Mending Malawi's Water Institutions and IWRM Solutions

The aim of this chapter is to explain the challenges of decentralisation and management of water as economic good principles of integrated water resources management (IWRM) in Malawi in the rural areas of Ntcheu, Balaka, and Mangochi. Semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, community meetings, and observation of water points were conducted. It was established that households and other state institutions prefer to receive services from Mpira-Balaka Water Users Association, which subsidizes households, rather than Southern Regional Water Board, which operates along commercial lines. The chapter questions the focus in the implementation of IWRM, which remain the establishment and fixing of decentralised institutions whilst recognising water as an economic good.

Integrated watershed development plan for a sub-basin, central India

The present study aims to propose an integrated watershed development plan for the Wainganga basin situated in Maharashtra, India. Also, the study involves evaluating the performance and applicability of SWAT (Soil and water assessment tool) as a runoff model along with the trend analysis of rainfall for the above mentioned study area. The decadal land-use/land-cover (LULC) variation from 1985 to 2005 has been studied using data procured from Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES-DISC) and groundwater table level of the study area was monitored using dug/bore well data collected from Central Ground Water Board (CGWB). Rainfall trend analysis for a period of 101 years using historic rainfall data procured from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has been analyzed to foresee the future scenario. It was observed that the rainfall-runoff relationship of the area is getting affected by the LULC variation and thereby affecting the groundwater regime. There is a significant deterioration in the forest cover and water bodies which is alarming. The study devises the importance of an immediate master plan to be implemented in the basin to avoid any future crisis. Also, the study emphasizes the advancement of remote sensing in the use of hydrologic models like SWAT more realistically.

Community-owned rural water supplies in Galicia (Spain): supporting role in the groundwater self-management

The community-owned rural water supplies in the rural areas of Galicia developed spontaneously in response to the historical shortcomings of local administrations, which are a clear example of commons management strategies. They have developed a water self-management model integrated into a complex network of actors. More than one-quarter of the total population rely on these systems. However, a large part of supplied water does not comply with the sanitary standards due to deficiencies in the system’s design, operation, and maintenance and the water catchment protection. Furthermore, the owners face difficulties complying with basic legal requirements due to the complexity of the regulatory framework and the lack of training of the water board members. COXAPO (‘Comunidad Xeral de Augas de Galicia’), an association of 150 community-owned water supplies, advises, trains, and supports the water boards for the legal, administrative, economic, and technical systems management. As a result, it gets the systems legally compliant concerning the institutional management and quality of supplied water. The success of this network governance recommends a role to the administration in promoting the networking of water boards by supporting the existing water supply associations and encouraging their constitution or provisioning equivalent services in regions where they do not exist.

Perspectives of Evaluation of Training (EoT) for Enhancing Professional Competence of the Hydrogeologists and Strengthening Participation of the Stakeholders – A Case Study

The paper is the outcome of one week training programme on Evaluation of Training (EoT) organised by the Administrative Training Institute (ATI), Kolkata, West Bengal from 05.09.2016 to 09.09.2016. The paper deals with a case study associated with the Induction Level Training Course (ILTC) for the newly recruited Hydrogeologists of Central Ground Water Board (CGWB). An EoT report can strengthen the professional competence of officials working with various Regional and State Unit offices of CGWB and also can ensure the stakeholders participation to achieve the desired objectives of the CGWB. The CGWB is the National Apex body entrusted with the responsibilities of providing scientific inputs for management, exploration, monitoring, assessment, augmentation and regulation of ground water resources of the country consisting of Hydrogeologists, Geophysicists, Chemists, Hydrologists, Hydrometeorologists and Engineers and has its headquarters at Faridabad, Haryana state. Major activities being taken up by CGWB include various R&D studies, exploratory drilling programme, monitoring of ground water and its management. The Rajiv Gandhi National Ground Water Training and Research Institute, Central Ground Water Board (RGNGWTRI) is the only training and research institute of CGWB and is envisaged to function as a `Centre of Excellence’ in training ground water resources personnel and objective of these trainings is to develop a pool of trained resource persons, who would be working towards sustainability of ground water resources. The paper includes detailed account of material and methods like primary and secondary data collection, SWOT, EMB factors, Interaction with faculty and trainees, Interview and observation, Feedback, Course Director’s Report (CD Report) and various EoT tool kits, Training plan design and the EOT report (withdrawal Phase). The aims and objectives, performance problems, various environmental, motivational and behavioural problems have also been incorporated in the paper. Training and Non-training recommendations, Training Plan, Priority List and Design brief are the other highlights of the paper. The EoT analysis recommends the training and non-training implications, training design, new EoT Systems with various types of activity during the ILTC. Further, the paper includes the Flip chart preparation, Recap, Presentation and Exercises involving all the trainees with an aim to fully engage and involve the trainees. In addition, the remaining highlighted features of the paper are the motivational factors to the trainee officials like various types of incentive, good entry certificate, appreciation letter from Line Managers or Senior Manager for their outstanding performance, proper transparent promotion and transfer policies and the post training external validation are to be carried out by obtaining report on the performance of the trainees from Line Managers or Senior Manager.

