Project Brief: Targeted implementation of metering, billing and collection systems at the village/Gram Panchayat (GP) level across 4 districts - Gadag, Koppal, Chamarajanagar and Hassan with a focus towards water sustainability is the core mandate of the Fellow. However,  Billing and collection have been deprioritised bringing additional focus to aspects of water use, quality and sustainability instead.

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Engagement Highlights

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Bulk SMS

During the field visits, the Fellow noticed a severe lack of awareness about the 'Parihara' water and sanitation helpline among GP members, PDOs, and the general public. The Fellow implemented a Bulk SMS system to communicate department initiatives and priorities to the districts. The first message went out to 2 lakh people at the end of January, including PDOs, Village Water, and Sanitation Committee members in all 31 districts of the state. 

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O&M Cost Analysis 

The Fellow led the initiative with 19 caseworkers at Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation Department (RDWSD) , Bengaluru across 32 districts for the data for 470 MVS (multi village schemes) schemes. The data submitted initially had high instances of errors. The Fellow to work with the department in devising metrics to help in identifying erroneous/outlying data and follow up with «districts /caseworkers facilitating re-submissions. 

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Constitution of an O&M Cell 

The Fellow has made recommendations through a concept note to recommend the constitution of an O&M Cell within RDWSD with the objective to a) Manage O&M tendering process and administration of O&M contracts. b) Assess maintenance and rehabilitation requirements in MVS.  c) Review MVS Network Assets, Non-Revenue Water and Electricity consumption. d) Facilitate capacity-building programs of RDWSD officials and other sector stakeholders e) Plan, develop and implement a comprehensive Management Information System (MIS) with Application of Programme Interface with SCADA, IoT, and other Web-based software systems. The Fellow is facilitating departmental deliberations to have it executed. 

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Bulk Water Billing and Collection Processes

The Fellow has created a process note detailing the bulk water billing and collection and system to be followed between RDWSD and GPs. 

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World Bank ‍

State Level Stakeholder Workshop with World Bank and RDWSD on O&M of MVS, Capacity Building and Community Mobilisation for JJM

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