Water for Women - India

Building Climate-Resilient WASH for Climate-Impacted Vulnerable Populations

Water for Women partners with the Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR) to deliver climate-resilient and socially inclusive water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services to 74,420* people through Building Climate-Resilient WASH for Climate-Impacted Vulnerable Populations in Bhubaneswar and Jaipur.

With a population of around 1.429 billion, India is now the most populous country in the world,^[1] but with only 4% of water resources, India is also one of the world’s most water-stressed countries and faces major water security threats due to projected changes in climate.

Rising temperatures are accelerating evaporation, depleting surface water and groundwater reserves, while intensifying tropical cyclones are increasing storm surges and sea-level rise, causing saline intrusion in coastal areas. Altered precipitation patterns lead to unpredictable monsoons, causing floods in some areas and droughts in others.^[2]

Like most countries in South Asia, India is particularly vulnerable to climate change. In recent years, India has experienced more erratic and severe weather events and related crises, including floods, cloudbursts, landslides and heatwaves. India’s economy is closely tied to its natural resource-base and climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture, water and forestry.^[3] These extreme events are reducing water availability, adversely affecting agricultural productivity, water supply, and overall economic stability.^[4] Weather-related crises are also slowing the pace of poverty reduction and increasing inequality nationwide.

People survey the devastation caused by Cyclone Fani in Tarini Basti, an informal settlement in Bhubaneswar, India (CFAR archives / Basudev Mahapatra)

 

Climate-related risks to water, sanitation and hygiene

“In the changing climate due to global warming, risks are getting more complicated and complex. Community at large is at stake and the solution must be engrained in them. Localisation of solution with contextualisation is the answer to many such changes. Water is one of the challenges; scarcity and thereby compromised quality needs to be addressed now. Hence, low cost yet effective solution is adaptation to such situations, and which can be done through community-based actions and at scale.”

Yezdani Rahman, Seeds India Chief of Programmes

In the cities of Bhubaneswar in Odisha, and Jaipur, Rajasthan, climate change is impacting the availability of and access to water and WASH and having devastating consequences on communities. According to the Socio-economic Vulnerability Index,^[9] 50% of informal settlements in the two cities are at a medium to high level of risk of climate-related disasters — with 119 at high risk of cyclonic storms and flash floods, and136 facing both climatic variability and groundwater depletion, with 25% of the population severely impacted. Additionally, 16% of all wards in both cities are rated at ‘very high’ to ‘high’ vulnerability, and 27% and 19% in Bhubaneswar and Jaipur respectively at ‘medium’ vulnerability.

Situated in India’s eastern coastal plains, Bhubaneswar lies in the tropical wet-dry zone and is increasingly prone to tropical cyclones, hailstorms and floods. In the 136-year period from 1877-2013, Bhubaneswar experienced 100 tropical disturbances with wind speeds of up to 150km, including 39 cyclonic events. In 2019, Cyclone Fani caused severe destruction of houses, telecommunications, power and WASH infrastructure, and loss of life.

Over the ten-year period from 2011-2021, rainfall rates also increased in Bhubaneswar, rising from 1,561mm to 1,800mm annually. Flooding has impacted some 52 locations, with those worst affected being urban poor communities living along riverbanks and in low lying areas in the North and Southeast zones.^[10] Odisha has also routinely experienced heatwaves since 2018, anomalous rises in temperatures and predominant droughts. In many areas, groundwater has depleted by 10 metres or more.^[11]

Jaipur is undergoing rapid urbanisation growth while at the same time, 38 areas are defined as critically polluted under the Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index,^[12] with high chemical, heavy metal and faecal contamination of water sources.^[13] Jaipur receives less than 600mm rainfall annually and relies extensively on groundwater^[14] and a single surface water source, the Bisalpur Dam. Informal settlements across seven zones face acute water crisis, extreme surface heating, flash floods and depleting groundwater levels for four months annually. Erratic climatic conditions also result in irregular water supply, particularly during summer, which increasingly brings protracted dry spells and heatwaves starting as early as March and extending beyond June – one month earlier and longer than usual.^[15] Rajasthan state is considered an area of high climate sensitivity, maximum vulnerability and low adaptive capacity. The state also has the highest probability of drought occurrence in India.^[16]

Across Bhubaneswar and Jaipur, some 163,983 and 323,400^[17] people respectively live in urban slums, representing approximately 20%^[18] and 10%^[19] of the cities’ populations. More than 14%^[20] of Bhubaneswar’s population belongs to scheduled caste^[21] groups or tribes,^[22] and around 17% is illiterate. In Jaipur, more than 16%^[23] of the population is from a scheduled caste group or tribe, and over 27% is illiterate.

Climate change disproportionately affects those most marginalised in society, including people from minority groups, people with disabilities, women and the poor.^[24] Those living in informal urban settlements in Bhubaneswar and Jaipur experience multidimensional disadvantage and face high climate hazard risks.

Women members of CFAR's Single Window Forum and Community Management Committee are creating "rangoli" or floor paintings, this method is used in many parts of India as an auspicious symbol of prosperity, good luck and growth. The rangoli patterns are drawn using flowers, rice flour and coloured chalk powder to mark World Water Day and motivate all members of their community to get into the habit of conserving water in Odisha, India (CFAR, India)

View more photo updates from our work in India

"Localisation is necessary to respond to climate change. The community must be at the centre of designing and implementing climate-resilient WASH programming including anticipatory action, mitigation of, and adaptation to reduce risk, with local capacities and resources strengthened by CSOs, experts and climate-action and WASH systems, international, national and sub-national.”

Akhila Sivadas, CFAR Executive Director

WASH-related climate challenges for this project

• Approximately 53% of households in Bhubaneswar and 15.9% in Jaipur rely on water from untreated water sources, and 34% and 6.9% respectively lack drainage facilities.
• Around 25% of households in Bhubaneswar and 5% in Jaipur do not have a latrine.
• Some 30% of households in Jaipur experience severe water shortages and are unable to access a toilet following flash floods and heavy rainfall.^[25]
• About 1.12 billion cubic metres of groundwater has depleted in Bhubaneswar between 2009 and 2017.^[26] The seepage of sewage water into surface water sources has further degraded the city’s water supply.
• With 91% of Jaipur’s drinking water secured from groundwater sources, fluoride and nitrate in drinking water is a major problem.^[27]
• According to the Public Health Engineering Department, of the 384,058 metered connections in the Jaipur water supply scheme, around 60% are not functional and there is a water supply deficit of 90 million l/d.

How community representatives came together to champion and successfully advocate for safely managed WASH services for their settlement (CFAR archives)

Outcomes

Building Climate-Resilient WASH for Climate-Impacted Vulnerable Populations aims to reach the following beneficiaries by the end of 2024:

Direct beneficiaries: 74,420*

• women and girls: 36,809
• men and boys: 37,149
• people with a disability: 2,362

Indirect beneficiaries: 19,136*

Feature photo: Flash flooding in Jaipur, India (CFAR Archives)

*Project targets are based on partner Civil Society Organisations (CSO) baseline studies. Project targets are updated periodically in response to changes in context as appropriate. To see our latest progress towards targets, see our progress.