By Nicholas Arsenault, Lara Hale, Prasad Khedkar & Yoko Morimoto
Introduction
This report introduces the work of the Lund University masters student team on water scarcity within the Kurseong Inte-grated Water Management Project. After introducing Kurseong and the structure of the overall project, we use a PESTLE (Po-litical, Economic, Socio-Cultural, Techno-logical, Legislative, and Environmental) framework for analysing the situation in Kurseong at this phase and setting forth our recommendations. The purpose of this report is to synthesise diverse forms of in-formation gathered from our backgrounds, formal education, other integrated water management projects, and on-site experi-ences into an interdisciplinary perspective on the current situation and way forward for sustainable water systems in Kurseong.
Background
Kurseong is a sub-division of Darjeeling district situated between Darjeeling and Siliguri in West Bengal, India. The town is located 1 458 m above sea level in the foot-hills of the Himalaya. It is surrounded by tea gardens and is famous for its boarding schools.
The population of Kurseong as per a 2001 census is 40 067, whereas in 2011 it is es-timated to be more than 70 000 [1]. Ur-banisation and increasing population are exerting a great amount of stress on water
systems and increasing the need for proper waste management.
Figure 1: Location of Darjeeling Sub-Division
Existing reservoirs and water distribution systems in Kurseong constructed during the British rule (60 to 80 years ago) have hardly been upgraded to meet the present demands. Shrinking water resources fur-ther increase the gap between demand and supply. At present, water is supplied on alternate days for thirty minutes to an hour – by pipe connections to homes or unoffi-cial access points in public – to the inhab-itants of Kurseong during dry season.
Businesses and households store as much of this water as possible in order for it to last over the following day. Nonetheless, the majority of households and businesses
82 ENERGISING LOCAL CAPACITIES in the town are dependent on unofficial private water suppliers or illegal tapping of the system to meet their daily water re-quirements. Additionally, the quality of both the delivered and purchased water is compromised, and residents are at risk for related health problems.
Mr. Sanjay Prasad, Urban Planner of Kurseong town, formally raised the issue of the deteriorating water supply in 2007.
Kurseong Municipality and Artamus, a Sweden-based consulting firm, developed a sustainable water management project for Kurseong in 2009. Soon after, a Sweden-India cooperation was established and funded by Swedish International Develop-ment Cooperation Agency (SIDA) in order to support capacity building and work to-wards infrastructure investments in Kurseong. The partners involved are the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL), the International Institute for Indus-trial Environmental Economics (IIIEE), rm2rm Group, and Kurseong Municipality.
To solve water problems in Kurseong and ensure sustainable long-term water supply for the inhabitants, the India-Sweden Inte-grated Water Management Project was ini-tiated in 2008 with a project proposal [1].
The Integrated Water Management Project in Kurseong (2009-2017) is divided into four different phases.
The preliminary phase involving planning and preparatory work was launched from the Project Proposal [1] and was concluded in April 2011. The results of Phase 1 were published in the form of an Observation Report [2]. In 2012, the full-scale project was initiated with the commencement of Phase 2, having an objective to develop a Strategy and an Action Plan presenting measures for sustainable access to potable water in Kurseong. This phase focuses on
soft variables and aims at enhancing multi-sector cooperation, capacity building and conflict management in the watershed for the successful implementation of Integrat-ed Water Management (IWM) project. Ad-ditionally, this phase will also test the technical feasibility of a pilot project in Kurseong. This work and report contrib-utes an integral part of this phase. Phases 3 and 4 are planned to commence in mid-2013, and the last quarter of 2014 will fo-cus on the hard variables such as procure-ment of pipes, technologies and building infrastructure. This team’s work is a con-tribution to the early stages of Phase 2 of the Kurseong IWM Project.
Methodology
Our study and contribution to the Kurseong Integrated Water Management project was realised in three distinct steps.
The first step of our contribution began on March 14th,2012, and finished on April 1st when several group members departed for India. The second and on-site step of the project began on April 10th when all group members arrived in Kurseong and con-cluded on April 19th when we departed. The third step consisted of writing the final re-port, both for the SED requirements and a more detailed report for the larger Kurseong IWM project. This section will outline the activities that took place during the three steps of this project.
