Status of drinking and domestic water stresses in Devprayag, Uttarakhand
Student name: Mr Sukrit Joshi
Guide: Dr Nirupam Datta
Year of completion: 2017
Host Organisation: The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), New Delhi
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Neha Bharti
Abstract: Water access has always been an issue in the climate sensitive urban and rural
areas of mountain states of India. This ensuing problem has been further com-
pounded by urbanisation, which has increased the stress on natural water
sources. As a result this research aims to understand the vulnerability to water
stresses in a mountainous urban environment. This has been achieved by carry-
ing out a participatory approach to investigate Domestic and Drinking water is-
sues in Devprayag, which is located in the Uttarakhand State of India.
Domestic and drinking water issues were identified by carrying out participatory
research appraisal (PRA) method that consisted of Household Survey's, Key In-
formant Interview's (KII's) and Focused Group Discussions (FGD's) with the res-
idents of Devprayag town spread across all four wards. Thereafter, mapping of
the communities took place based on the vulnerability drivers viz., biophysical,
socio-economic and governance. The water supply of this tourism rich area was
then holistically examined and thereafter mapped by gathering information from
the various Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in the town. A connection between the
existing and future water supply and the various rivers was established by way of
secondary data and results of primary data collected from the field.
The result provides an insight to the domestic and drinking water situation in
terms of quantity and quality. The study concludes that the existing water supply
would be able to cater to the demand of the town. However the biophysical, so-
cioeconomic and governance drivers examined suggest that this augmentation
would fail as the population grows and reaches its carrying capacity.
Keywords: Domestic and Drinking water, Climate Change, Water access, Water
stress, Urbanisation.
