Reforms in Rural Drinking Water supply sector were adopted in 1999 in the country and Pilot Projects in selected 67 Districts of 26 States were taken up. District Sirmour of Himachal Pradesh was one of these Pilot Districts. The basic concepts of reforms include community participation in the planning, implementation, operation and maintenance of schemes of its choice.

This is a paradigm shift from supply driven to a demand responsive approach, centralized to the decentralized service delivery , from the top down to the bottom up approach and ultimately to change the roles of the Govt. from that of a  service provider to a facilitator.

The Sector Reforms were scaled up w.e.f. 25-12-2002 in the form of Swajaldhara was informed through out the country.

The challenge now is to consolidate and sustain the reform initiatives. This calls for establishing necessary institutions and developing necessary competencies for internalization of reform initiatives in the community. Involvement of three tiers of Panchayati Raj Institutions, social mobilization, capacity development and communication processes are the core components of Swajaldhara and TSC projects.