Indian cities are undergoing rapid urbanization and their resource footprints are growing. As the cities grow and demand for natural resources grow, they face competition and conflicts with other users in the region and hydrological basin, resulting in shortages and scarcities in cities. The climate change exacerbates these conflicts. Water sector is one of the conflict areas for the cities.

Key Messages: The urban population growth, inter-sectoral competition over water resources and climate change are expected roll out concurrently, amplifying water scarcity, energy and treatment costs and health issues in urban areas. Improving efficiency and reducing climate change related risks would be possible through integrated management of water, sewage, solid wastes and storm water management across household to city scales.

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Summary:

Climate change is expected to have a significant impact on water resources, necessitating the search for suitable adaptation options. However, understanding the impacts of climate change on water resources will not be possible without an in-depth knowledge of the hydrological cycle and hydrology. This website has a plethora of training material on hydrological concepts and processes; e.g., water cycle, hydrometry, topography, rating curves, data management, flow measurement and groundwater. Users interested in capacity building exercises should find this website useful.

Most studies of access to water by the poor focus on their ‘primary’ source of drinking water. Even on this count, in sub-Saharan Africa, 30% of urban households rely directly on water from wells. However, this only tells part of the story.

Artificial Aquifer Tube-well is an innovation to treat contaminated surface water for domestic use on the saline-prone coast and arsenic & iron contaminated parts of Bangladesh. The recharging structure resembles the natural underground aquifer, which is the source of groundwater.

Ecological sanitation ('ecosan') is the reuse of human excrement, which contains the nutrients required to fertilise land.