ABSTRACT
Water is one of the most basic and important elements for survival. According to the UN, there are 2.1 billion people who lack access to safe drinking water while this number is 63.4 million in India as per the State of the World’s Water 2017 report prepared by WaterAid. There are 3.4 lakh children (under five) who die every year due to waterborne diseases (WHO/UNICEF, 2015), 90 percent of all natural disasters are water-related (UNISDR), four out of ten people are affected by water scarcity (WHO), 80 percent of water flows back to the ecosystem without being treated or reused (UNESCO. 2017) and agriculture accounts for 70 percent of global water withdrawal (FAO).
The two most important elements to stop this crisis are people’s behavior and water management. The water sector is facing crippling management and a lack of people participation and awareness. This paper estimates the cost of serving households with piped water and other non-piped water techniques, taking seven cost components into account. It will raise awareness that water is not free of cost and people’s participation in terms of paying for water resource and conservation of water is very important. It has also identified gaps in the management of the water sector at the local level and made suggestions for it. We have employed system dynamics techniques to understand the functions of the system along with various sub-systems within the system. A discounted cash flow technique is used to estimate the expenditure of the water supply system compared to the year 2025. Finally, plausible recommendations are made to judicially use the water resources within the system.
