School of Public Policy and Governance Tata Institute of Social Science, Hyderabad WORKING PAPER SERIES NO. 1, DECEMBER 2015
Urban Water Access: Formal and Informal Markets: A Case Study of Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Namrata Borthakur
 
School of Public Policy and Governance Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad Roda Mistry College of Social Work and Research Centre, Opposite Biodiversity Park, Gachibowli, Hyderabad, Telangana - 500008 Email : sppg-si@tiss.edu Website : http://goo.gl/mQGBpF
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About Student Working Paper Series The Student Working Paper Series, is an attempt by the School of Public Policy and Governance, at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad to assimilate papers being worked upon the topics that will help enrich the public discourses by improving upon the clarity, accuracy and sophistication of discussions on the nation's Public Policy. About School of Public Policy and Governance The School of Public Policy and Governance (SPPG) is a novel research based teaching and training space designed to equip young professionals to contribute to the policy area research. SPPG provides opportunities to its students to think beyond conventional models of growth and development, and encourages them to generate ideas for developing institutional frameworks for accountable governance and the establishment of a socially equitable society. Its programs and activities are designed to create an environment for the well-trained scholars to access and collect information about contemporary policies and activities surrounding them so that they can produce timely research and undertake analysis on key topics of Public Policy.
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Urban Water Access: Formal and Informal Markets: A Case Study of Bengaluru, Karnataka, India - Namrata Borthakur
Abstract Concentrating only on the nature of piped water provision has often diverted the attention from the heterogeneous forms of water architecture employed by the urban population to gain access to water. Parables from fieldwork reveal that water vendors form a crucial connection in the missing link of water supply for the urban poor. In addition, water accessed by exploiting social capital also forms an important part of how poor households obtain water daily. Similarly, for the middle-class and richer sections, water tankers help fill the slight discontinuity in the formal provisioning of water. Whether they like them or not, the aspiring urban population in the city is not in a position to ignore the role played by these ‘informal’ sources in meeting their supply. Although these forms of water access are immanent in the habitus and everyday routine of any urban dweller, they are overlooked by current insights on water. The households weave their daily access to water through a reticulate pattern of substitutes and alternative arrangements, which has often has been eclipsed in literature. This research, through primary fieldwork in Bengaluru, attempts to understand the diversity of water access options, the ways in which informality is engendered by the absence or insufficiency of formal network water.
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Introduction The division of sections begins in the process that the first part, Section 1 deals with highlighting the broad themes in the present literature to locate the research, which leads into the analytical themes the paper, is premised on. Next, Section 2 will introduce the methodology followed by the objectives and research questions. Section 3 and Section 4 attempts to understand the nature of water access in low income areas and slums respectively, outlining the diversity of water sources for the respondents, the coping mechanisms and Section 5 highlights their perspectives behind the choices. Section 6 covers presence of informal water markets in low income areas, and the same is also done for the middle and richer localities in a later Section 7. Summarising the different modes of water access in the city in a nutshell in Section 8, the paper concludes by trying to understand the consequences and reasons behind the choices which people employ. 1.
Review of Literature:
The institution of informal water supply ingeniously seeks to fill the hiatus produced by official supply of water. The presence of “institutional arrangements� of informal water provision in certain areas is symptomatic of the absence of formally provided water, or at least insufficient formal water. These tanker water suppliers and small vendors physically permeate the interstices left by formal provision of water, something which even formal alternatives of municipal tankers have failed to achieve (Ahlers, 2014; Misra, 2014; Galli, 2013). Through the use of such alternatives the populations residing in these low income areas are also able to stave off the required documents and connection fees. McGranahan et al discuss how small scale water entrepreneurs, by delivering water right at the doorsteps can increase the number of people who have access to water, and hence expedite the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (McGranahan et al, 2005). The research also unearths the everyday activities, negotiations and quotidian practices which comprise the daily trials for water by the people, which has been a gap in the existing literature. If the state attempts to regulate the vendors and tanker markets, it can help in bringing about universal provision of water. However, few scholars have noted that encompassing informal water provision under formal laws must be met with its own share of reservations. Regulation of informal service providers take into consideration the facts like supervising the quality of water provided by these vendors and tankers, checking water lost during transportation by tanker lorries, and some form of price mechanism that
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accounts for social equity. Once legalised, these vendors might come under the control of vested and special interest which are dominant in the formal water provision. Therefore, converting the informal into formal does not mean that the very vested interests and status quo which these informal service providers sought to circumvent by providing alternate access to water should become a characteristic feature of the new kind of services as well. The initiative towards formalization must consider the conditions under which the informal water economy manoeuvres in complex environments to provide water for all. If both these problems persist, the result would be the informal sector merely being attuned towards the same path of the formal provisioning, without filling the latter’s lacunae. It is always expected that the ‘informal’ sector be harmonized and accommodated in a manner similar to the formal, and never the other way round (Ahlers et al, 2012: 1-13). Analytical Framework
2. 2.1.
