South Africa 4 – Aqua Communo Innovate – Supported Self Supply Model

Our solution to rural India’s challenge of water supply backlogs and their vision to ensure access to safe water supply to all households at tap in order to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6) is the Aqua Communo Innovate.

The Aqua Communo Innovate (ACI) model is a holistic, participatory, cost-effective and poverty reduction focused approach to planning and providing water services that considers and promotes local people’s self-supply initiatives to meet their different water demands. A similar model has been successfully implemented in South Africa by the Water Research Commission and partners, where communities take a leading role in planning, designing, co-financing, implementing, operating and maintaining their water supply schemes, and this includes community led source water protection and conservation to ensure sustainability of water supply and to foster local ownership.  

To ensure water security, the model engages with the water value chain from source to tap and from tap to source by 1) adopting Community Based Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) approach for source water protection and sustainable management of water resources so as to improve the quality of the currently contaminated surface water resources and this includes the use of different citizen science tools to monitor and manage water resource health; promotes diversified sources of supply where borewell (ground water) is augmented by 2) Rainwater Harvesting or 3) Recharged by using water that has been harvested from rainfall where feasible; and later on, the surface water whose quality will gradually improve after implementation of IWRM and nature based solutions will also become an alternative source to water supply; promotes Community Led Supported Water Supply (which is essentially our main solution) using different sources of supply and lastly the model recommends provision of support for proper and dignified sustainable sanitation services such as 4) Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems (DEWATS) where practical or 5) Dry Sanitation in a form of non-separating (collecting faeces and urine together) or separating such as urine diversion toilets so as to end open defecation and ensure protection of water resources from contamination while also restoring the dignity of the Rural India’s communities. Please refer to Step 6 of the implementation of the ACI Model for more information on DEWATS and Dry Sanitation.

Through integrating source water protection, diversified sources of supply and provision of sustainable sanitation services, the Model enhances livelihoods, improves water security, improves health and sanitation services and increase community resilience to the impacts of climate change.   

By design, the Aqua Communo Innovate (ACI) Supported Self Water Supply Model recognizes that:

1. communities are resourceful when given the necessary support and platform to lead their own water supply.
2. communities can be able to solve their water issues if they are provided the necessary support.
3. communities know their water sources very well and as such they are best placed to be the ones who also manage and protect them, and lastly,
4. the model recognizes that communities know their water needs, but it is by how they are engaged and how institutions work with them to bring out this resourcefulness as a solution to the table.

As Aqua Experts (Group 4) from South Africa, we propose the Government of India, implements the proposed Aqua Communo Innovate Supported Self Supply model at community level through a partnership between various stakeholders, including, 1) the Local Communities that have taken some initiative or that will take an initiative to put together money (co-finance) to implement their own water supply system; 2)  the Indian Central Water Commission (CWC) or similar  (similar to the Water Research Commission in SA) that can collaborate with an 3) experienced International  non-profit water research institution such as International Water Management Institute (IWMI) who would collaborate to put together a proposal to the funders or donors that are interested on the community driven water supply initiatives such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) requesting financial aid to support a rural community led water supply initiatives where communities have already taken an initiative or would take the initiative to raise funds to finance their own water supply (notably, also unserved communities can be intentionally identified and be introduced to the ACI model and be offered support); 4) Local Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) such as the Watershed Organization Trust which has got presence in several Indian states and works to improve clean water and sanitation, focusing on community led approaches and water conservation; 5) sector Departments such as the Ministry of Jal Shakti’s  Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS) which focuses on Rural and Urban Water Supply and sanitation, the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvination which manages broader water resource issues as well as the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare to ensure that the Aqua Communo Supported Supply Innovation does not only reside with the CWC but is passed on to the other Indian States/Provinces as a model of implementation; and 6) most importantly, the partnership needs to work with the Local Authority/Municipality or mandated local Institution such as the Jal Jeevan Mission (which focuses on providing safe, adequate tap water to all rural households) to i) introduce an alternative water supply service delivery model which does not aim to replace the existing government Bulk Water Supply Model (BWSM), but work to augment it, considering the limitations of Government that have resulted in significant water supply backlogs, especially in the rural parts of India; ii) ensure that the local authority can mobilize donor funding to support the self-supply programme with various aspects, including supporting the community driven self-supply initiative with equipment’s and capacity building on the technical aspects of self-water supply such as water resource monitoring (quality and quantity); operation of a Water Treatment Facility in applicable cases; lab analysis of water quality data; analysis of water abstractions; water conservation and demand management and establishing, operating and maintaining Decision Support Systems such as Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) and Water Resource Management Decision Support System (WRMDSS) for archiving, analyzing water resource data such as aquifer levels, river levels, water abstractions, rainfall depth, water loses and also for providing hydraulic and water quality modelling functionalities for simulating the impacts of land use on water resource health and inform decision making on prioritization of interventions.

