Factors determining informal tanker water markets in Chennai, India

Abstract

Many developing world cities have seen the emergence of informal markets where private tanker truck operators transport water extracted from peri-urban wells to urban consumers. This study adopted a systems-modelling approach to analyzing the informal tanker market in India. The results indicate that the demand for tanker supply was caused by lack of groundwater availability in private wells as well as unreliable piped supply. The study shows that two groundwater factors are relevant: depth to water and aquifer productivity. Together, these could explain the difference in spatial, temporal and consumer-specific variations in tanker dependence.

Modeling Residential Water Consumption in Amman: The Role of Intermittency, Storage, and Pricing for Piped and Tanker Water

“…An approach that is compatible with the modeling objective pursued here is the "tiered supply curve" approach developed by Srinivasan et al [20,21] for a similar case study in Chennai, India. This case study also features important aspects of the situation in Jordan, such as intermittent supply, private (informal) tanker water markets, and the reliance of households on several water sources that differ in quality.…”

“…The effects of this scenario are almost a zero-sum game and hardly as small as they seem. While the total consumer surplus difference is −2292 JD per day, high-income households gain a total of 18,905.556 JD per day and low-income households lose 21,197.531 JD per day. The reason is again the fact mentioned in Section 6.1: that most low-income households start to reach their storage constraint, switching to tanker water and thus freeing up piped water for the high-income households.…”

“…For each agent, the -value is calculated as the area between the "tiered supply curve" [20,21] and the demand function. In order to determine the consumer surplus for one scenario, we determine the definite integral for the area under the demand function and subtract the relevant area under the "tiered supply curve".…”

Urban Water Supply and Sanitation : Sustaining Policy Momentum : IIHS-RF Paper on Urban Water Supply and Sanitation in India

“…For households, in the absence of adequate public supply, privately extracted groundwater (at household levels) is the cheapest and most easily accessible alternative for most citizens. Studies from Chennai (Srinivasan, Gorelick, & Goulder, 2010) indicate that informal water trading involving supply in water tankers is 3-50 times more expensive than municipal or private bore well water. In Aurangabad, Foster and Mandavkar (2008) find private bore well water to cost around Rs 7-11/cu.m., while tanker supply costs approximately Rs 60/cu.m.…”

“…6 These markets also remain outside the purview of regulation. The exception again here is Chennai, where the government utility responsible for water distribution has contracted tanker companies to purchase groundwater extracted from peri-urban areas (Joel Ruet et al ,2002) ; Srinivasan et al , 2010).…”