Institutional Arrangements: Production of Informality
The existence of these informal water markets can be understood by embedding it in the available literature. We can tap scholarship from the field of New Institutional Economics to explain the existence of these actors. To understand this, we need to differentiate between ‘institutional environment’ and ‘institutional arrangements’. Using the concept as propounded by Douglas North, institutional environment refers to the ‘rules of the game’ and the framework that guide and shape human actions. Institutional arrangements on the other hand are the ‘specific guidelines’ which humans evolve during their interaction. In developed and richer nations, the level of formality in the water sector is very high. Hence, these countries are marked by the presence of institutional environment in the water sector. On the other hand the water sector in the developing countries is marked by the presence of a high degree of informality, and the institutional environment is still in a nascent stage. Rather, these countries are distinguished by the presence of ‘institutional arrangements’ in the water sector (Shah, 2007: 66). In the Indian context, institutional environment refers to the entire framework of water policies, legal structure on water, the formal water utilities and their various departments, international organizations and the entire government machinery of water. Institutional Arrangements on the other hand refer to the informal agents present in the water sector such as groundwater markets and urban tanker markets, tube wells, co-operatives, water user associations, groundwater recharge movements and so on (Shah, 2007: 67).
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The kind of water institutions in a country at a particular point of time is characterized by the status of formalization in the water sector of the economy. In the low income economies, the degree of informality is quite high in the economy, including the water sector. Therefore, in countries like India and many South American countries, the water sector is marked by the presence of several small scale informal actors. Simultaneously with economic advancement, higher levels of formalization in a country are witnessed (Shah, 2007: 67). In developed nations, the economy as a whole is formalized, under direct regulatory influence of the government. Therefore, the water sector in these countries is also formalized, and there is very less presence of institutional arrangements. It is rare to find informal water providers in the European and American countries. There is no own supply and management of water, and informal vendors are replaced by legalised service providers such as formal utilities and private multinational companies. These service providers form the link between customers and the larger institutional framework. States also exhibit variation among themselves, as high income states may have higher level of formalization as compared in low income states. The formal sector operates through the three pillars of water policy, water law and water administration, which don’t hold as true for the informal water sector (Shah, 2007: 67). Only after grasping the nature of the water economy in a country, the nature and causes of informality, can suitable action be taken which is also sustainable and has enduring results. Formulating water policy solutions without realising the actuality of the working of the economy can lead to no results. If strong water policy designs have to be enacted, understanding the connections between institutional structure, economic growth and informality is crucial (Shah, 2007: 67-68). 2.2.
Political Society: Gaining Access
The analytical concept of Partha Chatterjee’s “political society” can be employed to understand how despite an absence of formal water supply the residents of slums continue their access to water. They do so by multiple ways of accessing illegality and informality, and subrogate their deficiency with a meshwork of informal arrangements. Thus, the residents develop a whole new form of “paralegal adjustments” that can evolve and administer them basic civic services and welfare benefits to population groups whose very survival lies on the obverse of legality. Getting caught in a bureaucratic labyrinth of producing tenure proofs and documents, the slum dwellers often mobilize their collective energy to demand services directly from the state. They approach the state in a collective
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form and not individual citizens, since they believed in isolation their voice did not carry much weight. During interviews, all the respondents in the slums agreed about going to the formal utility of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) in groups always to register complaints, much in consonance with the concept of political society. The features of political society can be seen as roughly being fulfilled in that often these groups demand services from the state by transgressing the law. By illegally tapping water from network supply or even reselling network water, they routinely attempt to avoid all regulations. Their demand for these services is premised on the idea of a “right” to public services and equitable distribution for all. Again, they want this right to be bestowed on them collectively, for the whole community, and not only on some individuals. The state views these groups through the lens of welfare, as groups who require the welfare hand of the government. This is evident from the provision of public stand-posts, free municipal tankers, and highly subsidized water tariffs which are charged from these groups. Apart from this, representatives of formal power such as councillors and local leaders of parties try to fortify their patron-client relationship by providing water infrastructures such as borewells and tanks to the poor. These groups, as a collective, when unable to access the water provided by the formal utility, often resort to seeking the help of their representatives through informal relations in accessing water. To retain their vote bank and support, the representatives install the infrastructures before or just after an election, indebting the clientele forever (Chatterjee, 2004: 132-134). 2.3.
