Water scarcity is one of the major impediments to the development of a society. Many states in India are suffering water crises that are having deleterious effects on humans and the ecosystems on which they depend. This has forced states to resort to extreme measures such as water conflicts (for example, the Cauvery water conflict). The main focus of this paper is to address 3 main issues viz. understanding the scarcity of water, promoting integrated urban water management and the management tools to adopt these strategies. The first issue links between water scarcity and poverty i.e. water poverty. The second issue will concentrate on the importance of sanitation and the third issue gives emphasis on decision-making tools such as environmental technology assessment and rapid urban assessment. This paper will also discuss important methods that are useful to adopt an integrated approach for managing water scarcity.

Address: Energy and Wetlands Research Group,
Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, 
Bangalore 560012. Karnataka. India
E-mail: cestvr@ces.iisc.ernet.in,  energy@ces.iisc.ernet.in
Phone: 91-080-3600985 (215/232)  91-080-3942506 (215/232)
Fax. No. 91-080-3601428 / 3600085 / 3600683 

Top