Financing options for water supply

Water has become an extremely precious commodity in the urban areas of the country. It has been in short supply in many cities for a number of years, but increasing pressure of population in cities and modern ways of living have increased the demand for water. Water is no longer a freely available renewable resource. It is now a scarce resource in the urban areas of the country and will become dearer in future. Local authorities are, according to the acts under which they are set up, supposed to supply water in most urban areas, although there are different institutional arrangements in many cities. The task of providing water is made tougher by the existing practices such as low tariff and infrequent revision, political interference, low efficiency etc. These factors coupled with the exhaustion of accessible sources of water have added to the woes of city dwellers. Cities today are investing huge amounts of money in developing new sources and conveying water to urban areas. The present paper briefly discusses the water supply situation in the urban areas of the country and recommends a new financing anal institutional option for financing new projects. The paper argues that with such new arrangements the supply situation would improve and local governments could confer the entire population to achieve the goal of reaching the unreached by the turn of the century.