From Political Society to Ordinary Encroachment:
The stories emerging from the fieldwork generate copious proof to corroborate the argument that the groups who are not satisfied by the government, and cannot access the large private players in the market, never stop their struggle for water through everyday negotiations with the state and market, and devise their own ways. Asef Bayat calls this the “the quiet encroachment of the ordinary”, which refers to the day to day activities individuals indulge to access basic necessities of life, even if it means to do so illegally (Bayat, 2010: 45). This conceptual framework can also be applied to understand the politics of informality. The motive of most of the people resorting to informal and illegal activities is to bring about a “redistribution of social goods and services” for achievement of all forms of urban utilities and services which are not only fundamental to life, but also for a decent
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standard of living. Even after receiving the services from the state the groups sometimes refuse to pay (Bayat, 2010: 59). This strand off scholarship tries to focus on the role of the state come in conflict in the process. When people try to bring about more equitable redistribution of public goods such as water, it inflicts a burden on the limited resources controlled by the state. It amounts to trespassing upon the limits of state provided resources. For instance, Unaccounted Flow of Water (UFW) is a result of some activities; one of them being the illegal connections employed the people. However, this is not to assume that only the poor resort to illegal connections, it is as prevalent in the richer localities as anywhere else. UFW is a huge burden for formal water utilities, which means a huge burden on the exchequer and wastage of water. Large quantities of water are wasted everyday, and never reach the target due to the presence of UFW. Therefore, the state heavily penalizes those found to be engaged in illegal connections by terming it ‘theft of water’. Penalty includes a fine of as high as Rs. 10,000 for the offenders, with discontinuance of connections. The state attempts to discipline the populations to manage its resources better in this way. An attempt by people to exert autonomy by exercising informality is also problematic as it becomes difficult for the state to exert vigilance and control over them. However, it is not that these acts are done individually with sporadic collective activity as the author assumes. All these activities are done as collectively as any other, for larger gains of the collective. Lastly, the attempts by the deprived to gain access to these services signal an attempt by them to achieve a form of “social justice” (Bayat, 2010: 60-65). 2.
Methodology
2.1.
Research Design
The research is primarily a qualitative research. Wherever required, to substantiate claims and findings, appropriate data has been used, all collected from the water board. The main objective of this research is to understand the prevailing perspectives of the people regarding the nature of water provisioning in the city, subjective experiences on the different sources of water access of the people, their expectations, and the reasons behind their choices. Therefore, a narrative mode of explaining the research has been employed. 2.2.
Location of Research
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The research is conducted in the city of Bengaluru, Karnataka. The choice of the city was intentional, and based on some familiarity and initial knowledge about the water system in the city. It complemented my interest to study urban water markets in a fast growing urban centre. Bangalore Urban District is one of the rapidly growing districts, with high urbanization rates. The decadal growth in the district has been 46.6% in total and 51.39% in urban areas. This is much above the growth rate of India as a whole, the country has witnessed a decadal growth of 12.18% in rural areas, and 31.80% in urban areas1. The intention of this research is also to understand the perspectives of both the suppliers and the consumers regarding the water provision, both public and private. It also intended to cover a fairly representative population across different income categories and genders, keeping in mind the large diversities present in our cities. For this purpose, the primary categories where research was conducted were slums, apartments/gated communities/individual houses, government officers and tanker suppliers. The research was conducted in the month of November, 2014. The first one week of the field work was based on initial inquiry of the overall water situation in the city, to identify the differential access of water by area, income, gender or any other possible reason. The research was conducted in several areas to grasp a holistic picture of the variation in water access in the city. To understand the diversity, I carried out fieldwork in the following categories of areas: slums of Ambedkar Nagar, Rajendranagar and Sonennahalli to understand water situation in low income areas, middle and richer income localities of BTM, HSR, Marathalli and the area of Sarjapura which is located at the far end of the city. The narrowing down of the areas was done in this manner. The slums of Ambedkar Nagar, Rajendranagar and Sonnenahalli were chosen because they were the slums where people faced a lot of water problems as understood from a few newspaper reports. The apartment in BTM Layout was selected primarily for the fact of logistics, since I was put up in the area and had firsthand experience of the water status in the area. Another reason was that it forms a part of the government planned core areas of the city. The apartments in HSR and Marathalli were chosen because they are higher end posh localities, and being close to the IT clusters these areas have seen large scale residential activities and growth in population in the past few years. Sarjapura was chosen because it presents a unique case of understanding how people in an area managed their water
1
Census, 2011
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needs, in an area which was not a part of municipal jurisdiction and therefore not a part of formal water provisioning at all, yet has tremendous residential activity going on. The government officers were interviewed to understand the official perspective of formal water provision in the city, and to collect relevant data. The officers were interviewed on availability. Initially, four tanker suppliers were contacted, but two of them refused to take part in interviews, so I conducted interviews with the other two. The names of the respondents, due to requests for anonymity, have not been disclosed. 2.3.
Sampling
The sampling was purely purposive, based on close observation to understand the everyday practices and narratives of water access of the people. The total sample consists of 57 respondents. The composition of the sample is disaggregated as below: Categories
Respondents
Slums
35
Apartments/Individual Houses
15
Government officers
5
Tanker Suppliers
2
Total
2.4.
57
Data Collection and Analysis
Being qualitative in nature, the research was self-conducted through in depth interviews. For the household interviews, a questionnaire was prepared with some structured and some semi-structured open ended questions. The composition of the sample is as follows: Category
No. of Male Respondents
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10
Slums
9
26
Mostly in the age group of 25-35 years. Four respondents were above 50 years
Other Localities
7
8
All in the age group of 25-30 years.
