Introduction
Jabalpur, a growing and urbanizing city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, has been grappling with critical challenges related to its water supply since the early 2000s. It has an estimated population of 1.5 million, which is expected to grow close to 2 million in the next 10 years1. Despite its proximity to a major freshwater source – the Narmada river – Jabalpur’s residents are experiencing a severe scarcity of water due to several factors such as an overreliance on groundwater, lack of well-managed infrastructure, and insufficient funding sources.
Source: britannica.com
Sources of Water
The city gets its water from groundwater and three surface water supplies, the Narmada river, Khandari lake, and Pariyat river, as seen in Figure 2. Presently, only 45% of households have tap connections, while the city’s primarily agrarian economy is heavily dependent on unregulated borewells for irrigation. Since Madhya Pradesh is a land-locked state, these issues are being exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. Increasing average temperatures, changes in spatial and temporal distribution of monsoons, and increasing rainfall frequency, are severely impacting the supply and flow of water in Jabalpur. Studies have indicated that the frequency of severe and extreme droughts have increased in Madhya Pradesh, while the monsoon season precipitation is projected to increase in most of the RCPs by 5-15%.2
Source: Jabalpur Smart City Limited
Major Issues
1. Intense monsoons
For the past several years, the state’s response has been mostly reactionary. They have attempted to supply drinking water one or two times a week to the city and provide some funds to help address the issue, but by the time the subsidy arrives, the immediate scarcity is over and the monsoon season has begun. Since it only rains during one season throughout the year, as seen in Figure 3, it is critical for Jabalpur to capitalize on the rainfall surplus. The cycle of more intense rainfall and less forest cover causes an increase in runoff and extreme flooding, drastically reducing that amount that can be recharged and further compounding the issue of over extraction.3
Data source: Jabalpur Smart City Limited
2. Insufficient funding and mismanagement
The Jabalpur Municipal Corporation (JMC) is responsible for the administration and maintenance of the water supply and the sewerage system in Jabalpur4.Residents are charged for both drinking water and stormwater from JMC unless they hire a private company. Up until the late 1990s, the supply of drinking water and treatment of wastewater were managed by the Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED). PHED is still responsible for the planning, design and construction of any water schemes, but JMC now handles maintenance, which has led to overlapping and confusing bureaucratic roles.
The JMC does not have separate financial statements from the Waterworks Department so there isn’t a lot of accurate information directly on JMC’s funding. Current records on information such as flows, connections, and sources are reported to be extremely unorganized and often inaccurate4. As a result, the lack of information and data is a big challenge. According to the UN-HABITAT report, the department records all revenue as ‘Water Taxes’, which includes the water fee collection and any outstanding dues. To add to the revenue confusion, any outstanding fees reported may or may not have actually been billed during that year, so total collection amounts are typically not accurate in a year to year analysis. Any other additional revenue is not properly reported.
JMC has taken out loans, particularly from India’s Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO). The Waterworks Department receives various grants from the state as well, mostly to pay for PHED staff salaries who are working with JMC on water projects.
A study prepared in June 2019, based on 39 municipal corporations in India (JMC being one of them), stated that user charges for water supply, sewerage and solid waste management accounted for only 27% of the municipal operations and maintenance (O&M) expenditures in 2017-18. As a result, in 2020 the government of Madhya Pradesh proposed a steep hike in user charges by 400% to 600% for the provision of water services in the urban areas to recover the cost incurred in providing these services.5
3. Poor monitoring of water consumption
Many water customers in Jabalpur have water meters, but studies have shown that most of them are not functional6. As a result, JMC charges a flat rate for their water supply, which only further encourages excessive water usage and illegal connections rather than disincentives it. For residential developments, the flat fee is usually billed on an annual basis (referred to as a water tax) because it is coupled with overall property taxes. Commercial properties are typically billed their flat fee on a monthly or quarterly basis. The flat fee amount for residential versus commercial is typically classified on the diameter of the supply pipe.