The 6 Steps of implementing the Aqua Communo Self Water Supply Model 

 

Step 1 – Introducing the Aqua Communo Innovate – Supported Self Water Supply Model (Community Consultation) 

After obtaining grant/donor funding, the Aqua Communo Innovate supported self-water supply process starts with the consultation of the respective community that has initiated a self-water supply project i.e.  The Central Water Commission in collaboration with the relevant project partners can first introduce the project to the Panchayats (community/village leaders and traditional council) explaining what the project is about? who is funding it? what is it intention? and explaining how the process is going to unfold from planning to implementation. During this introduction and consultation phase there are discussions about the community water sources; what they are being used for and how the community manage it water sources.

During this stage the following can also be considered: 

• Identification of motivators by understanding the economic, health, and social factors that will encourage households to invest their own resources, such as saving time from fetching water or providing a safer supply for livestock and
• Introduction of options through presenting a range of suitable technologies and service levels that households can choose based on their budget and needs.

Step 2 – Situation Analysis / Diagnosis 

This is a stage where the Central Water Commission in collaboration with partners is getting to understand the challenges that the community is facing i.e. India is facing a challenge of surface water contamination caused by among other things open defecation (lack of adequate dignified sanitation); agricultural runoff; poor water resource management and climate change. Rural India is also facing a challenge of water scarcity and over-dependence on groundwater or borewells which has resulted in ground depletion and contamination due to over-abstraction. Water loses and non-revenue water is also a serious challenge in rural India due to lack of effective community-based water conservation and demand management.

Step 3 – Solution Visioning and Capacity Development 

At this stage, it is where the Central Water Commission in collaboration with partners finds out from the community what does the new dawn or success look like for them? What do they see as a solution to the problem and what will they use water for.  The most important thing to note at all the stages is that communities become the center of how the process of implementing the programme unfolds.

At the diagnosis stage the CWC is essentially already starting to develop capacity for the community to be able to look after (maintain) the water sources themselves or the infrastructure that supported Self Water Supply programme is going to implement.

At this stage, the project team is also thinking about what is needed? What are the technical solutions needed? Are the pipes needed? Is a small water treatment plant needed to treat unacceptable source water quality parameters? (the small treatment process is recommended if there are significant water quality non-compliances with the drinking water standards of India. the results will determine the type of treatment process that is required-whether basic of comprehensive) What is needed for use to be able to solve the water supply problem?

Step 4: Planning  

After the situational analysis or diagnosis has been undertaken, the Planning stage begins. This is where the Central Water Commission in collaboration with key stakeholders is actually sitting with the communities to discuss how they going to go about implementing the project? Who will be responsible for what? How is reporting going to be undertaken? How are the external contractors going to be held accountable? Which part of the project implementations is going to be undertaken by the community? Is it excavation; is it carrying material that will be utilised for construction or pipeline? At the planning phase, it is where the team also starts to have real conversation about budget planning i.e. what financial resources will be required? What is the donation total amount or the total budget that is coming from the project donors? How much contribution is going to come from the community? Is there financial contribution that will come from the Jal Jeevan Mission? If yes, how much? How is the budget going to be spent/allocated? What is the scope of the project or activities that will need to be implemented? Will there be a need to procure material? Will the procurement be done locally? Is it going to be done through the CWC? Is it going to be a centralised one or is it going to be a decentralised one? But also in the process, who is going to be managing receiving of materials when they are being delivered in the community? Is the community expecting to be paid for this? Or these become their in-kind contribution to the project? As can be seen, this is a long engaging/participatory process where the project supported are taking communities with them. It’s about better ownership, involvement and real participation, because the communities are involved in every step of the project cycle.

 The planning stage also focuses on empowering the community with the tools and knowledge to make informed decisions and mobilize resources, such as: 

• Provide technical training and resources so that households can select and plan for implementation of their water supply scheme. This could include training on manual drilling techniques or best practices for well protection. 
• Establishing mechanisms to help households finance their investments. This may involve setting up micro-loans, matching grants, or facilitating local savings groups; and
• Partnering with and train local service providers such as artisans, drillers, and mechanical fitters. This stimulates the local market for water supply products and services. 

Step 5 – Implementation 

This is the phase where the physical construction or upgrading of water supply systems takes place and is guided by the support team but largely executed by the community and local contractors. At this stage:

• The implementation is led by the community, where the community or individual households manage the construction process, often contributing financially or through in-kind labor.
• The project supporters provides oversight and technical supervision to ensure the quality of the work and adherence to health and safety standards.
• The Community Water and Sanitation Committee (WASHCO) is established for communal system or as a support network for individual households to lead the initiative on behalf of the whole community

Step 6 – Building Support for Sustainability 

The last stage of the ACI supported self-supply model looks at how is sustainability of the initiative going to be built? How are the water resources going to be monitored? How does the community know if they have over-pumped the borewell and need to give it time to recover? How much time will be required for the borewell to recover? How is water quality going to be monitored? Will the Jal Jeevan Mission be able to provide support with water quality monitoring of an ongoing basis or will they need to train selected community members on water resource monitoring? All that takes building these capacities, training communities on how to be better managers of their water supply system themselves.  

