India

The cooperation at a glance

Danish Environmental Protection Agency in India

The Strategic Sector Cooperation (SSC) on Water between the Danish Environmental Protection Agency and Indian water authorities brings Danish regulatory approaches and sustainable water resource and supply technologies in play for supporting the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), which has the purpose of securing tab water to all rural households in India by the end of 2028.

In addition, the cooperation supports the efforts of the Royal Danish Embassy in India for clearing the way for Danish industries on the Indian market and for strengthening bilateral relations.

Phase I of the cooperation was completed at the end of June 2025. The time frame for Phase II is from July 2025 till June 2028. A third phase may follow.

The SSC is a part of the Green Strategic Partnership (GSP), agreed between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Mette Frederiksen September 20th 2020, and reconfirmed during the Danish Prime Ministers visit to Indian October 2021.

What it’s all about: Functional household tab connection (FHTC) in Assam. Photo: Philip Grinder Pedersen, DEPA

The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), launched by the Government of India in 2019, aims at ensuring that all households in rural areas receive a reliable supply of drinking water in adequate quantity - 55 liters per person per day - and of prescribed quality. The water supply is intended to be delivered on a regular, long-term basis at affordable service delivery charges. Ultimately the scope is to improve the living standards of rural communities.

Since the starting point JJM have established more than 120 million functional household tab connections (FHTC) in rural areas of India, increasing the water supply coverage from the initial 17% to slightly more than 80% (by February 2025).

JJM was initially set to conclude in 2024, but is extended to 2028. The extension aims at completing the remaining implementation to 100% coverage, but also focuses on strengthening the long-term resilience of the water supply system, through ensuring sustainability of operations and maintenance (O&M) of the established water supply schemes and distribution systems, and sustainability of the water resources - surface water, groundwater, rain water, grey water etc. NJJM also looks at enhancing the available resource through e.g. capturing flood water and Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR).

Phase II – 2025 - 2028

The purpose of the SSC phase II fits well with the revised NJJM objectives, since it especially focuses on how to secure long term sustainability of the water supply scheme and the water source, but with different focus areas in each outcome:

In Outcome A, the focus is on long-term impact in terms of water supply efficiency through effective O&M of existing schemes, drinking water quality and optimal utilization of water supply data for resource-effective planning and O&M.

In Outcome B, the focus is on source sustainability, with the primary focus on groundwater, as this is a Danish stronghold. Efficient regulatory approaches to secure sustainability and prevent over-abstraction and/or groundwater pollution as well as support on using Danish technological methods for cost-effective mapping is an important part of the support, and also here activities are included on how to best structure and utilize the existing and future ‘big data’ of groundwater mapping and monitoring.

Finally, Outcome C takes a more holistic approach to water management. JJM has a dedicated focus on community engagement as well as including other water resources in the water pool – like flood water, rain water and grey wastewater. Denmark has substantial experiences in both community awareness practices and water management of the said water resources. On that basis, Danish input have been kindly requested by Indian side, and activities are included to identify how Danish experience can be utilized in the Indian context.

Outcome C also includes a number of activities with the aim of securing a long-term impact of capacity building activities through ‘institutionalizing’ project findings. This is done through teaming up with existing Indian training institution in developing training courses, formulating a Center of Excellence (CoE), conducting study tours to Denmark, Danish Fellowship Center training and participating in a yearly Next Generation Action Water Challenge.

In phase I, capacity building activities were mainly on state level (supplemented by webinars aimed at a national audience). In phase II, as a general rule all findings are at minimum disseminated to all of India.

Phase II partners

India:

National Jal Jeevan Mission (NJJM), Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti
Central Groundwater Board (CGWB)
Public Health and Engineering Department PHED), Assam
Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD Board), Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu Water Resources Department (TNWRD), Tamil Nadu

Denmark:

Danish Environmental Protection Agency, Ministry of Environment and Gender Equality
3vand (VCS Denmark main provider)
Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS)
HydroGeophysics Group of Aarhus University (AU)

In addition the SSC coordinates closely with the city-to-city SSC partnership between Aarhus Municipality and the city of Udaipur in the Indian state of Rajestan.

Looking at fresh geophysical data in a rural area of Tamil Nadu. Photo: Philip Grinder Pedersen, DEPA

Main objective of SSC project

Support of the National Jal Jeevan Mission, with a dedicated focus on how to secure long term sustainability of the water supply scheme and the water source

Outcome A:

Better water supply efficiency through sharing of knowledge, demonstration of technologies and policy development on O&M of water supply, drinking water quality, and water supply data as basis for resource effective planning and O&M

Outcome B:

Increased source sustainability through sharing of knowledge, demonstration of technologies and policy development on source sustainability planning and policies, groundwater mapping methodologies and practices, and management of water source data as a basis for effective planning, assessment and protection

Outcome C:

More holistic approach to water management through sharing of knowledge, demonstration of technologies and policy development on supplementary elements of water source governance, including community engagement and other water sources, and dissemination and upscaling of project results and lessons learned

Pump audit training,in Tamil Nadu. Photo: Martin Westerboe Sørensen, VCS Denmark.

The activities of phase I were arranged in 7 thematic tracks:

Distribution
Source Identification and Protection
Policy and Planning
Awareness
Water Challenge
Training and Study trips
Sharing and Upscaling

The Distribution track covered small demonstration projects on energy efficiency and train-the-trainer activities on pump audit, aimed at TWAD Board personel and performed by VCS Denmark.

The Source Identification and Protection track covered practical demonstration of and training in relevant geophysical mapping methods like tTEM and sTEM, chemical groundwater monitoring and modelling, and hydrogeological modelling with the purpose of resource estimation and identifying areas for managed groundwater recharge and prevention of salt water intrusion. GEUS was the manager of this track, and Department of Geophysics of Aarhus University provides expertise on geophysics.

In the Policy and Planning track, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency provided recommendations to a forthcoming Water Act of Tamil Nadu.

Awareness forms an important part of sustainable water supply management in both India and Denmark. In 2025, a study tour demonstrating Community Awareness approaches in Denmark, as a platform for planning phase II awareness activities.

Another important track in phase I was support to a ‘competition’ (Water Challenge), where Indian teams of students and young entrepreneurs competed with teams from other countries in finding innovative answers on a number of predefined ‘problem statements’. The activity is part of a larger initiative, led by the Technical University of Denmark, called Next Generation Water Action.

The Training and Study Trips track covers a wast variety of activities, including the embedded training component, which is always part of testing Danish technologies and approaches in water distribution and groundwater mapping, as well as participating in Danish Fellowship Center (DFC) courses, and a number of study trips to Denmark.

In the Sharing and Upscaling track, findings from the more technical tracks are shared to the rest of India, e.g. through a total of six webinars on different areas within Water Distribution.

Field work in 37 degrees

Philip Grinder Pedersen
- phgpe@mst.dk
- +45 72 54 33 74