Step 1: Preparatory Phase
The preparatory step of this project took place in the weeks leading up to our depar-ture for India. The purpose of this phase was to familiarise ourselves with the pro-ject background, understand integrated water management issues and case studies and prepare for our on-site step. The fol-lowing activities were carried out during
ENERGISING LOCAL CAPACITIES 83 Step 1:
Review of reports and observations from Phase 1 of the Kurseong Inte-grated Water Management Project;
Review of various case studies and integrated water management pro-jects;
Initial contact with local and Swe-den-based partners;
Familiarisation with the local cul-tural, political, environmental and economic contexts;
Preparation and request for trans-lation of a water survey; and
Study of local municipal data, maps, and documents.
Step 2: On-site in Kurseong
Step 2 was the on-site portion of this pro-ject. We spent a total of nine field days working with local partners and a select group of civil engineering students from the Darjeeling Polytechnic Institute. Along with our project supervisor, Murat Mirata, we spent our days – at times together and at times individually – exploring and learn-ing about broad and specific issues related to water management from a variety of perspectives and disciplines. It must be noted that throughout this step the local students, Mr. Johan Sandberg (IVL – Swe-dish Partner), Mr. Sanjay Prasad (Munici-pal Urban Planner), and Mr. Manoj (Mu-nicipal Sub Assistant Engineer) were an integral part of much of the conversations, meetings, field visits, interviews and sur-veys.
The centrepiece of our activities and explo-ration during this step was the water pro-file survey conducted in households and businesses in Ward 15. Kurseong’s Board of
Councillors selected this ward to be the fu-ture location of a small-scale pilot project because it has a representative population size (of the 1 200 residents), a roughly equal number of males and females, do-mestic and commercial leases, and ethni-cally and religiously diverse residents. The objective was to understand the qualitative and quantitative aspects of water usage in this particular ward. This served to create water profile of those living in Ward 15 and an understanding of their relationship with water – and ultimately how their lives are impacted by the current water scarcity.
Figure 2: Location of Ward 15 within Kurseong
With the help of Mr. Henry, Councillor of Ward 15, we were able to meet and inter-view a representative population from the various communities in the culturally di-verse Ward 15, including members of the Nepali, Muslim, Bihari, and Marwari communities. Of particular interest for this project are the women of these communi-ties, as it is women who have the most meaningful and deterministic relationship with water. The four women of the team (two from Lund and two from Darjeeling Polytechnic) added a separate survey ad-dressing women’s issues. These female-specific interviews evolved into a narrative
84 ENERGISING LOCAL CAPACITIES understanding of women’s water issues.
Beyond the water profile survey the follow-ing activities were carried out durfollow-ing Step 2 of this project:
Meeting with and collaborating with the local students, Murat Mirata, Johan Sandberg, and local partners;
Meeting with local stakeholders in-cluding the municipal Chairman, local schools, doctors, councillors, shop-owners, and more (please see list of interviewees).
Visiting and inspecting water infra-structure including mains, reser-voirs, and pipelines;
Visiting Ward 15 whilst the water was turned on and accessible dur-ing the morndur-ing;
Conducting a small sample of com-parative surveys of upstream Wards 5 and 8; and
Undergoing water sampling train-ing with the local students at the Pollution Control Board in Siliguri.
Facilitating a water forum with Ward 15 community members.
Water sampling training
The culmination of the on-site step was a water forum that we hosted with the resi-dents of Ward 15. The purpose of this fo-rum was to share our work, observations, and implications for the project moving forward. Furthermore, it gave community members another opportunity to voice their experiences with water and to express their hopes or reservations for this project.
We were also able to convey the message that such a complex problem will not change overnight and that this process has begun, but is far from finished. Finally, it gave us an opportunity to thank the com-munity for welcoming us into their homes and sharing their stories with us.
Step 3: Report Writing
The final step of this project was the prepa-ration and writing of our report for the re-quirements of the Strategic Environmental Development course. Beyond this, a more detailed report was also written for the partners of the larger project. This expand-ed report contains further recommenda-tions, reference to case studies, analyses, documentations and information relevant to the future of this project.