Inequity in water supply and impact on the poor: the case of Hyderabad

There are significant variations in the access of households to tap water between the core city and the surrounding urban areas in Hyderabad. In the surrounding areas, a substantial proportion of the households have their source of water outside their premises. Rather than the lack of water, it is the iniquitous distribution and denial of clean drinking water to the urban poor that led to the outbreak of water-contaminated diseases on a large scale in 2003 in Hyderabad city. The two main reservoirs that are the principal sources of drinking water to the old city have been neglected over the years leading to their drying up, for the first time, in 2003. Despite untold miseries suffered by the poor, the State continues to be lukewarm to their plight, which is highlighted in this paper. Such neglect by the State is probably due to lack of mobilization by the poor to form an effective pressure group at grassroots level to lobby for basic amenities.