Unreliable public water supply and household coping mechanisms
Student name: Ms Satarupa Chakravarty
Guide: Dr Sukanya Das
Year of completion: 2018
Host Organisation: Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Saudamini Das
Abstract: India has the largest number of people in the world without access to safe drinking water. Poor infrastructure and management of resources is one of the few reasons that can affect the reliability of a water supply service. According to Census 2011, 81.30% of the households in Delhi have a piped water supply system. However, access to pipe water is not an indicator of a reliable water supply in terms of quantity as well as quality. To cope with the problem of unreliable water supply, households undertake various coping mechanisms such as collection, purchasing, storing and treating. By engaging in these activities they also have incur costs associated with them, and these are additional to the charges they may have to pay for water. In this study, the aim has been to understand how low income households in a situation of unreliable water supply cope and the additional costs they have to incur. For this purpose a household survey was carried out in two locations that fall under the command area of a water treatment plant in Delhi. Over the years there have number of times when there has been irregularity or disruption in supply by the plant due to planned works, operational problems or high level of ammonia in river Yamuna. Through this study, an attempt is made to investigate both the quantitative and qualitative problems related to water that households in these locations have to face and the various coping strategies they adopt to manage the situation as well as the impacts on health. And also find the associated costs that are incurred, and their determinants. It is found that, on an average, the annual total coping cost to households is Rs 6487. After adding the health costs that households have due to poor quality of water, the total coping cost, on average, is around Rs. 7953 in year. Income is found to play a significant role in determining coping costs.
Keywords: Coping Cost, Household Production Function, Water Treatment Plant, Delhi
