Monitoring and evaluation study of the rural water supply and sanitation programme : Gujarat

A monitoring and evaluation study of the State of Gujarat set out to evaluate the status of and appropriateness/viability of norms set for the sustainable drinking water and sanitation coverage in rural areas, with a special emphasis on the coverage of backward areas, as well as to gauge the perceptions pertaining to present lacunas in the delivery mechanism and suggestions to improve them. The study also evaluates community involvement in water schemes, operation and maintenance, and users' willingness to pay, and monitors current knowledge, attitude and practices in rural areas with regard to water supply and sanitation. The study is based on a review of secondary data furthered by the findings of a priority survey conducted in three representative districts of Gujarat: Amreli, Banaskantha and Panchmahals. This report of the study is structured into 10 sections. The introductory section is followed by methodology in Section 2 and a state profile in Section 3. Section 4 presents the findings of the study with respect to drinking water coverage, status, quality and government initiatives. Section 5 highlights the observations on programme administration, organization, institutional arrangements, planning, and operation and maintenance are presented in Sections 6 to 8. Section 9 discusses the sustainability of the programme while Section 10 concludes the report and presents recommendations for bringing some improvements to the drinking water supply and sanitation situation. In general, the report finds that community participation in matters of water and sanitation are peripheral. With regard to sanitation, acceptance of community latrines is not high among surveyed villages and those who do find them acceptable refuse to contribute in any form to their construction. In the case of household latrines, although some respondents agreed to provide labour, very few agreed to give monetary and labour contributions. Respondents consider it the duty of the government to provide latrines for the improvement of sanitary conditions in the village and most do not accept that they have a role to play in this. NGOs in Gujarat are now working to raise the general awareness of communities about better health and hygiene practices. This main report is supported by a Reference Document which presents the specific findings and observations of District reports.