Case Study: Water Demand Management in Rajkot, India Country: City: Key Sectors: INDIA Rajkot (Gujarat) Water and Wastewater Local Partner Organization Geography and Population Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) Rajkot, the fourth largest city in the State of Gujarat, is spread across an area of 129 sq.km divided into 18 wards. The population of the city is 1.28 million (Census Contact Information 2011) Rajkot Municipal Corporation Project Coordinator: Ms. Ritu Thakur Mr. Chirag Pandya ICLEI South Asia City Engineer [email protected] Contact: [email protected] Project Director: +91‐9714503719 Ruth Erlbeck Contact [email protected] Tel: +66898321055 Summary With 1.28 million population, Rajkot is the fourth largest city in the state of Gujarat. Due to vibrant economy, the city has witnessed high growth rate of 28.24% in the last decade. The city is located in an arid zone with erratic rainfalls. The high growth rate, climate and the spatial location of the city makes water supply as one of the major challenging issues for the city. The city is able to provide only 106 litres per capita per day (lpcd) with intermittent supply for an average of 20 mins per day. Analysis reveals that local water resources provide approximately one third of the current water demand of the city. Groundwater in Rajkot is not considered to be sustainable water source due to the lower water table and associated risks of fluoride and nitrate. To meet the demand, city has ventured far and wide to access reliable water sources thereby increasing the overall energy requirement. Most of the water for city comes from the Narmada Canal which is hundreds of kilometres away through the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP). It is estimated that every litre of water requires 6 Watt of energy to make it to Rajkot which is highly unsustainable. Inequitable and intermittent water supply has led to unrest in the city in past. As far as waste water is considered, 40% of the city is disconnected to centralized sewage infrastructure. In such cases, untreated sewage is discharged into the Aji River, thereby posing threat to public health and environment. The major challenge for city is to manage its increasing water demand and tackling its water losses through leakage and non‐revenue water. With the above scenario, it was discussed and decided by Regional GIZ Urban Nexus project to provide advisory services to the city thereby supporting them to improve their service delivery. A detailed study on water demand management for the city of Rajkot was conducted under the project. A water balance tool for the city was developed which helped the city to take control of its water losses by understanding the performance of a service area with the objective of improving decision making processes on the level of water network management. The study provided various other recommendations like reusing the treated wastewater for agricultural purposes, October 4, 2017 1 utilizing the existing SCADA system for processing performing indicators, usage of GIS for maintaining data. The overall idea of the study was to improve the efficiency of existing infrastructure, reduce energy requirement, save available resources thereby helping the city to move towards circular economy. Rationale Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) is located in the centre of the Saurashtra region of the state of Gujarat. With approximate 1.28 million inhabitants Rajkot is the fourth largest city in the State. The decadal growth rate is observed at 28.24%. With limited infrastructure and resources available it is becoming a challenge for the city to cater to the basic demands of its growing population. The primary source of water for the city are surface reservoirs, namely Aji, Bhadar, and Nyari dams where Aji reservoir primarily caters to the drinking water needs of the city and is entirely under the control of RMC. The city also receives water from the Narmada Canal to meet its increasing water demand. Though the coverage of water supply connections is fairly good as 90% of households are connected to piped water supply, the per capita water supplied is merely 106 lpcd1 as against the benchmark of 135 lpcd. Also, presently, with the available sources of water, RMC is able to supply only for average 20 minutes of water daily. It is important to note that the city falls under an arid zone; monsoons in Rajkot are irregular and erratic thereby adding another challenge to meet water demand. With monsoon being erratic, surface water is no longer a reliable option for the water supply of Rajkot. Also groundwater as a sustainable water source is ruled out due to the required effort of pumping from great depth and advanced treatment. Critical constituents, such as Fluoride and Nitrate in higher concentrations also limit the use of groundwater for urban water supply. The city had witnessed serious water supply problems in previous years. Inequity in water distribution has led to unrest and a strong dependency on water