Government Office
5
0
Between 45-50 years
Tanker Suppliers
2
0
Between 40-45 years
Total
23
34
For the government officers, a semi-structured questionnaire was used to conduct interviews, to grasp the official perspective of the water supply picture. Wherever possible, data was collected with their help. For the tanker suppliers also, a semistructured questionnaire was used to grasp the perspectives of the private players. For data collection, to access some data which were not available with the officers at the particular time or they were not ready to provide, the Right to Information tool was used were file applications which have provided the answers to some important questions with data. Secondary literature used was existing scholarship on the topic, policy documents and newspaper reports and Census data, which permitted a triangulation of findings to arrive at strong conclusions. For analysis, all field notes were studied and a thematic analysis of the notes was done. The organization of the documented material into a hierarchy of concepts was done. The analysis was connected with relevant quantitative data, and the data received first hand was also analysed through the literature. 2.5.
Research Questions and Objectives
Aim: To map the institutional arrangement that has emerged in the scenario of the incapacity of the state in water service delivery in Bangalore city. Objective: To examine the potential inequity in access to formal provision of water To understand the coping mechanisms people evolve as a response To understand the subjective factors behind the choice of a particular coping mechanism Research Questions:
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○
How is the access of formal water provisioning? Is there any differential access in the formal network provision and across which indicators?
○
How do people in poor, middle and richer localities meet their access when formal provision of water utility is insufficient?
○
What are the factors which mould the respondents’ perspectives of addressing the issue of water access
3.
Access To Water In Low Income Areas
To understand how the access of water varies across the city, we need to look at how the population of slums manage and access their everyday water. The variables of the insufficiency of formal water producing inequity, which leads to coping mechanisms developed by the population, and ultimately the birth of institutional arrangements is discussed for every slum. As we will see, the situation is different for different slums, and in the process informality is operationalized. Inefficiency: For the slums which are connected to the municipal supply, even if people have an individual house connection their problem is not solved. Due to low pressure a lot of time is consumed in storing water. This inefficiency leads to inequity within the slum since for the households living towards the end of the slum, there is no water flow from the taps. This is because of low pressure, the first few households use motors to draw the water from taps, leave no water for the houses in the interiors. Thus, the households from the latter either have to travel to the beginning of the slum or to the next lane to fetch water from the common borewell. There are no regulations in place to check the amount of water extraction which a household can engage in. Coping Mechanism: To cope with the inefficiency of formal water, the respondents have invested in the use of suction motors to draw water from the pipes, due to the low pressure. Since the drawing of this water is unregulated, to cope with this inequity created, the people have as a community presented themselves before the local councillor and got a borewell dug and a tank constructed. They also invest in extra storage equipment such as drums, pots, buckets to store the water since there is no guarantee that they would receive water on time. In addition, water given by neighbours and friends for free also form an important part of how the poor household obtains water daily.
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Arrangements Devised: To deal with the drinking water problems generated from the inefficiency and inequity in the slum, the people have devised their own arrangements such as selling canned water in the small grocery shops in the slums. The people who sell the canned water come from nearby slums apparently receive Cauvery water, purify it and then sell it, at a cheaper cost than normal canned water. They often depend on sambandh or informal networks to access water. One respondent said she can go to the slum of Rajendranagar for accessing water, but not Sonenahalli. This is because in the latter slum, people access water by drawing from motor and they have to pay an electricity bill for that, therefore they refuse to give water for free. But since people in Rajendranagar do not pay for water, they allow them to fill the water. Operationalization of Informality: The absence of piped water leads to a long wait for water everyday, bring discomfort to the women who have to collect the water, often by travelling long distances. There is a gap in government provision of water. This gap is filled by private players. The residents in the slum purchase water from bicycle water sellers. They carry Cauvery water in their pots, and sell them for Rs. 1 for 1 bindige (pot) and solve the water problem for the slum. These sellers are a blessing in disguise for the woman especially since they are saved of walking long distances. The system is convenient during functions and festivals when larger quantities of water are required, and people in the house staying very busy are unable to travel and fetch water. They purchase cheap Cauvery water around 10 pots for the whole day. Occasionally, due to acute scarcity of water, households have to purchase a tanker. A tanker costs up to Rs. 600, which is shared by three households. Earning around Rs. 3000 per month, Rs. 200 in a month is very expensive water for the people. 4.
Understanding Water Access Options In Slums
4.1.
The Many ‘Waters’
As we can see, it is difficult to highlight one single source of water used for drinking by the respondents.
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Diversity of Drinking Water Sources 12 9 6
No. Of Respondents
3 0
"Water Given + Borewater + Vendor + Tanker
Pipe + Bore
Figure 1: Combination of Drinking Water Sources The population in slums mostly depend on a combination of water sources, which vary from piped water and bore for some, to bore and water given from neighbours, to a combination on water purchases- cans, water vendors and tankers, and a combination of all the water sources. None of the households seems to be consuming water from an isolated source. PRESSURE: Pressure of the network remains an important determinant while deciding the extent to which people can access network water. Often, low or negligible pressure is equated with no piped water, and households have to devise their own alternatives in the process.
