Customer Satisfaction with Domestic Water Supply in India – A Study in Hubli city

Abstract

Severe water crisis prevailed in twin Cities of Hubli-Dharwad in South India for a long time. During the last ten years, there has been considerable improvement in the water service. While most parts of the city is having intermittent supply system, a pilot 24/7 water service was implemented in a Demonstration Zone through the World Bank assistance, and State Government of Karnataka. The 24x7 project covers about 12 % of the total population of the city.  The objective of this paper is to study the customer satisfaction in both intermittent and 24/7 water service areas in Hubli city.  Stratified sampling method was adopted for four groups namely, low, medium, high income and backward classes namely the Scheduled Cast/Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) groups.  The results of the study revealed that most customers in 24/7 demo zone were highly satisfied with water quality, continuity, quantity, and pressure; whereas there was slight dissatisfaction (12%) with regard to redressal of customer complaints. In contrast, there was considerable dissatisfaction with water quality, continuity and pressure in intermittent supply areas. There was universal opinion from both 24/7 demo zone and intermittent service areas supporting 24/7 water service scale up project in the city.

Keywords: Intermittent Water Service, 24/7 Water Service, Customer Satisfaction