Sustaining Urban Water Supplies in India: Increasing Role of Large Reservoirs

Hedging Supply Risks: An Optimal Water Portfolio

“…The analysis is easily extended to include additional or di¤erent types of water assets or sources. To match the application in the following sections, the three water assets are described as follows: the …rst is a large-scale natural water reservoir, capable of holding important volumes of strategic water reserves (Mukherjee et al, 2010).…”

Land, Infrastructure and Ecological Sustainability in Indian Cities

“…In some senses, with modern technology, cities in India overcame water restraints, as it became possible to both dam water and transport it over great distances and also dig deeper to maximise ground water extraction. Modern water supply infrastructure in the larger Indian cities has mostly centered on large-scale surface impoundments and canals and pipelines for long distance water transfer (Mukherjee, 2010). However, over the past decades Indian cities have in most cases grown independently of the feasibility of providing water supply.…”

“…For instance, there are proposals to develop new cities in some of the driest regions of the country as part of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (delhimumbaiindustrialcorridor.com) Water being such a critical resource for cities, instead of locating new urban centres in arid and semi-arid regions and depending on long-distance water transfers (Mukherjee et al 2010), they could be located in more ecologically appropriate zones where water demand would be lower and availability higher.…”

“…A city like Mumbai draws water from upto 150 km away from the upper Vaitarna lake which is closer to Nashik than Mumbai (Gandy, 2008), while New Delhi gets water from the Tehri dam which is almost 300km away. Using data from the survey of water utilities completed by the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) in 2002, Mukherjee et al (2010) identify cities with larger populations to be relying more on surface water as opposed to ground water sources. The study also finds that larger cities that rely on surface water sources tend to supply higher volume of water per capita.…”

“…In both cases the source of contamination is stated to be agricultural land-uses in the catchment of drinking water supply reservoirs. Given the dependence of larger Indian cities on distant surface reservoirs (Mukherjee et al 2010) studies are required to ascertain the contamination of these water sources due to conflicting land-uses and environmental degradation in the catchment area. Appropriate watershed management initiatives can not only mitigate pollution risk but as demonstrated by the case of New York, it can even reduce investment required for water supply infrastructure (Pires, 2004).…”