As India is developing, demand for water is increasing both in rural and urban sectors. Annually, more and more people are moving into cities, and the figures are expected to reach about 600 million by 2030. It is estimated that out of the total precipitation of around 400 million hectare metres in the country, the surface water availability is about 178 million hectare metres. Out of this, about 50 per cent only can be put to beneficial use because of topographical and other constraints.

Water being a prime natural resource and a basic human need, planning and development of water resources needs to be governed by national perspectives. Water does not respect state boundaries. Not only rivers but even underground aquifers often cut across state boundaries. Thus there is a need to change our thinking about water systems.

United Nations suggests that each person needs 20-50 litres of safe fresh water a day to ensure their basic needs for drinking, cooking and cleaning. If we demand a certain level and quality of water supply, it is imperative that it’s planning is initialised and policies are implemented within an integrated framework. While water is a basic need, the supply of potable water to citizens at their doorstep involves significant costs in building, operating and maintaining a system to do so.

In a water supply system, service provided to citizens is directly measurable and therefore it is necessary that all the water supplied to all categories of consumers should be metered. Metering will also induce efficiency in use of water, reveal physical and administrative leakages in the system and enable consumers to be charged for consuming more. Therefore to introduce a volumetric-based tariff structure for water charges, metering all connections is essential.

Current planning and management have proven insufficient to address the challenges of water security. The need for equitable allocation of water resources among all sections of the society is more pronounced than ever before. Planning for judicious allocation should take into consideration the needs of municipalities, industries, agriculture, energy production and ecosystem services.

In reaching the unreached, the innovative, pay for use service delivery models experimented by community level small private operators in the recent past are commendable. Some of these models are exploiting the potential use of ‘smart’ technology to minimise non-revenue water and for providing water supply services with reliable quality.

As we improve water supply systems, 70-80 per cent of the supplied water comes out as waste. Besides water supply systems, availability of wastewater treatment systems is equally important as we urbanise. Currently, the capacity to treat wastewater in the country is abysmally low and wherever they are built, they are not functioning to their full potential. Water conservation and quality management targets also require citizen awareness. Methods such as rainwater harvesting and wastewater recycling should be adopted by communities and societies and regular audits should be conducted to measure the progress. Citizen level water quality monitoring should be undertaken using field testing kits to safeguard the different water sources and by implementing polluter pays principles. Such initiatives will certainly go a long way in improving water quality, water availability and thereby improving public health, livelihoods and overall economy.

The present model of urban growth needs a major rethink to accelerate a transition towards a sustainable tomorrow. q