Figure 4 shows the water tariff for each type of water customer based on the size of their connection pipe. Since JMC’s entire revenue is based on these flat fees, there are inadequate funds available to actually pay for the water supply.
To summarize, the water shortage problem in Jabalpur is further compounded by the following conditions:
- A short and intense monsoon season between June and September and long periods of drought the rest of the year, intensified by climate change
- Rising temperatures caused by climate change, leading to the aridification of the city
- Increased runoff and downstream flooding due to regional deforestation, resulting in insufficient aquifer recharge
- Lack of reliable data on water consumption patterns, i.e. location of wells and quantity of water being extracted.
The effects of climate change are definitely impacting the physical supply of water, but the core issues seem to be around the lack of proper infrastructure and how the existing water is managed.
Allowing this cycle of institutional and managerial water scarcity to perpetuate will make it harder and harder to combat issues in the future and may lead to actual physical scarcity that would be difficult to reverse. As seen in Figure 5 below, these issues are all interconnected and compound on one another, leading to physical scarcity and a rapid depletion of the water table, necessitating urgent interventions. This blog post will describe a two-fold strategy that can be used as a starting point to address some of these water supply challenges in Jabalpur.
Interventions
Due to the interrelated network of issues facing Jabalpur’s water policy, the two recommended interventions are 1) establishing a meter system and 2) creating a stormwater management strategy. While they do not solve all the problems, the recommendations below lay out some basic building blocks that can be built upon for further, more complex interventions in the future, such as waste water management. These interventions are not introduced in a particular order of operation, rather should be happening simultaneously as Jabalpur, specifically JMC, implements a comprehensive water policy plan.
Establish a Metering System
Phase 1: Collect location and status of existing meters
One of the main issues identified in Jabalpur’s water policy is that there is no consistent or transparent data around water supply or consumption because of non-existent or non-functional meters. Currently, any bulk consumers such as commercial and industrial developments are charged the same flat rate based on their estimated water use4. JMC collects roughly 80% of its revenue from bulk consumers, so collecting accurate usage data is extremely important.
The first step in implementation of this intervention is for JMC to survey and document the location and status of all existing meters. This should include GIS data that provides a living database for future maintenance tracking of meters that can also be made public. While this process is resource intensive and may take time, it is critical to the success of overall water management in the city and above all else should be a priority for JMC.
Phase 2: Enact a permitting process for individual wells
Almost simultaneously to phase 1, phase 2 of implementation should be for JMC to enact a permitting process for individual well connections to slow down and ultimately prevent the rapid expansion of wells and hand pumps. This includes its own data collecting step to understand how many wells exist and prevent future ones from being dug without regulation or oversight.
The permit could have little to no cost associated with it so there is not a high barrier to entry that discourages residents from reporting, but it needs to be announced with a robust outreach plan and enforced potentially with fines for it to be effective. The outreach plan can consist of an educational campaign that goes door to door, neighborhood by neighborhood, over several months handing out simple graphics explaining why unmetered or unmonitored wells can be detrimental to overall water supply and a copy of the permit with a deadline of when to submit.
Phase 3: Upgrade and add revenue smart meters to bulk consumers
Once JMC has an idea of where bulk consumers are and who does and doesn’t have functional meters, they should mandate specific meters with recommended manufacturers for each consumer. In order to relieve JMC of some of the initial cost burden, the installation should be paid for by the consumer and maintenance can be an agreed upon mutual effort of how to calibrate and sustain them long term.
While a significant expense, mandating smart meters can also help to address non-revenue water issues and collect additional data on not just consumption, but losses as well, which will be important for JMC to monitor moving forward. JMC can work with bulk consumers to determine which meter at which price makes the most sense to gain buy-in on the process.
Phase 4: Institute an increasing block rate structure with voucher system
As discussed, JMC’s entire revenue is based on a flat rate for all users. This leads to insufficient funds that do not cover operating expenses, and disincentivizes conservation or responsible water usage. During droughts, implementing an increasing block rate fee structure could increase revenue for JMC and promote conservative water usage. A more unified metering system from the previous steps are crucial to effectively implementing this.
