Water Flows, Jobs Follow - Karnataka Shows the Way

Highlights

• In the southern Indian state of Karnataka, roughly US$1 billion in ongoing World Bank-supported projects is reshaping how the state stores, distributes, and recycles water.
• Better water services is changing daily life in rural and urban districts of the state. Women freed from the daily task of collecting and storing water, have more time for work and businesses; water projects are creating jobs, and young engineers are building careers in dam safety.
• Over time, Karnataka is slowly managing its water resources and building an efficient and sustainable water services delivery system. The result is a multiplying economy: more crops, more businesses, more jobs, and more lives transformed by a resource that, when managed well, keeps giving.

Across the world, an estimated 1.7 billion jobs depend on water. When water systems fail — leaking pipes, unreliable supply, poorly maintained treatment plants — they quietly undermine development, reduce productivity, and threaten livelihoods.

In the southern Indian state of Karnataka, the second most water-stressed region after Rajasthan, roughly US$1 billion in ongoing World Bank-supported investments is reshaping how the state stores, distributes, and recycles water. This includes rehabilitating dams for safe storage, moving piped water systems in both rural and urban areas towards delivering water reliably 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (24/7), and treating wastewater to bring the land back to life.

The transformation is technical and institutional but more importantly human: women freed from hours of fetching water can now hold jobs and think of running small businesses; jobs for thousands from the construction and operation of reformed water systems; as well as new career paths for a freshly trained generation of dam engineers.

From Village Water Wars to Running Taps

Just a couple of hours from Bengaluru, the 1.8 million people of Mandya district once built their lives around the uncertain arrival of water.

B.M. Raghu, former president of Bekkalale Village, remembers it vividly: "Due to irregular water supply, villagers often gathered at the shared public taps, leading to disputes over who could fill their pots first. Women anxiously competed for access and argued over whose turn it was. Their husbands soon joined in — sometimes taps were ripped off in the chaos.” Water was wasted. And the burden fell heaviest on women and children who spent hours each day trying to secure enough water to survive.

Today, every house in Bekkalale has a piped tap connection. And since August 2025, the village has become one of the few in India to receive water 24/7. This transformation was supported under the Sustainable Rural Water Supply Program, which is co-financed with $363 million from the World Bank. The program is working to extend this 24/7 facility to at least 500 villages in the state. It is also supporting Karnataka in setting up systems to improve water service for all its 44.5 million rural residents.

With regular water supply, residents now willingly paying for water. They say round-the-clock clean water at their doorstep is worth every rupee. Since they no longer need to hoard water, their consumption has dropped. What’s more, consistent water pressure prevents contaminants from entering the pipes, reduces leakage, and saves electricity since it cuts down the hours needed to pump the water into homes.

What makes this transformation sustainable is not just the pipes and pumps — it is the people entrusted to look after them. Across Karnataka's 6,000 Gram Panchayats, Village Water and Sanitation Committees manned by community members, half of them reserved for women, bear the responsibility of keeping water flowing. Working in partnership with the State’s Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation Department, they oversee operations and maintenance, manage a dedicated bank account funded by water tariffs, village taxes, and government contributions, and monitor water quality through a smartphone based electronic system.

Back in Bekkalale, Sarita, a 35-year-old farmer, now has time to tend to her cow as well as pursue tailoring on the side. "I no longer have to struggle with filling up and storing water," she says. Her neighbor, Shobha, 44, who once hauled heavy pots from a distant handpump, is thinking about buying a second buffalo — the free mornings she's gained make it possible. Not far away, 26-year-old Sindhu, who spent nearly 20 years accompanying her mother to water stations, missing countless school days, is now dreaming of becoming a makeup artist in the city.

Transforming Services in Small Towns and Reaching the Marginalized

Karnataka has shown that round-the-clock water supply is indeed achievable and affordable in India, even in cities where water is scarce. World Bank-supported projects in the cities of Hubballi-Dharwad, Belagavi, and Kalaburagi have already brought continuous piped water to around 230,000 people by fixing the gaps in supply, strengthening local systems, and putting in place the processes needed to keep the water flowing long into the future. Work is in full swing to expand 24/7 service to over 2.7 million residents of these cities, including those residing in marginal or low-income neighborhoods that are often overlooked.

