Urban Water

Urban development has taken insufficient account of local hydrological and hydro-geological conditions and groundwater is often degraded because of a lack of knowledge of the aquifer system and/or uncontrolled groundwater development.

“Urban Waters” served as a background material for Arghyam’s second annual conference on April 2007 at Bangalore. There is a vast body of research on urban water issues; a bewildering number of organizations are working on the subject; and it has a wide array of dimensions.

SWITCH is an action research programme, implemented and co-funded by the European Union and a cross-disciplinary team of 33 partners from 15 countries around the world. Increasing global change pressures, escalating costs and other risks inherent to conventional urban water management are causing cities to face ever increasing difficulties in efficiently managing scarcer and less reliable water resources. As well, satisfying water uses/services and waste water disposal without creating environmental, social or economic damage is an increasingly difficult challenge.

The report aims to provide greater understanding and awareness on expanding the delivery of water services, conservation of water, increased efficiencies, facilitation of the exchange of water sector information and experience, and improving governance. It is particularly focused on ADB’s overarching goal of poverty reduction. 

This working paper by the Stanford Centre for International Development deals with household water delivery options in urban and rural India. The recent potentially far-reaching policy changes frame the paper on drinking water options for urban and rural India.  Given the primacy of drinking water as a national objective, and the policy of decentralization through community ownership, private sector participation and devolution to local governments, it asks: How can India alleviate its household level drinking water deprivation, in the near-to-medium term, and in cost-effective ways?

This series, published by the GWP Secretariat in Stockholm has been created to disseminate the papers written and commissioned by the TEC to address the conceptual agenda. Issues and sub-issues with them, such as the understanding and definition of IWRM, water for food security, public-private partnerships, and water as an economic good have been addressed in these papers.

This paper on urban water crisis in Delhi looks at stakeholders responses and potential scenarios of evolution. An inadequate piped water supply from the public utility, characterized by intermittence and unreliability, and supplemented by private uncontrolled groundwater abstraction, is a common feature of most Indian cities as well as other developing cities in the w

Performance improvement planning helps service providers in bringing about incremental improvements in services by applying the principles of commercial orientation and financial viability. This overview paper by the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) South Asia of the World Bank, explores how such improvements can be undertaken so that they remain sustainable in the long run as well.

The paper by Carewater INREM Foundation on the groundwater situation in urban India provides an overview besides dealing with the opportunities and challenges. Groundwater plays a fundamental role in shaping the economic and social health of many urban centres of India.

Short films about the management of urban water in India click here

Short movies on "watershed development" click here