Given that this would be a somewhat drastic change in operations, there should be an educational outreach campaign that builds on the permitting process and prefaces these changes so the community knows how and why the changes are happening.
Phase 5: Form an annual water consumption strategy
While physical scarcity is not the leading issue in Jabalpur, it is still a pressing concern during their dry season, which is growing longer and more intense with climate change issues. A city-wide mandated water consumption strategy could help to mitigate this and better reserve water for drought-like conditions. Although the new increasing block rate fee will naturally help with this, it would also require an extensive educational campaign around how much and what times of year to conserve water.
This strategy could be happening concurrently as bulk consumers are getting new meters installed. This would push them to be leaders in water conservation, so that when it comes time to institute this in residential households, there is a precedent already set and a pilot program tested out.
Implement Stormwater Management
As mentioned earlier, Jabalpur receives most of its rainfall during the monsoon season and remains dry during the rest of the year. Due to regional deforestation, a lot of this rainfall is lost to surface runoff and is not actually captured for any type of use. The overreliance of groundwater in the city also results in the inability of rainfall to meaningfully replenish the water table. Since the irrigation of crops puts considerable pressure on the water table, promoting the use of rainwater as an alternative source could be a viable strategy to tackle this issue. Artificial farming ponds are one option to encourage this shift.
Artificial Farming Ponds
In response to a similar crisis of overreliance on groundwater, Dewas, a district in Madhya Pradesh, initiated the construction of artificial ponds that would collect rain during the monsoon season6. Farmers that owned large farms were provided loans and financing support in order to be able to dig these ponds on part of their land. These ponds were extremely successful because they greatly improved the quantity and quality of crop yield. With consistent and regular irrigation (assuming a good monsoon), farmers were even able to grow winter crops. This increased and diversified crop yield allowed farmers to recover the costs of construction within one winter.
Source: thebetterindia.com
Apart from irrigation benefits, the farming ponds resulted in a number of other positive impacts, such as, pushing farmers in Dewas to be more self-sufficient and increasing bio-diversity in the area. If this scheme were to be implemented in Jabalpur, it is highly likely that the farmers will experience the similar benefits. Most importantly, the shift to rainwater for irrigation will allow the water table in the city to recharge and diversify the water portfolio.
However, it must be noted that the efficacy of farm ponds in Jabalpur will be contingent on the local soil type being suitable for capturing and storing rainwater.
Conclusion
Jabalpur presents a story of pressing institutional and managerial issues, and the two interventions listed above are some effective first steps in preventing permanent physical scarcity of water in the city.
References
- Census2011. (n.d.). India Census 2011. Retrieved from https://www.census2011.co.in/
- Mishra, Vimal & Shah, Reepal & Garg, Amit, 2016. “Climate Change in Madhya Pradesh: Indicators, Impacts and Adaptation,” Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
- Mishra, M.C. (2022, March 30). Borewells on the Banks of Narmada Are Drying Up, Indicating Concerning Groundwater Situation. Mongabay-India. https://india.mongabay.com/2022/03/borewells-on-the-banks-of-narmada-are-drying-up-indicating-concerning-groundwater-situation/
- United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). (2006). Water demand management strategy and implementation plan for Jabalpur
- India Environment Portal. (2020, July 1). Madhya Pradesh Municipality User Charges for Water Supply, Sewerage, and Solid Waste Management Services Rules, 2020. Retrieved from http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/469344/madhya-pradesh-municipality-user-charges-for-water-supply-sewerage-and-solid-waste-management-services-rules-2020/
- The Better India. (2016, April 29). How a Simple Idea of Farm Ponds Is Tackling Drought in Dewas. Retrieved April 29, 2023, from https://www.thebetterindia.com/58237/farm-ponds-dewas-tackle-drought/
- India Today. (2021, March 20). Ponds of many miracles: How MP’s Dewas district achieved water self-sufficiency. India Today. https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/nation/story/20210329-ponds-of-many-piracles-how-mp-s-dewas-district-achieved-water-self-sufficiency-1781257-2021-03-20