Scientific Approach Towards Knowledge Enhancement and Capacity Building for the Professionals Working in Water Sector Through Training Needs Analysis (TNA) Tool – A Case Study

Training Needs Analysis (TNA) is a tool designed by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India, being useful for development of knowledge and skills of the officials of an organization. TNA can be undertaken for an organization as a whole, or for a particular section or function. It may include analysis of an organization’s current performance problems, or in anticipation of changes that are likely to require training. TNA focuses attention on ‘performance’ to identify training needs, along with other, non-training implications. Once performance problems have been identified and analyzed, they can be reviewed according to their priorities. After establishing the priorities, further, more detailed analysis can be done to identify precise training needs. These needs should concern everybody associated with a particular performance problem, irrespective of their status or number. TNA has been applied to solve the performance problem of the Hydrogeologists of Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), Northern Region, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The TNA encompasses the components like Terms of Reference (ToR), SWOT analysis, SPIO analysis, Responsibility Mapping, EMB factors, PEST analysis, and Fishbone analysis followed by diagnosis of the collected data and recommendations. The proper identification of performance problem is a key to address the organizational development goals in right manner. Many performance problems in the hydrogeological discipline of client organization related to environmental, motivational and behavioural (EMB) factors influencing desired performance of CGWB, NR were identified during the interaction with the client and stakeholders and also through interview with set of questionnaire. To achieve the vision and mission of client organization and to improve its performance, training and non-training implications, Training Plan, Priority List and design brief have been proposed.

Production and scale efficiency of South African water utilities: the case of water boards

South Africa is a water scarce country with deteriorating water resources. Faced with tight fiscal and water resource constraints, water utilities would have to adopt technically efficient water management technologies to meet developmental socio-economic objectives of universal coverage, aligned to the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal 6. It is important to measure the technical efficiency of utilities as accurately as possible in order to inform policy. We do this by using a non-parametric method known as Data Envelopment Analysis to determine, measure, analyse and benchmark the technical efficiency of all water boards in South Africa. Our contribution to the literature is twofold: This is the first paper to model technical efficiency of water boards as utility suppliers and guardians of water services in South Africa, and second, we address the over- and underestimation issues of technical efficiency measurement in the water sector. We do this by modelling one of the most pronounced negative externalities from water provision (water losses) as an undesirable output using the approach developed by You & Yan. We find, on average, technical efficiency of water boards is 49%, with only three of the nine water boards technically efficient. Six of the smaller water boards showed high levels of inefficiency with an inefficiency rate of 51%, which is equivalent to wastage in expenditure of R3.7 billion. Six water boards operate at increasing returns to scale and two are scale efficient. Only Rand and Sedibeng water boards exhibited decreasing returns to scale. Therefore, redirecting potential efficiency savings to optimal uses could result in technical and scale efficiency for the sector. Scale efficiency results seem to support larger regional water boards as small- to medium-sized water boards are scale inefficient with low technical efficiency. For example, Amatola Water (small water board) with an efficiency score of only 16% has a total expenditure of 18% of that of Umgeni (large water board), but sells only 6.7% of the quantity sold by Umgeni. Amatola also has seven times the proportion of water losses compared with Umgeni and charges 1.6 times the tariff of Umgeni. The ratio model with an undesirable output outperforms previous methods to deal with undesirable (bad) outputs, which either provide an over- or underestimation of technical efficiency.

