ABSTRACT
Since the declaration of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (IDWSSD) (WHO/UNICEF 2010) provision of water supply and sanitation services in rural areas all over the world has become a focus of attention. Significant evolution in the thinking on the subject has taken place in India since 1999, the year in which representatives of the Government of India (GoI) and several states met at Cochin and made what became popularly known as the ‘Cochin declaration’. During the following decade ‘community demand-responsive development approaches’ to rural water supply and sanitation service provision were tested and demonstrated for their viability, indicating a marked shift from previous centralised, supply-driven, engineering-focused approaches. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) added further vigour to the collective global effort on WASH service delivery with well-designed targets and global indicators (Lockwood and Smits 2011).
