Water Governance and Supply in Urban Areas

In: Social change, Volume 43, Issue 2, p. 293-302

Abstract

Water is a basic human resource that should be distributed equally, but increasingly there is uneven distribution, as in the majority of the cities covered under JNNURM which are unable to provide access to water supply to more than half the slum population. Research in Delhi demonstrates that both slums and resettlement colonies are inhabited by the poorer classes who do not have political claim to resources, and 'resettlement' from slums is to evict them from where land is more 'valuable' to relocate them in the to-be-developed periphery where there is no water supply. Construction of toilets only ensures greater use of water, which eventually pollutes the surface as well as ground water sources. Health services are concentrated in the core of the city. The social determinants of health in urban areas are clearly rooted in the investment policies that are driving processes of 'urban renewal' and 'economic growth'.