Pressure of Piped Water, Slums 15
11
8
No. of Respondents
4
0
" Extremely Low/No Pressure
Low
Satisfactory
Figure 2: Understanding Pressure of Piped Water
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5.
Understanding Perspectives Behind Choice Of Water Sources
5.1.
Quality and Taste
On being asked about the quality of water sources used for drinking, piped water water generally elicited a positive response, with the occasional response of black and dirty water smelling of sewerage. All the respondents would prefer piped water to groundwater due to the latter’s taste and smell. They reported the taste of Cauvery water being sweeter and purer, and all of them thought that this water was also safer than borewell water. Thus, this proves that all the respondents already had a notion of the Cauvery water being purer, cleaner and fresher, as compared to borewell water.
Quality of Piped Water 20 15 10 No. of Respondents 5 0
"
Always Good
Bad Smell and Colour
Figure 3: Understanding Perspectives on Taste of Piped water, Slums
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Quality of Ground Water 40
30
20
No. of Respondents
10
0
"
Good
Bad Colour
Figure 4: Understanding Perspectives of taste for Groundwater in slums (Notes: Respondents could mark more than one category) 5.2.
Notions of Safety and Purity
Related to the quality of water, another issue dealt with was to understand how people treated their water prior to consumption. The entire slum population admitted to consuming the water directly without any form of treatment like boiling, due to lack of facilities like gas connections. On the other hand, all the residents of the apartments filter their water before drinking. 5.3.
Ease of Availability
Availability of water is scarce for the slum dwellers and depends on the season. While walking long distances to fetch water is common for them, the situation becomes worse during peak summer months. While two of them travel 3 kms once a week to collect water, the others travel only during conditions of water scarcity, when there is no alternative available. Such time is usually during the peak summer months. All these women belong to Ambedkar Nagar. 5.4.
Gender Angle
The gendered nature of water access in slums was apparent that women were the prime collectors of water. The burden of walking the distance, filling water in pots, and
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travelling back again fell on the women. They usually had to complete this chore as a part of their housework, setting off early in the morning to be able to come back in time for the spouses and children to get ready and leave for work and school. Most of them also admitted to being accompanied by their daughters to collect water to the taps, and said sometimes that their daughters also went alone. The presence of women and girls near the water taps, filling pots and drums, or carrying them was ubiquitous. On the other hand, men never always went to collect water, but did so on special occasions such as the distance being too far to travel due to unavailability of water nearby.
Who Fetches Water? 18
14
No. of Respondents 9
5
0
"
Always Women
Always Men
Sometimes Men
Figure 5: Understanding gender roles in collection of water in slums The formal utility of BWSSB has very less representation of women in the office. I personally did not encounter any woman engineer for interviews. Even the tanker suppliers were all inevitably men, and a woman owner of tankers was unheard of in the entire city. During my travels in the slums and apartments, however, it was mostly women who would talk when informed that the questions were on water, and the women would be very articulate. They also had a more nuanced understanding of the water problems faced by the family, which proved they mostly managed the water in the house. Thus, while the management and supply of water at the city level is seen as a technocratic exercise, which was mostly performed by men, the field reality proves that water management at the household level is mostly performed, and performed best by women.
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The problems of women
The problems of men
Travelling everyday is a problem. Have to try many
Loss of Income. The days the men travel
areas before collecting water
to collect water, they can’t go for work.
It is difficult to walk everyday, but since they
The pressure of piped water. In two storey
cannot manage without water there is no other
houses, the upper storeys have nearly nil
option
pressure
Have to leave early in the morning, otherwise it
Quality, smell, duration
gets late for husband and children to get ready Waiting for water leaving aside all household
Skewed Extraction- Some households
chores is a big problem
drawing more water through motors with higher hp, leaving none or less for others
In trying to understand the problems faced by men and women in the slums, psychological distress faced in the process of travelling came out as a major problem for women. Since the nearest neighbourhood may not have any water, they have to travel to several areas to fetch water. Sometimes, a few respondents spoke of travelling up to half an hour in tempos to collect water. For the men, the loss of income incurred from having to travel to collect water, the quality of Cauvery water, its duration and pressure, and skewed extraction were bigger problems. Dwellers also access water through illegal means and also resort to bribing the ‘valveman’ a little extra to get a few hours of extra water, although rarely so. When inquired whether they ever accessed water through illegal means, at least 2 respondents clearly agreed. For them, illegal access to water would take place during night when they would connect their motors to the connection line of nearby areas where pressure of piped water is strong. For 3 of the respondents did not clearly answer when the topic was broached, but admitted to have ‘stolen’ water ‘only for drinking’ once in a while at night. Three respondents answered that they have paid bribes to the valve-man so that he closes the valve a little late and they could tap in a little more water. They also said that sometimes the apartment in the next street would bribe the valve-man to access water for half an hour more, and since the connection was the same, the people in the slums would also enjoy the water for some extra time.
