Water: A Lifeline for India's Villages
It gives me great pleasure to participate in this project launch workshop for the Punjab State Roads Project and Punjab Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project. We at the World Bank are very happy to be supporting two such important initiatives to strengthen infrastructure in the state of Punjab. Speaking personally, I am delighted to be here among a people whose enterprise and energy are legendary in India.
When I first came to Delhi I was struck by the fact that on every holy day of the Sikhs, I would see little stalls set up on the streets where devout people would be distributing drinking water and other cool drinks to thirsty passersby. Seeing those people use water as a blessing to others brought home to me the centrality of water to our lives. We celebrate our religious days with it; our folk songs sing of its blessings; our ancient cities grew up around it; we and our lands would be dead without it.
Yet we have not always managed this precious resource wisely. Worldwide, more than a billion people don’t get safe drinking water. In India, despite having more water available per person than many other drier countries, water shortages are chronic. No Indian city supplies more than a few hours of water to its people; women in villages still spend hours everyday walking huge distances to fill a few pots for their family’s uses; and hundreds of children still fall prey to diseases like diarrhoea, cholera and hepatitis, all brought on by drinking unclean water.
Official statistics tell us that more than 90 percent of Indians have access to drinking water. But we know that access does not always translate into availability. The pipes and pumps might have been installed; but it does not mean that water actually flows out of the pipes for more than a couple of hours each day. Nor does it mean that the water that does come is safe or reliable, leaving infants and children especially vulnerable to water-borne diseases.
We also know that it is the poor who bear the brunt of water shortages. In villages, it is the usually the poor who must fetch water from faraway sources for their daily needs. And in cities, it is the poor who are at the end of the empty pipe and so need to buy water from private operators at many times the price paid by the better-off people who have service.
I was in Uttarakhand recently and there, in one of the mountain villages, I saw this young girl – she must have been barely 12 years old – with this huge metal pot of water on her head; she was trudging up to her home, halfway up the hillside. That is when I made a promise to myself to support any and all such endeavors that would ensure that that child did not have to ever carry a pot up that hill again.
Nor is the picture on sanitation any more encouraging. Less than 40 percent of households in Indian villages have access to proper toilets. And where they do have toilets, effluent from septic-tanks can be found flowing in open drains. This, as you know, not only poses a serious health hazard but has also degraded the environmental conditions in our villages.
I am glad the Government of Punjab has taken note of the pressing need for making drinking water and sanitation available to all its people in all its villages. I am told that one-third of villages here have yet to be connected to safe drinking water services and that half the rural households need proper and hygienic sanitation facilities. I am sure that this new program, which is being given the highest priority by the state government, will help improve the quality of life for people in Punjab’s villages.
But, as you well know Mr. Chief Minister, setting up enlightened programs is just the beginning and the greater challenge lies in effective implementation. We at the World Bank have found that putting people incharge of the factors that influence their lives is perhaps the best way of ensuring that the resources and services allocated actually reach their destination. This is why we have proposed the community-driven approach for the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Program for your state. The Government of India has endorsed this approach for the entire country through the Swajaldhara program and the World Bank is currently assisting the states of Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka run similar schemes.
In all these states, we have found that the local villagers are best placed to implement these schemes. They best know what the local demand is; they know where the best water sources are to meet these demands; and they know their own capacities to pay so they can accordingly plan the levels of service they need. All they require is financial and technical training to set up the water supply schemes and manage and operate them.
It is heartening to know that the Punjab project will put in place the above principles through greater collaboration and partnership between the Punjab’s Water Supply and Sanitation Department and the rural communities and will help build the people’s capacities to effectively manage such a partnership.
I would also like to commend the Government of Punjab’s decision to implement the project across all the districts in the state. This will not only bring water and sanitation to some 74 lakh people, but will also allow the government to be consistent in its approach across the sector. The Government has also shown its commitment to the poor and vulnerable sections by choosing to particularly target people belonging to the Scheduled Castes, and those living in difficult terrain.
The cost of the total program is US$ 261 million, and the World Bank is happy to support the Government of Punjab with an interest-free grant of US$ 154 million. The remaining costs are shared by the Government of India and the Government of Punjab, with local gram panchayats contributing around US$ 15.7 million.
Access to transport is also as vital as access to water. Like India as a whole, Punjab is faced with developing a modern road network that has the quality and capacity to meet the needs of its growing economy. Goods from Punjab’s farms need to reach mandis and cities; the products manufactured in Punjab’s factories and industries need to reach ports and railheads. People need to reach hospitals, schools and colleges. Good quality roads make all this possible in less time and at reduced costs.
Punjab has, in its Five-Year Plan, identified better roads, lower transport costs and higher transport service standards as core elements of your growth agenda. We at the World Bank are happy to support your endeavor to improve the economic competitiveness of Punjab.
The Punjab State Roads Sector Project will help improve and maintain the quality of some 7,400 km of Plan Roads in the state. These roads include the state highways, major district roads and other district roads, and will provide the crucial link between the rural road network and the National Highways. I also expect that investing in these roads will help catalyze economic activity in villages and small towns.
We all know that economic diversification is critical to accelerating economic growth in Punjab. An effective road network will help encourage farmers to shift from their present heavy dependence on wheat and rice to higher value crops like vegetables, fruits and flowers – all of which are more vulnerable to delays in getting them from farms to markets. Good transport infrastructure will also help the development of light manufacturing and service industries that depend on precision and speed in logistics.
And it is not just the economic benefits that are significant. I remember a similar project being implemented a few years ago in my country, Morocco. It was a typical rural roads project that sought to link the interiors with market towns and cities; but as road sector projects went, it was not counted a very successful project in the World Bank because it had a low economic impact. But, when we evaluated the project we found that we had missed its greatest impact – all the girls in the project area were now attending school because the new roads had opened up faster and safer access to schools. Infrastructure development often brings in its wake a string of similar social benefits and I am sure the Punjab State Roads Project will prove no different.
The World Bank is delighted to support the government’s program to develop its state road network. The US$250 million equivalent loan from the Bank will supplement the Government of Punjab’s contribution of US $ 83.4 million.
On behalf of the World Bank, I take pleasure in extending our best wishes to the Government of Punjab, and to the people of Punjab for the successful completion of these projects. As the success stories start emerging, the Bank would be willing to provide additional support to Punjab if the state and Central government so desire.
