Urban water supply: identifying the missing links of urban water supply case study of five municipalities of India
Student name: Mr Anurag Prakash
Guide: Dr Arun Kansal
Year of completion: 2016
Host Organisation: The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), New Delhi
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Girija K Bharat
Abstract: Drinking water supply continues to be inadequate and insufficient for urban
population. Urban population includes the residents of main city, slums and peri
urban area. The level of investment in water supply was not adequate by
international standard, but in recent years Government has made huge investments
in water sector and has involved various stakeholders and other private investors
via different models.. A number of innovative solutions and approaches are provided
but still there are some missing links between them. The missing link may be from
state level implementation to ULB and other agency involvement in water sectors.
Even if the water supply is provided for several hours in city but still there is
inequitable distribution of this supply in several part of the city, especially the slum
areas. The water supply hours in urban cities of India are less. , the average is for
4.3 hour /day. Even if water is supply adequately in some parts there are other
problems like water quality, metering and tariffs. Lack of proper infrastructure in
this sector also creates a hurdle in development of better living standards for the
people. Water services should be strengthened. The gap between demand and
supply of water needs to be minimized. The cities have different geographical and
demographical characteristics and do not have similar problems. Therefore, the
decision-making in planning and implementation should be in a more decentralized
manner, So that policies and regulation hold equity in various perspectives. When it
comes to services, the institutional arrangement varies from state to state. Typically,
the state agency is responsible for planning and investment. ULB’s are in charge of
operation & maintenance. “Some of the largest cities have created municipal water
and sanitation utilities that are legally and financially separated from the local
government. However, these utilities remain weak in terms of financial capacity. In
spite of decentralization, ULBs remain dependent on capital subsidies from state
governments. Some states and cities have non-typical institutional arrangements..
Private sector has a great impact in operation and maintenance .It also help in
revenue generation. But still there is a gap because of lack of clear institutional
arrangement, Investment and financial assistance†(Maheswarijaikumar, 2015).
Therefore, there are missing links, which can provide us clear information of
problems and gives us a proper solution in finding ways for 24x7 water supply at
minimum losses. Which can improve the standard of Urban water supply facilities
.The SBM guidelines and Service Level bench marking will give us information
about the gap and missing links which will be improve the water supply to various
cities and will help in better planning and implementation and will marked a
milestone in this sector .
Keywords :water supply, urban, ULBs, missing links, coverage, service level bench
marking, poor services