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Summing up, every slum has its own story to share about accessing water daily. In spite of this, some broad generalizations can be done. There is inequity in access to water between wards, but there is also inequity present within a ward, within neighbourhoods, and worse within the same slum in different lanes or parts of the same slum. If the perspectives of the people are considered, the only possible factor behind this is wealththe richer or better off can gain access to piped water. The absence of the latter also induces people to resort to excessive extraction of water than required, which again creates the cycle of inequity in access. Water is a top matter of concern for the population, their worry since the time they wake up. The absence of water acts like a push factor which forces residents to move out to water rich areas. 6.
Findings And Inferences
This section delineates the major findings and inferences from the fieldwork. The findings have been supported by literature throughout, to make the claims strong and support the arguments. It begins with the first inference which points out to the heterogeneous sources of water which people in slums use highlighting the insufficient provision of network water. This is when there is the birth of informal water markets in the slums to satisfy the thirst of the poor. Although informal markets are present in the more well-off areas as well, the latter is more large scale than the tiny private players present in the slums. 6.1.
Presence Of Small Scale Informal Water Markets In Low Income Areas
6.1.1. Presence of Small Scale Informal Water Markets In Slums
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Presence of informal water 5
4
3
No. of Respondent
1
0
"
Water Vendor
Water Cans
Tankers
Figure 6: Presence of Informal Water Market in the Slums We can try and make sense of the field level reality and perspectives of the urban population by placing it in existing literature. In a Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organization (CPHEEO) Report, in 2005, the physical status of urban water supply in Bangalore has been disaggregated to reveal the percentage of population covered by piped water supply. According to that data, 75% of the population is covered by House Service Connection (HSC), while 25% of households are covered by Public Stand Posts (PSP). While ample studies have surveyed the 75% of the population, the nature of their coverage and access, and any possible effects on health, but the remaining 25% of the population have been ignored in terms of access. What is absent is the disaggregation of these data, which when done reveals that for those who are believed to depend solely on piped water are not really so, as also for the remaining 25% who are believed to be depending solely on public taps. People in their daily lives depend on a variety of water sources, but the nature and level of diversity differs according to the income bracket. The lower we go down the income levels, the more complicated this meshwork of water access becomes. This means, that majority of the population in the middle and higher income populations access water through informal tanker markets and groundwater. The majority of the low income households access water from further more diverse sources. For them, daily access to water depends on an assortment of groundwater, informal water markets such as tanker markets, but what distinguishes them most crucially are informal water vendors. The institution of informal water supply attempts to fill the gap, which is produced by inconsistent official supply of water. The areas, which are marked by the presence of informal water provision, can be understood as the areas where the government is unable SPPG TISS - HYDERABAD
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to provide water sufficiently for the needs of the people. For the population slums, access to water is marked by the presence of private and fragmented water market water, which plays a very crucial role in securing water for the low income communities. As the experiences of people encountered during my fieldwork prove, even if in theory public taps, standpoints and even house connections are provided to the poor, it does not solve the problem of water scarcity faced by families since most of the people are also are unable to access the water. This is because of extremely low pressure, poor quality of the water, long distances to be travelled to access water or excessive withdrawal of the scarce resource by some households. This then leads to the growth of disparate sources of water for these groups. 6.1.2. Understanding Private Water Vending In the slums there is the presence of small scale water vendors. Different areas may have different niches of vendors depending on the use: some who might have an own borewell and sell the water from the bore. This is a form of informal market for groundwater on a rudimentary stage. Informal tanker markets also operate on the same principles, but on a large-scale level with higher capital invested. However, the more common one is the model of reselling of municipal water received from pipes. While tiny water vendors are invisible but ubiquitous components of the water picture in urban slums, similarly water tankers are the highly visible more advanced ubiquitous components in other parts of the city. Access to water from all these systems tends to be more expensive than through centralized systems, yet their role is important. The idea behind resale of Cauvery water is that when a household receives piped water and pays a bill, the water becomes the private property of the household, and can be dispensed for whatever purpose they want it to. Such arrangements are essential since they partake in the goal of satisfying the deprived sections of the population. The prices charged by the water vendors have to be accepted by the consumers and cannot exceed a certain limit. During the interviews, the women explained that they would not purchase the water if it would exceed Rs. 1 and instead shift to canned water. Thus, the consumers exert more social control over small-scale water vendors, than over tanker suppliers and mineral water suppliers since they do not directly interact with these suppliers during day-to-day life. However, this does not mean vendors have emerged to perform services to the poor; rather they have used the opportunity to become entrepreneurs and earn a little extra money, sensing a potential market.
