Rural water supply schemes in India are generally designed for domestic uses. However, the multiple water use priorities of poor rural households in order to reduce their hardship and enhance food production, health and income mean that in water-scarce areas, domestic water use can run into conflict with productive water use. The failure of water supply agencies to design a water supply system for multiple uses results in communities not being able to realize the full potential of water as a social good. This chapter identifies various domestic and productive water requirements of rural households. Thereafter, a composite index which captures the vulnerability of rural households to problems associated with lack of water for multiple needs was assessed for three selected regions of Maharashtra, each representing a different agro-ecological and socioeconomic setting.

An attempt is made to initially analyze the nature of the link between the water scenario of a country and its economic growth. For this, data on sustainable water use index derived from the water poverty index (WPI); human development index (HDI) and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) for 145 countries, human poverty index for 113 countries, and global hunger index (GHI) for 117 countries were analyzed. Further, the link between water storage and economic growth of countries which fall in hot and arid, tropical climates is analyzed for 24 countries. The analysis shows that improving the water situation of a country can trigger economic growth, as indicated by the exponential relationship between sustainable water use index (SWUI) and per capita GDP (R2 = 0.69). This phenomenon is explained by the linear relationship between SWUI and HDI (R2 = 0.80). While it is a truism that all the three subindices of human development have the potential to trigger economic growth in a country, the exponential relation between HDI and per capita GDP (R2 = 0.90) further reinforce this. However, the regression between per capita GDP and decomposed HDI showed a logarithmic relationship (R2 = 0.75), suggesting that a country's progress in human development has little to do with its economic prosperity and that good human development can be achieved even at low levels of economy. The causality of SWUI acting as a driver of economic growth was tested by running a two-stage least-square method with HDI as the instrumental variable, SWUI as the predictor variable, and per capita GDP as an independent variable, which showed a regression coefficient of 0.50. This growth is inclusive. The relationships between SWUI and income inequality, and between HDI and income inequality were inverse linear for countries in the medium to high SWUI and HDI ranges. A stronger relationship was found between SWUI and the human poverty index when countries in all ranges of water security were included in the analysis. Further analysis suggest that countries which fall in tropical semiarid and arid climates can and should improve their water security through enhancing their per capita storage, as suggested by the relationship between per capita reservoir storage and SWUI, and per capita reservoir storage and per capita GDP of 24 countries. The last section in the chapter shows how a multiple water use system can provide all-round water security in developing countries.

There are multiple water needs of communities which need to be considered while planning and designing water supply systems for rural areas. This chapter, while recognizing such needs, proposes the multiple-use water system (MUWS) models for three different typologies in Maharashtra. The chosen models incorporate the special features of MUWS, operational in different parts of the world which resemble the pilot areas in terms of physical settings, into the existing water supply systems there, so as to improve their performance in terms of their ability to meet domestic and productive water needs. Further, institutional set up for the management of MUWS has been suggested considering the characteristics of the effective micro-level institutions for water management found elsewhere in India. The models, including the institutional arrangement for its management, are expected to improve the water security of these rural households.

An index, which helps identify vulnerable areas and communities for surveillance of water supply for human use and livelihoods in rural areas, is derived. The index helps compute the vulnerability of a household to health risks associated with poor water supply and sanitation. This composite index has six sub-indices, viz., water supply and use index; family occupation and social profile index; social institutions and ingenuity index; climate and drought proneness index; water resources availability index; and financial stability index. The number of “minor” factors which together are considered to have influence on the measure of these sub-indices, the underlying assumptions, the methods for methods and procedure to compute and the data sources are also discussed. 1.0 Water Supply Surveillance Water supply surveillance is defined as: ‘the continuous and vigilant public health assessment and oversight of the safety and acceptability of water supplies’ (WHO, 1976; 1993; 2004). Many millions of people, in particular throughout the developing world, use unreliable water supplies of poor quality, which are costly and are distant from their home (WHO and UNICEF, 2000). Over the years, there is growing realization that communities in the rural areas need water for productive as well as domestic uses, indicating the need for an increase in the quantity of the water supplied from public systems along with quality (Renwick, 2008; Nicole, 2000; van Koppen et al., 2006). This is important for meeting the millennium development goals (van Koppen et al., 2006). Traditionally, water supply surveillance generates data on the safety and adequacy of drinking water supply in order to contribute to the protection of human health. Most current models of water supply surveillance come from developed countries and have significant shortcomings if directly applied in a developing country context. Not only the socio-economic conditions, but also the nature of water supply services is different. Water supply services in developing countries often comprise a complex mixture of formal and informal services for both the ‘served’ and ‘un-served’ (Howard, 2005). Many millions of households in India do not have access to “tap” connections at home. Only 24.2 per cent of the rural population have access to tap connections (source: based on Census of India, 2001), and as a result a majority of the rural population depend extensively on private wells, hand pumps, bore wells and ponds and tanks, that provide untreated water, for domestic water supply (NSSO, 1999), a trend found in many other parts of the developing world (Gelinas et al., 1996; Rahman et al., 1997; Howard et al., 1999). Given the informal nature of the sources and ‘services’, the data on actual water use by the households by the communities are absent. The problem is compounded by the lack of clarity on the supply norms for fulfilling multiple water needs of rural population. Nevertheless, the sources that are reliable and that can provide adequate quantity of water of sufficient quality to meet various productive and domestic needs seem to be far less than adequate. It is evident from the fact that the rural poor tend to compromise on their basic needs, with resultant undesirable outcomes on health and hygiene, and

This note questions some of the assumptions, fundamental concepts and methodologies in “MGNREGA for Environmental Service Enhancement and Vulnerability Reduction: Rapid Appraisal in Chitradurga District, Karnataka” (EPW, 14 May 2011), arguing that the analysis in the paper does not support the authors’ claims of multiple benefits from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

India wants to be self-sufficient in food and “food secured”. Therefore, it is imperative for national food security that we need to grow sufficient food within the country. At the same time, for domestic food security, we need to sustain economic growth to raise the income levels and purchasing power of the poor people (Kumar, 2003). Irrigation has contributed significantly to boosting India’s food production and creating grain surpluses, which is used as drought buffer. On the other hand, agriculture remains as the backbone of India’s economic growth, in spite of the major structural changes that the economy is undergoing (Government of India, 2008). Several studies in the past have indicated that agricultural growth, especially growth in foodgrain production negatively impacts on rural poverty (Ghosh, 1996). After Ravallion (1998), rural poverty is correlated with relative food prices, which is affected by fluctuations in food supply (Ravallion, 1998). Recent studies also show that in the 1990s, there was no change in rural poverty ratio, while urban poverty was reduced by 10 per cent as compared to 1980s (Datt, 1999). This coincided with the period, which recorded stagnation in growth of primary sector, at 2.47-3.66 per cent (Government of India, 2008). The growth rate in production of food grains also dropped to 1.2 per cent during the 1990s from 2.3 per cent in the 1980s (Datt, 1999). All these lead to the unquestionable role that irrigation can play in stabilising food prices, and alleviating rural poverty, provided effective institutional interventions are in place (Chaturvedi, 2000). Owing to the fact that the net area under cultivation and also area under food grains remains more or less saturated at the macro level (Government of India, 2002), irrigation is the key to enhancing agricultural production, and thereby sustaining economic growth. Nearly 70 per cent of India’s workforce depends on agriculture as the primary occupation (Government of India, 2008, p.3). Irrigated agriculture remains the largest absorber of rural labour force, and therefore impacts on the livelihoods of millions of rural households, while its impact on the farmer households is more direct.