Drought Hit Cities and Urban Water Supply Systems

Urban local bodies (ULBs) and in some cases state level departments or parastatal agencies are primarily responsible for water supply to the cities. With the ever increasing urbanisation and increasing concentration of population in urban centers demand for water supply is also increasing. On the other hand quantity and quality of water from nearby sources (rivers reservoirs) is continuously decreasing. Therefore the nearby water sources are becoming inadequate. To fulfill this ever increasing gap between demand and supply of water ULBs are bringing water from increasingly far distance sources. In other words ULBs are only concentrating on supply side augmentation. In this long distance water transfer many complexities are involved. ULBs are essentially bringing water from the sources located in interior rural areas. In the rural areas there are communities depending on water bodies for their livelihood purposes. Therefore this long distance water transfer is fueling the conflict between rural and urban areas. This book will propose different strategies to prepare an action plan for a city.