Thirsty Cities: How Indian Cities Can Meet Their Water Needs

Urban water management is an important challenge for many developing countries of the world, characterized as they are by high development economics, rapid urbanization, and unregulated industrialization. With urban population increasing by 38.1 million from 2001 to 2011, infrastructure in Indian cities, including water supply, has come under enormous pressure. A number of solutions from rainwater harvesting to community participation and public-private partnerships have been suggested. This book argues against these fragmented approaches and presents an Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) framework for India. The author elucidates how IUWM takes a comprehensive approach to urban water services, viewing water supply, storm water, and waste water as components of an integrated physical system and recognizes that the physical system sits within an organizational framework and a broader natural landscape. He discusses how the policies for sustainable urban water management will be decided by the type of physical interventions, economic instruments, and institutional changes required for achieving the goal of IUWM. Since these would change across localities, the policies also will have to be different for different localities.