Mumbai 's Water System Of Mumbai

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Despite substantial rainfall from annual monsoons and access to vast aquifers in the northern region of the Maharashtra state, Mumbai has never been able to provide piped water or sanitation for all, or even most of its residents. According to one report, the city has a notional per capita water availability exceedingly that of London, yet it fails to provide even the most affluent communities with 24 hour piped water. Relying on a crumbling, century-old system of fragile pipes that is woefully inadequate, even just for the city proper, Mumbai’s water system can be accurately characterized as in crisis. Water leakage and pipe ruptures are extremely common, some estimates suggest as must as 20% of all the City’s piped water is lost in this manner. Projects to build new reservoirs and upgrade failing infrastructure have been stymied by perpetual funding shortages and severe delays, leaving much of Mumbai’s population underserved or completely unserved.

The polarization of the social and cultural landscape is reflected in the complex political machinations behind the provision of water resources. Municipal Corporation of the Greater Mumbai (MCGM), the municipal government of Mumbai, is responsible for distributing and allocating water resources in the city. The centralized nature of this governing body and the ongoing water crisis lends itself to corruption, misallocation, and preferential treatment of favored parties. With limited political representation, residents of informal settlements are consistently and systematically denied adequate access to water resources and sanitation. The MCGM for example, officially offers slum dwellers 45 liters per person per day of water, a mere 30% of the amount allocated to a citizens living in...

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...istribution Improvement Project (WDIP) and it’s pilot project was to be established in the K-East ward, another large slum community. Citizens of the ward were able to effectively organize a broad-based community resistance effort through persistent and tenacious community organizing. Local youth groups were formed and they joined with leaders of other community-based organization voicing their concerns over the proposed project and the rationale behind it. They eventually succeeded in repelling the privatization effort, largely due to the awareness raised by a speech a local representative gave in the Indian House of Representatives in 2007 and the arrest of six prominent local activists who stormed a stakeholders meeting. The speech and the arrests received significant covered in legacy press across the state and the proposal was immediately withdrawn by the PPIAF.

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