Bhawna Prakash
Senior government and industry leaders will gather in Washington in late October for annual meetings between the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Water and digital solutions rank among the World Bank’s top priorities under its Global Challenge Programs and are expected to be highlighted during the meetings.
India has a unique opportunity to further build on global momentum and use artificial intelligence (AI) to transform its water and sanitation sectors. National policies so far have been ineffective in technology integration with utilities at scale. However, AI can assist the government in overcoming challenges within the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) value chain for utilities.
India should take three steps to modernize the WASH ecosystem: leverage and scale up AI to address nonrevenue water (NRW), augment private sector participation, and improve corporate reporting.
Setting the Context
NRW is water that is produced but cannot be billed because it is lost before it reaches customers or there is no mechanism to bill it. As of 2019, NRW costs the world $39 billion and India $5 billion annually. This issue arises from insufficient planning, faulty systems, inefficient utility operations—including theft, underbilling, and user nonpayment—and a lack of funding for infrastructure modernization. Indian utilities can leverage AI to identity redundancies and minimize NRW.
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