The story of Muttyanatti, a peri-urban settlement on the outskirts of Belagavi town in northwestern Karnataka, shows what water insecurity truly costs. Home to around 1,000 people from underprivileged communities, the settlement once received just 10 to 15 minutes of water daily. The local primary school couldn't serve midday meals for lack of potable water. And when the taps ran dry, the health center suspended deliveries and vaccinations. Diarrhea was also common.

All that has changed since early 2025 when Muttyanatti joined the 24/7 network, with water drawn from the Hidakal dam, filtered, and quality-tested at both treatment plant and household level.

For Nagava, a 50-year-old daily wage worker, the choice was stark: "It was either my daily wages or losing time collecting water." Now, with a tap outside her door, that dilemma is gone. And seventeen-year-old Amrita, who once missed two or three days of school each week to fetch water, is looking forward to college and a job in the city.

The ripple effects of reliable water reach well beyond the home. In nearby Somarpet in Belagavi town, Swapnil Badale runs a dry-cleaning and laundry business that was, for years, at the mercy of erratic water supply. "I lost a lot of my business," he says. Today, with a steady tap connection, the machines run, the orders are filled, and Swapnil is thinking bigger. "Now I can run my business and even think of expanding the number of machines I have and employing more people." For Swapnil, water did not just save a business — it created a future.

The Dams That Make It All Possible

None of this water reaches a tap without first being captured and stored — and that's where Karnataka's 232 dams come in. The World Bank-supported Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project is rehabilitating 27 large dams across the state and guiding the operating rules and systems for all dams.

One such dam is the iconic 92-year-old Krishnarajasagara (KRS) dam in Mysuru that has a catchment area spanning roughly 10,000 square kilometers. Fed by the Cauvery river basin, it irrigates 250,000 acres of agricultural land, supplies drinking water to almost 15 million people in India’s IT and tech hub of Bengaluru, generates 50 MW of power, and draws 6,000 daily visitors to the Brindavan Gardens within its complex.

Overseeing the safety of all 232 dams is the state’s Dam Safety Organization. Its office has earned the affectionate nickname, the "Pink Office", because nearly 80% of its engineers are women.

Among the women engineers is Nethra, the first civil engineer in her family and village. "At first I thought civil engineering was only about constructing buildings," she admits. "Now I realize it is much more. As a woman engineer working with the dam department, I feel I share a role in helping humanity."

Twenty-eight-year-old Manasa, with a master’s degree in hydraulics, worked on-site at the Vanivilasagara dam — the oldest in the state. She says: " My work required me to maintain and manage the water outflow from the canal. I was in regular touch with the farmers, resolving their irrigation and drinking water needs.”

With technical support from the World Bank, two renowned institutions – the IIT Roorkee and the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru - now offer a specialized two-year master’s program in dam engineering. Tanuja, a dam engineer with 20 years of experience, completed the program and shared her experience: "The good mix of theory and practice will help me secure better jobs and help advance my career."

Closing the Water Loop to Secure the Future

In addition to dams and water pipes, the World Bank’s engagement in Karnataka is working on reusing treated wastewater productively – crucial for this water-stressed state. The relatively new $426 million Karnataka Water Security and Resilience Program will improve water security for more than four million residents in India’s tech capital, Bengaluru. It will reduce flood risks within the city, help revive its lakes, and build sewage treatment plants. For the rural districts near Bengaluru, the program will bring treated wastewater to tanks that often run dry – to recharge groundwater and, in turn, revive agriculture and restore life in entire villages that are emptying out due to water stress.

Throughout the water cycle - from dam to field, field to tap, and rejuvenating barren land with wastewater — Karnataka is closing the loop. The result is not just sustainability, but a multiplying economy: more crops, more businesses, more jobs, and more lives transformed by a resource that, when managed well, keeps giving.