IN Maharashtra Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Program

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The objective of the Maharashtra Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Program Project (RWSS) for India is to improve the performance of Maharashtra's sector institutions in planning, implementation and monitoring of its Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Program and to improve access to quality and sustainable services in peri-urban villages, and in water-stressed and water quality-affected areas. India has been one of the fastest growing economies in the last decade, but its economy now shows signs of slowing down. Between 2004 and 2011, a period that includes the global financial crisis, India's growth averaged 8.3 percent per year. Expanding social programs lowered the poverty rate by 1.5 percentage points per year during 2004-09, double the rate of the preceding decade. India's growth rate however slipped to a decade low of 5 percent in 2012-13 due to a combination of domestic and external factors, including high inflation, high fiscal deficit and weak external demand for the country's exports. This slowdown carries high social costs for millions of Indians, and threatens the gains made in poverty reduction over the past decade. Under its current 10-year RWSS program, Government of Maharashtra (GoM) seeks to significantly expand the frontiers in the sector with a focus on increasing house connection coverage, ensuring continuous water supply with adequate pressure and minimum quality standards, and ensuring that 100 percent of the rural population has access to safe water and basic sanitation. However, delivering this vision requires building capacities of institutions through appropriate implementation and management models. Maharashtra is also a rapidly urbanizing state with many large villages (each with a population of more than 10,000 people) and a growing number of peri-urban areas that are demanding higher levels of service. Finally, the state also faces challenges in addressing the needs of water-stressed and water quality affected areas, managing drinking water quality, and ensuring drinking water security in the face of increasing droughts and climate change impacts on rainfall patterns and the yield of existing sources.

FY17 - Water, Sanitation and Waste Management

World Bank

Project

Water Supply and Storage, Waste Processing and Treatment, Forest Products and Packaging, Commercial, Government