Water-sensitive Cities: The Urban Water Crisis and Policy Responses

The crisis of water in Indian cities usually manifests itself in two opposing dimensions: a scarcity of water, which at times reaches epidemic proportions, and an abundance of it that leads to devastating urban flooding. Quite often, these are seen to happen in sequence in the same year.

As part of the 5th India Public Policy Network Conference (IPPN) held at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in December, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) organized an onsite workshop which explored the nature of the challenge in urban water supply systems; evaluate the communities that are impacted the most; and examine appropriate policies, infrastructure augmentation and governance and regulations.