Assessing the resilience of water supply infrastructure to climate variability in rural India, a group of researchers have emphasised the need for policy measures that develop institutional capacity, improve participatory governance and assess the existing level of resilience capability in order to prepare for long-term rural water security.
Observing that rural Indian communities, characterised by decentralised and informal nature of water governance, are extremely vulnerable to climate shocks that impair local water supply infrastructures (WSIs), the researchers found that environmental concerns such as arsenic and salinity are context-specific, but the most widespread issues are systemic, including poor governance and fragmented maintenance supply chains.
Social and institutional factors are important for understanding WSI resilience and that resilience is not determined by the performance of physical infrastructure alone. The resilience of rural WSIs extends beyond engineering metrics alone and is better understood as a socio-ecological outcome linked to the daily water security of rural communities, the researchers said.
While urban areas are dealing with rapid growth, ageing infrastructure and disjointed governance, rural India has a different but equally urgent concern. With nearly 65 per cent of the population, rural India depends heavily on decentralised freshwater sources, which are increasingly under threat from climate stress, over-extraction and pollution, the researchers observed.
The assessment was conducted across four rural communities — Kanti in Haryana, Srayikkadu in Kerala, Ahirpurwa in Bihar and Kali Nagar in West Bengal, which represent distinct geological, climatic, and socio-cultural settings.
According to the findings, Kanti village in Haryana has the most resilient WSIs, which appear to be associated with significant private sector and local government participation, whereas Ahirpurwa and Kali Nagar are the least resilient due to low institutional, social and physical support.
“Despite contextual variations, disrupted community governance and supply chains were recognised as the prevalent constraints across all communities, indicating limited public engagement and insufficient restoration mechanisms,” the researchers said. “Social and institutional factors are important for understanding WSI resilience in these study communities, and that resilience is not determined by the performance of physical infrastructure alone,” they added.
Undertaken by seven researchers from the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham at Kollam in Kerala, the study was published by Nature’s Scientific Reports, an international peer-reviewed journal, on October 10.
Water, the study states, is an important resource for life, economic growth and environmental sustainability globally. Climatic variability and anthropogenic activities continue to pose significant challenges to water availability, supply networks and related infrastructure, impacting reliability in supply, quality and resilience.
The World Economic Forum has regularly identified “water crisis” as one of the most serious global risks, with major social and economic consequences. Nearly 2.3 billion people worldwide live in water-scarce regions, with 733 million concentrated in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
For India, a middle-income country with over 18 percent of the world population but just four percent of global freshwater resources, maintaining water sustainability has long been a significant issue. India’s diverse hydro-geological and socio-economic contexts, coupled with severe climatic phenomena such as droughts, flooding, and unpredictable rainfall, along with inadequacies in policy and governance, consistently weaken the nation’s capacity to provide sustainable and resilient water services, the study observed.