tankers with their poor water quality and high cost. Almost, 2,84,082 consumers are registered with RMC with 97.5% being the domestic users. Presently, only 0.2% of these domestic users are metered. As many as 60% of customer complaints are related to leakage and pollution of water. Also, wastewater generated in city is not efficiently treated to be reused. The Operation & Management cost for year 2015‐16 reveals that around INR 280 Million (almost 45% of the total O&M cost) is spent on the energy required for transporting the water into headwork facilities and into maintaining the required pressure. Considering the above water supply scenario in Rajkot, it was discussed and decided to provide advisory services by the Regional GIZ Urban Nexus thereby supporting the city to improve its service levels. Project Description Under the Regional GIZ urban Nexus project, a study on Water Demand Management in Rajkot was conducted. The expert visiting the city had intense discussion with the relevant officials in Rajkot Municipal Corporation and made several visits to different parts of the city to understand the ground scenario. Based on identified bottlenecks in the infrastructure system, suitable recommendations were provided to the city to improve its service delivery. Water balance tool for the city was developed which can help the city to track its water usage, reduce leakage and non‐revenue water which will reduce energy demand thereby promoting an integrated approach with increased efficiency and improved service delivery. The study also recommended reuse of treated wastewater for gardening or agricultural purposes which will eventually reduce the demand of fresh water. Some of the other proposed measures from the study are: The SCADA system which is primarily used only for data acquisition should also be used to process performance indicators which will help in tracking the efficiency of the service Introduce District Metering Areas to improve water demand management. Multi‐sectoral GIS task force to be institutionalized 1 http://rajkotuda.com/pdf/RUDA-Report-PART-1-13-07-2015-2031.pdf October 4, 2017 2 Stakeholders / Target groups The key stakeholders include: Water Supply Department, Rajkot Municipal Corporation Drainage Department, Rajkot Municipal Corporation Accounts Department, Rajkot Municipal Corporation Staff – managing SCADA system, Rajkot Municipal Corporation IT department, Rajkot Municipal Corporation Local contractors Methodology Realizing that the city is water‐stressed and needs support to improve its service levels with regard to water supply, the Regional GIZ Urban Nexus project decided to facilitate advisory service to RMC. A GIZ Consultant visited Rajkot on a fourteen day mission. The objective of the mission was to assess the existing status of water supply and also included brief assessment of waste water management. The findings along with recommendations to improve the service levels were presented to the Commissioner and the Chief Engineers on 30th September 2016. Few recommendations like installing water meters in the entire city and reusing treated wastewater for agricultural purposes were discussed in detail. Costs / Financing The advisory services for the above study were funded under the GIZ Urban Nexus Project. The city has already prepared tenders for installation of water meters in one of the zones i.e. Chandresh Nagar Water Supply Zone and is expecting finance under the AMRUT scheme of the National Government. Studies / Reports / Training Water Demand Management in Rajkot, Gujarat under the Project ‘Integrated Resource Management in Asian Cities: the Urban Nexus’, September 2016 Site Visit of engineers from RMC to Hanau, Germany to learn about advanced technology i.e. Vacuum Sewer for wastewater management Results (Impact) The advisory service provided under the GIZ Urban Nexus project provided guidance to the city to improve its service levels with respect to water sector. Some of the impacts include: The decision makers and engineers of RMC have been made aware of how to balancing the water system at zone level, focussing on areas with high non‐revenue water, decrease energy consumption and costs for fresh water supply. Utilizing the SCADA system efficiently. It is recommended to utilize the data to be processed into performance indicators. There is lot of emphasis to learn from the pilot initiative of metering at Chandresh Nagar Water Supply Zone. The success of pilot will eventually help the city to scale up water metering. There is a need to digitize data and utilize the GIS system. Data and Utilizing the GIS System – It will help in managing customers and assets data professionally. Property tax department has started preparing and maintaining geo‐referenced information at Household level and linking it with various services provided by RMC. Water supply zone and administrative boundary are different. It is still a challenge for RMC to tackle information effectively, which may be tackled once geo‐referencing information is available.