Determinants of per capita water supply in Indian cities with low surface water availability

Rapid urbanization is putting stress on urban water resources. Cities with inadequate surface water resources import water to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population. Water supply in urban areas is frequently held accountable by local administrative bodies across the world. In India, several Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) import water from long distances. Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, has devised nine Service Level Benchmarks (SLB) indicators to evaluate the performance of ULBs in water supply management. The present study considered 30 million-plus Indian cities with low surface water availability. The data pertaining to the population, surface water availability, and SLB performance were collected for the selected cities. The data were then used to find the effect of eight SLB performance indicators on the per capita water supply (PCS) indicator using correlation matrices and multiple regression, where PCS is considered as the only dependent variable. The findings indicate that coverage of water supply connections (COV), extent of metering of connections (MTR), extent of non-revenue water (NRW), and continuity of water supply (CNT) have considerable effects on the PCS. The study is helpful for the ULBs and Policymakers to understand the association between PCS and other indicators and make the intervention for an effective urban water supply management.