ANNOUNCEMENTS
Ensuring drinking water security is essential for survival, health and wellbeing, physical and mental development, productivity and economic growth for an individual and a region. To achieve drinking water security, the center and the state have facilitated several schemes that focus on water availability, quality, access, technology and affordability. At the same time, there has been a growth in enabling decentralised, local implementation of water projects while involving and empowering the beneficiaries. The roles of centralised and decentralised approaches used to achieve water security are studied in this thesis. The thesis includes a „need assessment study‟ conducted in specific areas in Gandhidham, Gujarat, which uses sets of qualitative and quantitative methods to collect and analyse data. It is an illustration of a pre-project implementation phase; and the recommendation outcomes of which could be used to execute the project in a decentralised manner. The thesis attempts to understand the roles as well as gaps of centralised and decentralised approaches, and only begins to speculate smooth transition between the two, for on ground implementation work. This opens a possibility of further exploring the overlaps between approaches for achieving drinking water security in the most effective way.
Keywords: drinking water security, centralised approach, decentralised approach, needs assessment, Gujarat.
