Decentralized Approaches to Managing Local Public Goods: Evidence from Drinking Water Systems in Karnataka

A perennial policy recommendation is to decentralize management of local public goods and
services to local institutions, which may be better informed about or more responsive to
community needs. Yet we know little about how effective different approaches to
decentralization are or how best to design such systems. We study these questions in the
context of the Jal Jeevan Mission, a flagship initiative of the Government of India that aims to
provide safe drinking water to all rural households in India and one of history’s largest
consolidated investments in drinking water infrastructure. Management of local water systems
is fully decentralized to village water and sanitation councils (VWSCs) and Gram Panchayats,
or broader village councils. In practice, however, many VWSCs exist only on paper, revenues
raised do not cover costs, and sustainability remains an ongoing concern. In a randomized
experiment in 500 villages in Karnataka, we will evaluate four interventions that
progressively decentralize influence over pricing, operations and management decisions. The
first establishes functioning local institutions; the second additionally assigns these
institutions decision rights, instead of the status-quo voice rights. The third tests whether
consensus-based pricing enables communities to distribute the burdens of maintenance
funding more efficiently, and the fourth tests whether citizens’ assemblies can achieve similar
benefits at lower cost. We will measure effects on: i) price schedules; ii) involvement in
decision-making and user satisfaction; iii) water fee payment rates; iv) maintenance quality
and timeliness of