We are pleased to welcome the delegates to the Training Programme in Change Management for Achieving Continuous Water Supply in all Urban Areas from 12^th - 16^th December 2011. Please see in the following sections a brief on the programme as well a detailed agenda for the coming days. We look forward to the next five days and trust you will find the experience as enriching as we will.

Provision of high quality continuous urban water supply and sanitation (WATSAN) services for all residents, including the poor, is critical to enhance economic productivity through public health improvements. Presently, the watsan service levels in urban areas of India is limited, financially unsustainable and is particularly unsatisfactory for the urban poor. For cities to achieve world-class public health status, it is imperative that they move from an intermittent water supply system to a continuous (24/7) supply regime.

Twenty-four hour water supply, seven days a week is an accepted global practice and is prevalent not only in cities of developed countries but also in cities of less developed countries. People in Kampala (Uganda), Singapore, Malaysia, Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Dhulikel (Nepal) and Rabat (Morocco) all have ready access to clean potable water available 24 hours per day 7 days a week at less cost and requiring no more water resources than currently available in most Indian cities.

Recent studies carried out in Indian cities have consistently shown that a well managed continuously pressurized 24/7 water supply system actually costs less than the outmoded intermittent (2 - 4 hr/day) systems common throughout India. Ministry of Urban Development, GoI has notified continuous water supply (24x7) under service level benchmarking framework.

For Indian towns to achieve/move towards continuous water supply requires a change management program that can challenge the existing mind set and provide the knowledge and skills necessary to plan and manage the system on a sustainable basis.

This training program entitled "Change Management for Achieving Continuous Water Supply for All in Urban Areas" would help senior policy makers, municipal commissioners, public health officials of the Indian urban sector/water utilities in their efforts to make the water sector sustainable by adopting continuous water supply system through balanced integration of technical, financial, social, institutional and managerial aspects. The program is supported by the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India under Centre of Excellence initiative.