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Karnataka Urban Water Policy and the citizens needs

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Public Agenda - 13 June, 2009 | Infrastructure | Water | Transparency | Mysore | Reforms | Analysis | Issues | World bank

JNNURM, WB, ADB, Mysore and Bangalore Water Supply:

  • The GoI has been trying their best to promote various forms of delegated water supply management to the private sector  in big and small cities in Indiathrough JNNURM and UIDSSMT
  • As a particular case of Karnataka :: the ADB and the World Bank have been active in influencing policy esp wrt urban drinking water since 1996. A GO by the UDD was passed the same year as a pre-condition of the KUIDP loan which was for Mysore, Ramanagara, Chennapatna

Many people wonder what is wrong with that? Why should politicians and officials not be influenced? After all the IAS have even worked at ADB or World Bank in Manila or Washington So we can adopt the policies dictated  by these banks?

Some people accept that this is what globalisation is all about?

And that is because it is fashionably ideological to view things in a way that corporates are able to : business is the business of business and business cannot be bothered about how business is done.

At least some bureaucrats are enamoured by the above (corporate) ideology of profit but the public DONT AGREE.

The WB and to a lesser extent the ADB also have corporate investors who are companies who keep wanting to profit and therefore also dictate the direction which policy must /could take.

And the same happened in Karnataka as well ! In the year 2000 during the Cong govt's regime two loans KERL I and KERL II were signed, without the contents being revealed publicly. Maybe the officials in the CM's office might have known about it but others did not except WB officials. The World Bank also prepares an Implementation Completion report after their projects. But probably for the first time both for KERL I and II the report was kept confidential

On the other hand there are simple demands from the citizens

  • Predictable QUANTITY and QUALITY of Drinking water supply
  • Predictable timings every day and every week
  • Pre announced timing
  • Accountability of officials with not only wind in the pipes but actually water being supplied
  • Water for all not just for those who can pay
  • Water is an essential need
  • Water should not be for profit for companies

Govt can change the policies with funding from DFID, WSP-SA, WB, and ADB etc but can expensive projects like the one in the case of JNNURM allow for these small demands before misusing  too much money.

The Mysore project according to the timeline was prepared as a normal water supply scheme from MCC and then returned by JNNURM, MoUD to be modified as a 24X7 scheme costing 110 crs more. It was not the MCC which opted for the "world class scheme" but decided to adopt the diktat  of the CSMC and the ADB Jnnurm secretariat.

COMMENTS

There are success stories from World Bank funding...

Vasanthkumar Mysoremath - 13 June, 2009 - 12:25

PA Sir,

While agreeing with you on the crucial point of transparency and accountability in execution of projects that have a class action, World Bank, ADB and other international financial institutions have there own stringent due diligence norms, parameters to convey to the world more success stories than failures through their investments.

Please have a look at the following example of a success story with regard to elixir of life - water in rural huts:

Kerala rural water supply financed by World Bank A Self-help Story:

- Kerala villagers put water on tap

Kerala has less water per person than Rajasthan

Despite getting three times more rainfall than the rest of India, Kerala surprisingly has less water available per person than the arid states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Village homes now have water on tap

The program has made everyday life much easier for families, especially saving the womenfolk hours of backbreaking labor to fetch water each day.

Conservative women too voice their views openly

Jalanidhi has raised the level of local leadership, and the gram panchayat is now able to draw on these people and utilize their skills for other development schemes

Villagers now willingly pay for water

Jalanidhi has also shown that the poor are able and willing to pay for water. Kunjathu, a single mother of six in Edayur village, works as a maid in the better-off homes of the village. She pays Rs 40 per month for her two hours of water but is quite unperturbed about it. “Earlier, I would spend four hours collecting water; now I get water in my house, so I can use those four hours to earn more money and spend time with my children. So why should I mind?” she says with a smile.

A pioneering grassroots approach The World Bank first piloted this community driven approach in water and sanitation services under the Swajal project that ran in 12 districts of Uttaranchal between 1996 and 2003.

Permanent World Bank URL for this page: http://go.worldbank.org/YVSPAB2SI0

- Vasanthkumar Mysoremath

Should TRANSPARENCY & COUNCIL +PUBLIC SCRUTINY be @ PREMIUM ?

Public Agenda - 13 June, 2009 - 13:30

Dear VK Math Sir,

Should TRANSPARENCY & COUNCIL +PUBLIC SCRUTINY be @ PREMIUM for world class projects?

Bangalore and Mysore had no elected Municipal Council in place whne the JNNURM MoAs were signed        bmponline.org/Bruhat%20Bangalore/MoA%20Bangalore%20City.pdf

for both cities elections were not held for at least one year  Mysore in (Sept 2007) but BBMP NOT YET

So how do the set of projects for JNNURM go through any Council scrutiny before being sent to Delhi ? then funded and returned for modifications etc ?

THE ONLY ROLE FOR THE COUNCIL was therefore post FACTO.

and Similarly the PUBLIC DID not DECIDE what projects to be funded since DPRs were only going back and forth between the SLNA (KUIDFC), MCC/BMP, BWSSB, KUWS&DB and THE SLSC and CSMC+ JNNURM secretariat (ADB funded).

 

So then it comes down to who accepted on behalf of  MCC that modification to 24 X 7 must take place

Again POST FACTO a resolution could be passed by the MCC COuncil

but the question is must Council and Public democracy be sacrificed for World Class infrastructure (finance and projects)?

 

 

 

 

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