Paresh Chhajed-Picha

Paresh believes that the real challenge of public service delivery is not technology, but the design and sustainability of the systems that provide them. He has seen that progress happens when leaders engage meaningfully with the limitations of the underlying systems and work to improve them to deliver services that are reliable, predictable and available when needed. 

Over the last 14 years, Paresh has worked with governments and academic institutions to understand what makes public services succeed, and why so many systems struggle to deliver for the people who rely on them. He believes in city-wide planning that is technically sound, financially viable and locally owned. By partnering with local governments, he helps identify potential solutions and embed innovations into planning, regulation and investment strategies. He ensures that the lessons learnt from ground-level studies and small-scale operations feed into reforms at higher levels. Beyond his work in cities, he contributes to an international network of practitioners and leaders, fostering debate, connecting ideas and making knowledge more accessible. 

His PhD at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) explored the factors driving the adoption and scale up of faecal sludge management, across Indian cities. The research investigated how sanitation reforms were supported by national government, translated into practice by states, and delivered by local authorities, identifying the challenges and successes at each stage.

This combination of technical, planning and policy experience gives him a unique perspective on how water and sanitation systems actually work, from ideas and policies through to implementation on the ground. He is as comfortable sitting with a local government official to work out why a desludging service is falling short, as he is contributing to state-level discussions on how policy can support implementation. He brings the same grounding in what works in practice. This ability to read a system and speak honestly about what it is doing, rather than what it was designed to do, is what makes him a distinctive voice in conversations ranging from district planning offices to national policy dialogues. 

Highlights

• 14 years in water, sanitation and hygiene – spanning research, policy and practice in India and South Asia.
• Government partnerships – supported municipal and state authorities in Maharashtra and Kerala to embed faecal sludge management into sanitation service provision.
• Knowledge leadership – moderator of SuSanA Forum, facilitating knowledge exchange between practitioners and researchers from across the globe.
• Languages – fluent in English, Hindi, Marathi; working knowledge of Gujarati.