Exploring the relative water scarcity across the Indian million-plus urban agglomerations: An application of the Water Poverty Index

Abstract

Indian cities are rapidly expanding and with increase in migration the country is expected to witness unprecedented urbanization in the coming decade. In this context, it is important to take a holistic and realistic view of the challenges faced by Indian cities with respect to water so as to prepare and formulate policies that prompts for sustainable use of water resources and makes cities water resilient. This study evaluates the extent of water scarcity across forty-two million-plus Indian urban agglomerations incorporating Water Poverty Index (WPI). WPI combines the physical water availability with the people's capacity to access the resource, in order to assess the water scarcity. The purpose of the index is to offer a single composite value which plays a vital role in prioritizing the work related to water. The index captures the vulnerability or risk facing Indian cities to water scarcity based on five critical dimensions viz.; resource, capacity, access, use and environment.

Keywords

• Water scarcity
• Urban agglomerates
• Domestic water security
• Water management
• Water Poverty Index