Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene
Reliable access to safe water and working sanitation infrastructure, maintained through local ownership — treated as one integrated service chain, not a set of separate household-level targets.
What this pillar includes
WASH is not a single intervention. In SARD's model it covers the full chain — from source to household to disposal to behavior — because a gap at any point breaks the system. Each element is planned in the Gram Panchayat's Village Development Plan and tracked from baseline to handover.
Connection, pressure, daily hours of supply, and source sustainability — not just installation. Aligned to Jal Jeevan Mission coverage targets.
Toilet construction (SBM-G), soak pits, septic systems, and — critically — active usage tracked through ODF status maintenance, not one-time achievement.
For households without space for household toilets, and for common facilities. Maintenance arrangements established before handover.
Household segregation, community collection points, leachate pits, and linkage to state SLWM schemes. Planned with the Infrastructure pillar's drainage work.
Seasonal field testing for coliform, TDS, and fluoride. Community-level test records maintained by the Water User Group. Fluoride risk is a specific concern in this corridor.
Handwashing routines, menstrual hygiene management, and ODF maintenance, facilitated through SHGs and ASHA/AWW frontline networks — not one-time campaigns.
Local institutions for maintenance, billing, dispute resolution, and governance of the water supply system. Formation and capacity building are embedded in the 36-month cycle.
How progress is measured
SARD tracks functional outcomes, not just construction milestones. Every indicator below is measured against a baseline established in months 1–4. Baseline data collection methodology is described separately in the Programme Framework. Forthcoming
Functional household water connection rate
% of households with a running piped connection supplying adequate daily hours. Distinguishes functional from merely installed connections.
ODF status maintenance rate
% of declared ODF villages maintaining status at quarterly review. Not a one-time certification — tracked continuously.
Water quality test pass rate
Seasonal testing pass rate for coliform, TDS, and fluoride at household and source level. Village-level records held by WUG.
Water User Group functionality score
Composite score covering: formation, active membership, billing collection rate, records maintenance, and dispute resolution capacity.
Household waste segregation coverage
% of households actively segregating waste at source, tracked through quarterly village-level community review.
Handwashing with soap prevalence
Observational measurement at key moments (pre-food, post-latrine) conducted at baseline and at 18 and 36 months.
Public scheme convergence
Government schemes are the primary resource for WASH outcomes. SARD maps applicable schemes at the start of each village cycle and ensures Gram Panchayat applications are in place before any partner funding is committed to overlapping components.
Piped household water connections under the Har Ghar Jal target. Primary funding source for water infrastructure. SARD supports GP applications, tracks functional coverage gaps, and addresses last-mile households excluded from scheme coverage.
Household toilets, community sanitation complexes, and solid and liquid waste management infrastructure. Phase II covers ODF Plus, which aligns with SARD's maintenance-tracking approach.
Covered drainage construction, soak pits, and village-level earthwork that supports the WASH and Infrastructure pillars. Convergence requires GP-level planning coordination and advance work order scheduling.
Earmarked grants for sanitation and drinking water maintenance at GP level. SARD assists GPs in establishing spending plans aligned to the WUG's maintenance fund requirements.
Andhra Pradesh state schemes for solid waste collection infrastructure, material recovery, and community composting. Mapped against GP-level gaps in SBM-G coverage.
Where partners add value
After scheme mapping, specific gaps remain that public funding either does not cover or does not cover well. These are where partner support — CSR, philanthropic, technical — creates the margin between infrastructure presence and functional village service. The examples below are illustrative of typical gap patterns in this corridor. Illustrative
Behavior change and soft programming
Sustained hygiene promotion
Government schemes fund hardware construction and one-time campaigns. No scheme provides for the sustained community facilitation — 12–18 months of regular engagement — needed to shift handwashing, ODF maintenance, and menstrual hygiene norms durably. This is consistently the gap between a toilet built and a toilet used.
Monitoring capacity
Water quality field testing equipment
Seasonal water quality testing requires basic field kits and trained Water User Group members. Scheme stipends do not cover this equipment or the ongoing training cost. Without it, quality monitoring exists on paper but not in practice.
Institution building
Water User Group strengthening
WUGs are formally constituted under JJM but rarely receive structured capacity support for record-keeping, billing systems, meeting facilitation, or conflict resolution. Strong WUGs are the difference between infrastructure that sustains beyond the project period and infrastructure that degrades.
Coverage gaps
Last-mile water connections
Households excluded from JJM coverage due to terrain, informal housing status, or documentation barriers. These are often the most marginalised households in a village. Closing these gaps requires targeted support outside the scheme framework.
Convergence
Connected pillars
WASH outcomes are not independent of the rest of the village system. The following pillars have direct operational and outcome dependencies with this one — gaps in each affect what WASH can achieve.