After ADB, Kerala wants World Bank to change norms

The Government has proposed a few drastic changes. As per the new proposals, the gram panchayat alone will decide whether there should be a public user tap in the area. The Government sources said that consultations so far show that none of the panchayats wants a public water tap as it entails “unpopular methods like a water meter” and such a tap will be “misused for purposes like bathing cows”.

The other major change is reduction in the users’ contribution towards the project cost. As per the existing funding pattern, up to 75 per cent of the cost of a water supply scheme is covered by the project and 10 per cent of the cost by the gram panchayats, both are grants. The remaining 15 per cent is to be collected from the users. The Government now wants to make it 10 per cent for common category and 5 per cent for SCs, STs and fishermen. Out of this 5 per cent, the state wants them to pay 1 per cent in cash and 4 per cent as manual labour.

The state also wants a change in the “institutional arrangements” in monitoring the schemes. Under the existing system, the four key actors for monitoring the scheme are the Kerala Rural Water Supply Agency, an autonomous registered state-level society, gram panchayat, beneficiary groups (BGs) or the users and NGOs. The community-based BGs are independently handling the entire project outlays. The state now thinks NGOs can be avoided as the other three are enough to give a “decentralised” nature to the scheme.

Early this year, the Kerala Government had renegotiated with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for changing what it called the “anti-people” clauses in the agreement for extending a Rs 1,061-crore loan for the “sustainable urban development projects” in five cities. The changed clauses included charging user fees for drinking water, sewerage and solid waste disposal and increasing rates by 22 per cent once in three years.