WHY PARTNERSHIPS WILL HELP INDIA TO DELIVER WATER FOR ALL

OPINION: WHY PARTNERSHIPS WILL HELP INDIA TO DELIVER WATER FOR ALL

India “cannot fail” on its ambitious water and sanitation programmes and a new trading relationship with the UK can help, writes Lila Thompson.

Collaboration will help India achieve its vision

Transformational times lie ahead for India’s 1.3 billion population. The national government is pushing forward with vast programmes to deliver drinking water and sanitation to every household and to restore and rejuvenate the nation’s rivers.

I am proud to have taken a role in helping secure this unprecedented vision by helping to develop a new trading relationship between the UK and India. 

British Water has a long history of organising business development visits to India, several of which I have led myself. We have also welcomed senior delegations from India looking to partner with UK companies. 

Led by British Water’s International Forum and our international manager Karolina Perét, this relationship has now been boosted with a Memorandum of Understanding with the Centre for Ganga River Basin Management & Studies (cGanga) – a think-tank set up by the Indian Government’s Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation (Jal Shakti) – along with the National Mission for Clean Ganga.

While British consultancies have generally done well in India, contractors and some technology companies have lagged behind. 

There are a number of historical reasons for this, including the commercial structure of the Indian market, a reliance of UK companies on markets closer to home and difficulties in finding suitable collaborative partners in India. 

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