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Literature upholding vending argues that the role of water vendors in providing water to the needy is not as well researched and has not received the commensurate attention which privatization of water supply has received. This is ironic because these vendors are performing perhaps an even bigger task of providing water to the poorest sections, but are still dissuaded officially from carrying this task. On the other hand, the privatization of water does not guarantee that the poorest sections will be benefitted who are also largely kept out of government provided infrastructure. Therefore, in order to bring a positive change in the lives of the urban poor, the role of these informal vendors cannot be ignored (Kjellén and McGranahan, 2006: 1). In the existing literature, the acknowledgement of water vending has brought new insights in the research on willingness to pay for water. The fact that people consume water from vendors by paying reveals their willingness to pay for water, which means they accept water as an economic good with commodity status. This therefore counters the popular opinion that the poor perceive water primarily as a public good, which they believe should be provided free of cost. However, they often pay out of compulsion because of lack of any other options, and would ideally like not to pay. The role of water vendors for their quick entrepreneurial skills in realizing the potential in the market and their crucial role in providing the deprived with water has been appreciated. It is also true that their role is often criticised for taking advantage of people’s critical need for water by charging them (Kjellén and McGranahan, 2006: 1 - 2). Any attempts to bring the informal players under the purview of formal laws should take steps to control the high prices charged and bring ameliorate the quality of services provided, instead of eliminating them. The state should not attempt to constrain water vending, because by curtailing it the plight of the water-deprived sections in accessing water worsens. Considering water vending as incompetent compared to piped water supply means denying a crucial opportunity to water for the poor. That, notwithstanding, broad claims that water vending is innately good and useful should also not be made. The debate should not whether to support or restrict water vending but to bring an improvement in the services. Rather, steps need to be taken to make this form of service delivery more effective, and ensuring that vendors provide accepted quality of water in meeting the demands of the poor. In this manner, the vendors can contribute positively towards the achievement of international water goals (Kjellén and McGranahan, 2006: 1 2). Summing up, the diverse form of water access is a topic which should be addressed by all policy-makers. It should be viewed as a derivative of the mercurial growth of cities, and the fast pace where new towns are emerging as urban centres. When the population
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of the cities multiply at such an accelerated rate and the extant institutions of the state are unable to meet the infrastructural needs of the bourgeoning population, the emergence and growth of the informal sector should be seen an offshoot of this situation. This is especially the case with water supply. Being a scarce natural resource, water provision through a formal utility is limited to the those sections of the population who are considered legal citizens possessing land rights, and who are capable of producing the proof of their citizenship. The population residing in slums are seen as the ‘beneficiary population’, the state often views them with a lens of a group demanding welfare, the reason why public standpoints are provided in slum areas so that they can access their basic needs. Being essential to carry out daily life activities, it is when these public standpoints fail to deliver the requisite water that the slum population have to depend on the informal service providers as their last resort. A further continued inability to utilize the water from these stand-posts means that the population then internalize informality in their daily lives. However, we should not mistake of considering informality to be an exclusive characteristic of water access for only the poor households. It equally exists as a source of water access among the middle and richer income households; however their nature has subtle differences. 6.2.
Opportunity Cost of Not Receiving Network Water is High
The consequences of inadequate piped water have different effects on different sections of the population. For instance, women complain of more mental pressure and tension than men. TIME: Fetching water every day is a big task, and it consumes a lot of time of the poor. Families, who spend considerable time in collecting and transporting water back home, find a loss of time for work. There is an opportunity cost involved in fetching water. If we consider time as money, the poorer sections pay a heavy price. Approximately, on an average a household in the sample slum spends more than half an hour i.e. between 35-40 minutes in fetching water everyday, which only increased during summers. For the men, travelling to fetch water also meant loss of crucial earnings. Lack of water also means investing extra in storage equipment like drums and pots, motor pumps to draw out the water incurring additional electricity costs, which also means incurring extra electricity expenses, apart from transportation costs. Although minor, these costs are persistent for the poor, and are very rarely studied in policies on water expenditure of poor (Choe et al, 1996: 8-9).
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1.
Informal Water Markets in Middle and Richer Areas
We have to see the presence of informal markets in the field of water provisioning as the ripple effect of the deficiency of formal water in urban areas. The insufficient supply of piped water and the rapid urbanisation has encouraged the growth of another form of private informal water providers- the tanker water industry. Therefore, the informal water sector is not marked by the presence of a single class of providers, but consists of an amalgamation of different actors: ranging from small - scale water vendors to large - scale tanker water suppliers. These informal suppliers are always private, but the private water sector is also a conglomerate of diverse actors, from small scale vendors, to tanker suppliers and the large multinational corporations. The labelling of the entire informal water sector as undesirable, corrupt and exploitative is wrong since within this categorization is also included the additional group of water vendors. It can be ascertained that the vendors are different from the informal tanker water markets, which is a bigger business with more capital investment. The tanker industry is famously or infamously considered synonymous with the word ‘water mafia’. The word ‘water mafia’ evokes a similar feeling of anger in few, acceptance in few, helplessness in few and frustration among few others. Scholars having conducted research on Bangalore agree that the water mafia should not be seen as a separate entity from the land mafia. Their existence needs to be placed holistically within the neo-liberal political economy, which has facilitated unscrupulous appropriation of land in the hands of few. This powerful land mafia also increases the strength and power of the water mafia. Only by understanding how informal land politics intersects with informal water politics can we grasp a holistic view of the picture (Ranganathan, 2014: 91). The tankers source their water from borewells, whether own sunken private ones, or leased out. The legal framework influencing the extraction of groundwater is the Karnataka Groundwater (Regulation and Control of Development and Management) Act, 2011 which basically lays down the application procedure for new borewells, process of registering and costs involved. The Act and the attitude of the BWSSB officers has generally been to encourage an atmosphere where the people themselves would come forward and register their borewells- whether existing or new, instead of dedicated monitoring by the department. Only recently, keeping the indiscriminate exploitation of groundwater in the city under consideration has the department issues new guidelines to proactively monitor all borewells across the city. The lax regulations have meant that households across the city are indiscriminately using groundwater. According to BWSSB official, there are some 1.5 - 2 lakh private borewells across the city.
