Beyond the handpump and pit latrines : the case of a slum in Baroda

In order to alleviate conditions in the slums that constitute 40 % of the urban population in India, the capacity of the people to help themselves and the institutional mechanisms to harness this capacity must be developed. The experience of Ramdevnagar slum in Baroda (India) demonstrates how solutions beyond the traditional options emerge as a community choice. In 1994, the Baroda Citizens Council, an organisation which encourages the urban poor to solve their own problems, brought an engineer-consultant to speak to leaders from the different slums of Baroda about the possibility of a piped water supply. This case study reviews the power of the people of a slum to reflect upon their plight and to think of solutions beyond the traditional variety of handpumps and household latrines. The people sought to make a choice in line with their willingness to pay. A dialogue with the formal utility for accessing the trunk infrastructure followed. This has prompted UNICEF to assist the project to provide WSS infrastructure to low income settlements. What is unfolding in Ramdevnagar slum of Baroda City is of interest in understanding the process leading to the choice, the delivery option and later the use and maintenance of WSS infrastructure at the slum level and its replication in other slum situations.