Nenmeni Sudha Jala Vitharana: professional communitymanaged water supply in Kerala

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 is a case study on the Nenmeni Sudha Jala Vitharana Society (NSJVS - Nenmeni Drinking Water Supply Society) as a model of professionalised community management of water service delivery.

NSJVS is part of Kerala Government's efforts of decentralised governance wherein 1058 water supply schemes that were originally managed by Kerala Water Authority (KWA) were transferred to Gram Panchayat (GP) with powers to collect user charges, and with support of the World Bank aided Jalanidhi I project.

Nenmeni faced water shortage, which the scheme managed to address. Initially the GP maintained the scheme for over two years before handing it over in 2007 to the community-based Scheme Level Executive Committee (SLEC), which has successfully managed it since. It was supported by Kerala Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (KRSWA), autonomous government body and a support organization called Shreyas (an NGO).