The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : `4,000 villages unfit for living'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 21, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

`4,000 villages unfit for living'

By Our Staff Reporter

CUDDAPAH, FEB. 20. Four thousand villages in Andhra Pradesh are classified as unfit for human inhabitation, due to acute drinking water scarcity, Deepa Joshi of Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London, said on Sunday. Speaking on decision support tools at a workshop here on `Water use and availability in the State,' Ms. Joshi, who is the coordinator for India on water policy, ODI, said maximum water usage was by richer sections, constituting 24 per cent of the population, which had access to water even in drought. Water use was lowest among poorer sections.

Needs ignored

Policy-makers had not considered the needs of water-dependent livelihoods such as pastoralists, potters and weavers and asset-owning poor, having cattle, had inequitable access to water, she said. The international community had declared water an economic good, for ensuring its sustainable use. The World Bank had identified in 1998 that various departments lacked interaction and community participation was minimal, while the Government of India deduced that most schemes failed in summer and drought.

Under the Sectoral Reforms Programme, the Union Government sanctioned 90 per cent funds and the remaining 10 per cent costs and 100 per cent of operation and maintenance costs of water schemes must be borne by user communities, she said.

Participatory programme

Swajala Dhara, a participatory drinking water programme, was being launched in Cuddapah district now, though the Centre had announced the policy and sanctioned funds in 1999.

The Rural Water Supply Department would not play a pro-active role, but NGOs would undertake the task, she said. The project was implemented by Gram Panchayat Habitation Committees in Khammam and by individual habitation water and sanitation committees in Chittoor district.

The chronic poor's ability to pay was being studied in Swajala Dhara.

Responsive approach

Tom Slaymaker, Research Fellow, ODI, said demand-responsive approach was evolved owing to a global shift in water policy in the 1990s.

The Collector, Jayesh Ranjan, said the water sector was in for reforms. The ODI studied water supply, management and related programmes like watersheds.

The workshop was being held in Cuddapah, after Delhi and Hyderabad. Viju James and Snehalatha of Pragmatic Solutions, a Hyderabad-based research organisation, and engineers of RWS, Irrigation and Groundwater, DWMA officials and NGOs participated.

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