Minister plans to strengthen village water committees to maintain and sustain services

WASHCost invited to join drive to improve governance systems

The Minister for Rural Water and Sanitation for Andhra Pradesh has called for greater support for village level water and sanitation committees to strengthen their ability to plan and run water services. In particular, he has highlighted the lack of funds that villages have to maintain their systems, and expressed concern about how Grama Panchayats (the next tier of local government) use the money they are given for maintenance.

Mr P. Vishwarup, Honourable Minister for Rural Water & Sanitation, Government of Andhra Pradesh, was speaking exclusively to MV Rama Chandrudu, Director WASSAN who is the Documentation and Communication Officer for the WASHCost India Team. He shared his thoughts and future plans for the state of Andhra Pradesh after visiting villages in the west India state of Gujarat, where Pani Samitis (water committees) are able to collect water fees within the village and use them to meet most of their maintenance costs. Dr M Snehalatha, Country Coordinator for WASHCost India; Dr Rama Mohan Rao, Consultant for WASHCost India and Rama Chandrudu from WASSAN joined the ministerial team on the visit. Mr Vishwarup has invited WASHCost India to join discussions on how to revitalise the WASH sector in Andhra Pradesh.

Key points

Amongst the key points that the Minister made in his interview were:

• The most urgent priority in Andhra Pradesh is be to achieve 100% coverage in some of the most deprived Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes communities, and in villages most affected by fluoride and arsenic.
• State funds for water supply are not adequate. The Minister will be making a case to the Chief Minister for an increase for rural water supply projects.
• There is also a need to improve the way that funding flows – villages do not have any money to maintain their systems while there is a concern about the use of funds allocated to Grama Panchayat for maintenance. The Minister will develop a clear strategy to strengthen village water and sanitation committees (VWSCs) and give them the status of a Grama Panchayat sub-committee.
• The Minister will convene a departmental workshop to design new WASH strategies in the state – and invite WASHCost to join the discussions.
• His current thinking is to try to close the gap between his department and communities. He favours setting up an equivalent in Andhra Pradesh of the Gujarat Water and Sanitation Management Organisation (WASMO), an autonomous organisation established by the Government to build partnerships with Gram Panchayats, rural communities, NGOs and funding agencies.

The Minister said: “Local institutions should nurture water supply and management systems, like a father who nurtures the future of his child. A father cannot afford to leave everything to government and expect the child to develop, even if government provides free education and other support. The responsibility of government is to ensure that the local institutions are involved and capacitated in the process of drinking water governance.”

Mr Vishwarup contrasted the serious work that village committees have to undertake with the rash promises sometimes made by political parties. “Drinking water security is achieved only when local communities are engaged with this agenda,” he said. “Communities should be willing to contribute to the capital and maintenance costs of water supply systems.”

And he added, “It is important to realise that the functioning of VWSC is very tough. Persons with only political influence cannot perform all these functions. Even if they are nominated initially, they would soon withdraw from these committees, if they cannot perform.”