Sustainable and Socially Inclusive Development of Urban Water Provisioning

Abstract

Over the years, the nature of drinking water supply and associated practices of consumption and regulation has enormously evolved in the cities of the global south. The existing literature on water provisioning in Indian cities is mostly skewed towards the megacities. The million plus cities, which are the new sites of 'urbanization', are less studied. In this context, the article analyzes the current scenario of drinking water provisioning in Patna and attempts to situate the 'water economies' in the broader debates on development, state and sustainability.Patna presents a pertinent case of endemic 'state failure' supposedly due to an inept state machinery to manage 'water economies' which led to unregulated private and community appropriation of groundwater to meet drinking water needs posing critical sustainability challenges at the city level. The article argues that sustainable development of urban centres will depend on how, in the long run, the unregulated exploitation of natural resources (in this case water) is managed through appropriate 'institutional mechanism' and how an equitable water provisioning is ensured to the citizens.

Domestic Water Adequacy of Surakarta, Indonesia: Is it Prone to Vulnerability?

“…This article is intended to assess whether and how a rapidly urbanizing medium-sized city in Indonesia, in particular, in Java Island, is dealing with the problem of domestic water inadequacy and face vulnerability of water supply, particularly for domestic water. Water problems are still under-researched for non-metropolitan areas (Sharma, 2015). The vulnerability was assessed at the city scale and the household scale.…”

“…The level of sustainability of an urban centre is determined by the institutional mechanism to manage its natural resources in providing urban services (Sharma, 2015). Also, weaker local governments, fewer economies of scale in infrastructure and management and lower budgets in smaller urban centres limit the institutional capacity of the city to provide such services (UN-Habitat, 2006).…”

“…Particularly for water supply, most research is conducted in large cities (see among others Bakker, 2003;Sutherland, Scott, & Hordijk, 2015;Swyngedouw, 1995;van den Brandeler, Hordijk, von Schonfeld, & Sydenstricker-Neto, 2014). The focus on non-megacities remains limited (Sharma, 2015). This study attempts to fill the gap, with the objective to assess domestic water adequacy and the possible vulnerability of a medium-sized city and its inhabitants to be exposed to urban water crisis.…”

Towards sustainable communities: Socioeconomic determinants of domestic water consumption in Surakarta City, Indonesia

“…It is argued that one among many understandings of sustainable development is about the relationships of development, what people perceived on development, and natural resources [3]. Debate on sustainable development then grows into a debate of "sustainability" of the Northern countries and "sustainable development" of the Southern countries [4].…”

“…Socioeconomic characteristics of the community are regarded as variables that influencing the level of water consumption of every household [2]. Previous studies that discuss problematic water supply have focused on large cities and big metropolis [3]. Therefore, more research on the water problem in small to medium-sized cities is important.…”