This is also a critical stage for deciding on who is going operate and maintain the water supply infrastructure in the long term? What components are going to be led by the community? And what support will come from the Jal Jeeven Mission? Should the Jal Jeevan mission have difficulties or constraints with providing long term support, how are the key technical skills going to be transferred to the community and how is the community going to pay for the resources that will be trained to look after maintenance in the long term?

After construction, the project’s focus shifts from physical infrastructure to institutional and managerial sustainability. This include ensuring: 

• Operational training which includes training the WASHCO or households on the day-to-day operation and minor repairs of the installed systems (community based water conservation and demand management using citizen science tools such as simple leak detection methods and mobile application like the SA Field Survey App for capturing data collected by Citizen Scientists;
• Financial management which includes providing training on collecting tariffs, managing finances, and establishing a fund for major repairs and future upgrades;
• Water quality testing which includes providing support to households or citizen scientists to monitor the quality of their drinking water to ensure it is free from contamination. 

At this stage, it is also critical to discuss the alternative sources of supply since in India there is overreliance on ground-water (borewells), while there is also a challenge of groundwater depletion. The community, supported by the technical project team can decide whether or not they also augment their supply with rainwater harvesting and ground water aquifer recharge, which is highly recommended by the proposed solution. Furthermore, since there is minimal use surface water due to contamination by open defaecation and various land uses the community can be trained on Community Based Integrated Water Resource Management where they can use citizen science tools and work with various landusers to ensure that water resources are protected from the different sources of pollution and to ensure implementation of restoration interventions using Nature Based Solutions (NBS) in collaboration with various stakeholders. As part of this, the community and the Jal Jeevan Mission may be assisted with developing a simple integrated catchment management and ecological restoration plan that would guide prioritisation and implementation of interventions.

Finally, since open defaecation is still a serious challenge in India that has contributed to the pollution of water resources and would still continue to be a problem if no sustainable and dignified interventions are implemented, during the sustainability preparation phase an international NGO such as BOARDA India can be brought in as a partner to assist with the implementation of Decentralised Wastewater Systems where practical and introduce dry sanitation in the form of urine diversion toilets to address the poor sanitation services issue and address the issue of water resource protection at the same time. 

Decentralised Wastewater Treatment Systems (DEWATS) are sewer based systems that treat and reuse or disperse wastewater at or near the source of generation, such as individual homes, small communities, or businesses, rather than collecting it and sending it to a large, distant central wastewater treatment facility. These systems offer a cost-effective, flexible, and sustainable alternative, especially for rural, peri-urban, and remote areas lacking centralized sewer networks. They leverage natural based solutions or processes such as soil filtration and biological activity to treat water, reduce pollution, protect public health, and recharge local groundwater where applicable. DEWATS range from simple septic tanks to more complex systems like constructed and waste stabilization ponds.  The most important thing that make these systems suitable for Rural India is that these systems use no chemicals and no electricity in their treatment process, while they use nature based solutions and promote circularity through reusing treated effluent for agricultural purposes or recharge industrial purposes.

Dry Sanitation toilets on the other hand are waterless systems for managing human waste, where excreta fall through a drop hole into a receptacle and is then composted using dry, carbon-rich material like sawdust. Unlike traditional toilets, they don’t use water for flushing or connect to sewage systems, offering significant water conservation and reduced environmental pollution. These innovated toilets come in various forms, from simple bucket designs to more sophisticated models, and can be either non separating (collecting faeces and urine together) or separating (diverting urine from faeces). 

In conclusion, we believe that our proposed comprehensive solution, the Aqua Communo Innovate Supported Self-Water Supply has the potential to resolve water security and safe water supply backlogs in rural India. The proposed solution is holistic, inclusive, participatory, cost-effective, and sustainable and is a poverty reduction focused approach to planning and providing water services that considers and promotes local people’s self-supply initiatives to meet their different water demands. As such, we recommend for the Jal Jeevan Mission to implement the proposed solution and we are happy to provide more information and long term advisory support should there be a need during implementation. 

References

van Koppen B, Phasha K, Bophela T, Modiba I and White M, Manuel Magombeyi and Ingra Jacobs. 2021. Operationalizing Community Led Water Services for Multiple Uses in South Africa. WRC Report No. TT 840/20. WRC, Pretoria, South Africa.

Molose, M. 2025. Interview. Water Research Commission. Pretoria. South Africa. 08 July 2025.

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