A System Dynamics Model of the Community-Based Rural Drinking Water Supply Program (PAMSIMAS) in Indonesia

The sustainability of the water supply program in developing countries is influenced by many inter-linked and dynamic factors, suggesting the need to analyse the system behaviour of the water supply program. However, no study analyses factors influencing the sustainability of rural drinking water supply programs holistically, and this study aims to fill that gap. This study utilized a system dynamics approach based on a case study of a community-based rural drinking water supply program (PAMSIMAS in Bahasa) in Magelang Regency, Indonesia. Five sustainability aspects were considered in the model development and simulation: financial, institutional, environmental, technical, and social aspects. Eight scenario analyses related to those five aspects were conducted. The causal loop diagrams suggest that the overall loop in the system is reinforcing, meaning that the improvement in one aspect will improve the overall condition of the system and deterioration in one aspect will reduce the overall condition of the system. Scenario analysis shows that external fund is critical to support the program financially, especially at the beginning of the project when the piped system is being built and water revenue is still low. Scenario and sensitivity analyses revealed that human factors, i.e., the performance of the water board and response and support from the community, positively influence the sustainability of the water supply program. Additionally, the water board plays a key role in accelerating the pipe network growth. Finally, this paper argues that visualising and simulating the causal relationship and dynamic behaviour of the rural water supply program are critical for water stakeholders to better design and implement the water supply program.

Assessment of health risks related to groundwater consumption in Al-Hoceima region

Water is a precious natural resource for life, and more vulnerable to different contaminations; it has become less and less drinkable because it is polluted and can carry pathogenic germs that cause water diseases. The population of the Al-Hoceima region is supplied with drinking water from the network of the National Drinking Water Board, which is not widespread in rural areas where there is the frequent use of communal water points (spring or well). Health concerns remain related to the consumption of untreated well water, in the absence of a department responsible for the management of well water (development, equipment, treatment, protection, and quality control). To preserve the health of the population from any source of contamination carried by water, the Ministry of Health, carries out, through the provincial hygiene services, the control and monitoring of the physical-chemical and bacteriological quality of water in the framework of the fight against water diseases. The objective of this work was to determine the state of groundwater quality in the Al-Hoceima region, based on the study of physicochemical and bacteriological parameters. A control of 41 collective water points was carried out, including 30 wells and 11 springs. The collected samples were analyzed to measure some physical parameters: electrical conductivity, pH, temperature, and dissolved oxygen, possibly looking for indicator germs of fecal contamination, namely coliform bacteria, Escherichia coli, and intestinal enterococci. The results revealed fecal contamination of all collective water points by coliform bacteria and Escherichia coli. Appropriate measures must be taken for the disinfection of these waters before their use.

Delfland in 1200. Een gereconstrueerde hoogtekaart

Delfland in 1200. A reconstructed elevation map In this study, a proxy is presented for the height of the land above sea level in the past. The height is calculated for the area of the Hoogheemraadschap (water board) of Delfland in the year 1200, based on the changes in the water table in the polders over time. Since 1865, this water table is presented in the Waterschapskaart of the Netherlands, which has seen f ive updates and is now replaced by maps of the individual water boards. These six measurements over a period of 155 years are used to calculate the rate of subsidence of the soil. Together with the present height of the water table above sea level, it is possible to extrapolate back in time to the year 1200. Such an extrapolation well outside the measurement area must be regarded with caution and the quantitative results are compared with expectations based on known geophysical processes in peat and clay soils and the history of the area. The calculated relief in 1200 matches with the expectancies based on the geographical survey of the area. As expected, the f irst dykes along the estuary were merely ment to ward off extreme high water in the summertime when wheat had to be protected against salt water. The clay soils are calculated to lay extremely f lat from the river to 20 kilometre inland. This allows for the observed linear flow of the rivers. According to the calculation, the height of the land above sea level is such that storm surges are expected to reach inland on only rare occasions. This is substantiated by the observation that farms are built on platforms of only a few decimetres in height. The method has proved its worth for an area the size of Delfland, where statistically significant results may be obtained due to the number of measurements. However, for results on a smaller scale the method is not sensitive enough.