The Center for Water and Sanitation at CRDF, CEPT University carries out activities related to action research and capacity building – working closely with city and state governments, enabling them to improve delivery of water and sanitation services. CWAS began work in 2009 with a pioneering WASH Performance Assessment System which was aligned with the Service Level Benchmarking initiative of Government of India. Over the past decade it has been deployed at scale in over 1000 cities of India and includes innovative focus points such as equity and onsite sanitation systems. Using a ‘data-driven planning’ approach for service improvement and investment planning, the PAS project has precipitated more programmes at CWAS that align with the current priorities and policies of India. These include frameworks like SanBenchmarks and a series of projects for supporting CityWide Inclusive Sanitation planning in small towns. These projects have successfully piloted innovative approaches in faecal sludge and septage management such as scheduled desludging, one of the first FSTPs and balanced financial models. Lessons from these currently feed into state level implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission, where CWAS is a technical partner to the Government of Maharashtra.

With water re-emerging as a focus in development discourse, CWAS is revisiting its efforts in water governance. Early efforts in CWAS have included support to cities for improving their water supply systems through water audits, drawing a roadmap for continuous water supply and focusing on drinking water quality surveillance. CWAS has also been involved in advocacy for participatory ground water management and urban water security planning. With this experience, a Water Governance Hub (WGH) has been set up with which intends to support state and local governments in their water and sanitation reform by providing policy and technical advice, developing water governance knowledge and helping to strengthen institutional capacity.