Changing from intermittent to continuous water supply and its influence on service level benchmarks: a case study in the demonstration zone of Nagpur, India

Abstract

A dearth in infrastructure and operations significantly reduces the expected benefits of safe drinking water provision. Intermittent water supplies are characterized by inefficient demand and supply management owing to operational inadequacies eventually causing physical deterioration of infrastructure and inconvenience to consumers, resulting in consumer dissatisfaction. Conversion from intermittent to continuous water supply was undertaken in a demonstration zone of Nagpur, India, with a population of about 150,000 people. Data related to the infrastructural, operational, managerial and financial capabilities were used to determine service level benchmarks (SLBs) — pre- and post-intervention — to quantify the improvement due to continuous water supply interventions. The post-intervention data analysis clearly indicated substantial improvement in post-intervention SLBs, consequently paving the way for the conversion of the water supply of the entire city to continuous mode.

Keywords:

• Service level benchmarks
• intermittent water supply
• continuous water supply
• pre-intervention
• post-intervention
• demonstration zone
• non-revenue water

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Director, CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur 440 020, India and Commissioner, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) for their valuable guidance. We also acknowledge contribution of Orange City Water Private Limited, Waterworks Department of NMC and Water Technology and Management Division (WTMD), CSIR-NEERI, Nagpur in providing support and necessary data.