Development handcuffed

A tale of two cities

I travelled to two different cities in two different states last week—Indore and Guwahati. I came back with images identified by common distinctions: piles of garbage and glitzy new shopping malls. Is this our vision of urban development? There is no question that cities are imploding; growth is happening faster than we ever imagined.

Public private prank

Growth is back on the agenda, says the government. It is hoping that with pushy announcements foreign and Indian investment will miraculously start pouring in and infrastructure will be the name of the game once again. But this assumption ignores one crucial detail: currently, public-private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure are on the cusp of disaster.

Double whammy

After killing its lifeline, the Bagmati, Kathmandu valley is extracting its groundwater to the last drop. But the quality of groundwater here is fast deteriorating due to lack of proper sewage disposal system and years of overexploitation, warn analysts.

Looking beyond privatisation

Karen Bakker is an old hand at tracking the expansion of private control of water utilities in the 1990s by companies such as Bechtel, Enron and Vivendi (now Veolia). She has also researched the more recent shift towards public private partnerships (PPP) in water supply.

Letters - May 15, 2012

Freshwater economics

Why excreta matters? Sunita Narain answers

For the modern Indian city, the principle behind management of water and waste is a simple one: flush and forget. Not surprisingly, most cities are drowning in their excreta. Our cities face a twofold problem—shortage of water and the crippling health consequences of dirty water. This is decidedly not the way to the future

The flush, the city and the river

India’s cities are on a deadly spiral. On the one hand, water is growing scarcer; on the other hand, it is getting increasingly polluted, escalating the cost of treatment or leading to more illnesses and deaths. Diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases remain some of the most common causes of death among children under age five.

Smart but pricey

Automated Meter Reading (AMR) is being touted as a cash cow for India’s water service providers, most of whom have dismal records of revenue collection. Instead of a meter reader knocking on the door, an official walks or drives by with a handheld device that automatically reads meters via a radio frequency within a stipulated radius. That’s the promise of AMR meters. Last month, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) invited bids to supply and install 300,000 such meters, enough to cover one-sixth of the capital’s water connections.

Curse of excess