of gravityfed schemes developed through the Indo-German bilateral pilot in Himachal Pradesh.

Though Himachal Pradesh is blessed with plenty of natural water resource, service delivery is often a challenge, especially in highly dispersed rural habitations. The villages in this study were provided with gravity-fed drinking water systems under an Indo-German bilateral pilot project. Significant software support from the state Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) department was provided during the implementation phase, but ongoing support has been lacking. This has led to service levels dropping over time.