Geographical analysis

Abstract

Abstract The demand for urban water supply service is increasing rapidly as globalisation accelerates economic expansion and brings improvements in living standards in India with the interactive effects of demographic growth and influx of migrants into cities due to push and pull factors. Provision of reliable and safe water supply to urban habitat is an essential input for overall economic and social advancement.Urban water supply sector in India and particularly the study area Bengaluru is facing a number of challenges and constraints in meeting sustainable, safe drinking water. Bengaluru have augmented by an enormous 1005%, 100 times, in the past 40 yearsthis came at the detriment of the green cover, reducing from 68% in 1973 to merely 25% in 2012. The area of ponds and lagoons condensed to less than one third from 3.4% to just 1%. If the trend endures, Bengaluru would be left with merely 3% of green cover in the next couple of years.This paper has dealt primarily with the water supply sector of Bangalore city, the experiences and illustrations presented in this paper represent the prevailing water supply issues and this study primarily relies on secondary sources of data from Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and also various reports of World Bank and Asian Development Bank. The methodology adopted for the study includes the use of reference databases to create an overview of the water supply and demand situation in Bangalore city. The review evaluates the economic performance of water supply to illustrate the severe problems involved in pricing water, unaccounted for water and nonrevenue supply of water and lists out the myriad political-economy and governance challenges in reforming the urban water supply sector.

Keywords: Urban Water Supply, Water demand and Supply, Change detection, Demographic growth.