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Resource sustainability, range and size of project operation and the level of acceptability to a large extent influence the success of innovative change behaviour of communities’ using scarce natural resources such as surface and groundwater. The combined use of groundwater and surface water that recognizes site-specificity and communities’ preference structure can greatly determine the social and economic sustainability of communities in a growing metropolis. Utilizing both primary and secondary information pertaining to the water sector of India’s capital city, this thesis collectively looks at water demand, public choice and financial sustainability of water supply augmentations in both planned urban and unplanned peri-urban areas having differing levels of planning and resource availability. Households’ preference heterogeneity for water supply scenarios differentiated by their ‘quality’ (potable or non-potable) and ‘source’ (surface or groundwater) has been examined through carefully designed stated preference using iterative bidding game. Household’s choice and preference behaviour for dual quality water (decentralized municipal water for drinking and local groundwater for other purposes), single potable quality water and the ‘business-as-usual’ scenario are assessed through utility function based multinomial logit (MNL) and nested logit (NL) choice models. Some case studies are undertaken for making cost-benefit spread of water supply under different scenarios using surface or groundwater. The values resulting from the analysis are assessed in terms of water supply augmentation options and their practical limits incorporating the choice and preferences from the heterogeneous planning environments typical of a metropolis. The outcome indicates that a public policy is needed that is tailored to varied preference behaviour of communities and recognizes hydrological complexities associated with conjunctive management of groundwater and surface water. (END)
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