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Suppliers Perspectives The fieldwork tries to grasp the nature of supply side of informal water provision. The profits earned per day and the number of customers served by a single tanker supplier per day is all based on hearsay information, and tanker suppliers were reluctant to divulge information on their profits earned per day. They even provided unreliable information on the number of borewells they owned. One supplier on being questioned answered he had three borewells in different parts of the city, but his driver spoke of him owning four own borewells and one rented as a reply to the same question. From my interviews, I could understand that the biggest advantage of the tanker water was the time and flexibility. The tankers would operate 24 X 7, which means even if a family needs water at 11:00 p.m. at night or early in the morning, the water is a phone call away. The low pressure from the piped connections early in the morning before leaving for office is annoying, which is why the families often resort to tankers. Many tanker suppliers provide water late till night and start operations very early in the morning. The two suppliers interviewed have been in the water business from more than 5 years, with one for 8 years. The numbers of houses they deliver differ from 8 to 20 houses everyday or 2 apartments, depending on situations. There has never been a day when they have not supplied water to even one place. Their regular customers are the residential complexes and gated communities. However, it is hospitals, software companies and medicine manufacturing companies which form a part of their unfailing customer base. The main reason given to the suppliers when they get a call is regarding the insufficiency of piped water, low pressure or completely lack of water for a few days. The tankers have their territories divided, and ply only in those areas. One primarily serves in BTM and the other in HSR colony. The charge for a normal tanker of 6000 litres is from Rs. 350-400 for residential areas and colonies. Rs. 275-300 per load is charged for commercial establishments factories since the number of loads is more for them, up to 100-120 loads a day. Only one supplier admits to serving in slum areas as well if needed. Supplier A has his own piece of land and owns three borewells. He receives a call every 15 to 20 minutes for a tank capacity of 6000 litres and owns 4 trucks. Every hour three tankers ply, which means in a day 24*3= 72 trips are made by the tankers. If one trip earns them Rs. 400 then they earn up to Rs. 28,800 in a day. Their business however varies, since they may have lesser trips some days or more trips on others. Also, according to the seasons their sales vary. During monsoon their number of trips is less or completely no trips in a day, but they are nearly double during summers. They did not
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face any problems while digging new borewells, and don’t think the regulations for groundwater in Bangalore are very strict. It takes 3 lakhs per bore, power sanction, motor, salaries, rent and registration fees are the total investment required. They also earn profits by leasing out their borewells to other tanker suppliers. They decided to join the water business as their family was in the transport business since 1996, and decided to shift to water as a suitable field for entrepreneurship. The government regulations, which they have to go through, are licensing, annual renewal of the bore registration. An additional sum is paid to government once a year of Rs. 500 for commercial borewells and Rs. 150 for residential borewells areas. This is paid because the groundwater is considered the property of the government. To make an entry into the business of tanker water, one has to own land so that they can sell the groundwater beneath it. All the suppliers first buy a piece of land, and then gain access to the groundwater. Real estate brokers who own huge pieces of land are also involved in the water business. Presence of Large Scale Informal Water Markets in the Richer Areas An analysis of the different sources of water employed by people in the middle and higher income bracket reveals the presence of large-scale informal tanker markets.
Source of Drinking Water 5
4
3 No. of Respondents 1
0
"
Tankers
Tanker+ Water Cans
Piped Water
Figure 7: Sources of Drinking Water in Other Localities The penetration of the large scale tanker markets is high among the respondents belonging to the middle and higher income bracket. The people living in apartments and gated communities source their daily water primarily from piped house connections, own SPPG TISS - HYDERABAD
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sunk private borewells or tankers. A minority of the sample also uses water cans. However, since all of them have water purification systems such as filters and R.O. at homes, they prefer to filter whatever water they drink. However, there is no presence of small-scale water vendors as a source of providing water in this sample group. Rather, it is large-scale tanker business which requires more capital investment and human resources, and has higher profits that mark the waterscapes of the richer population. Most of the households use along with the tanker water another source of water to supplement it. Tankers form an important part of daily water needs of the people. Apart from tankers, a combination of piped water and tankers and tankers with canned water forms the second major source of drinking water. Private own sunk borewells are also very prevalent in these areas, highlighting the exploitation of groundwater in the city. 1.1.
Main Source of Drinking Water: Disaggregation by Area
Figure 8: Main Source of Drinking Water: Disaggregation by Area We can find considerable variations concerning the source of drinking water in the different areas of the city. In the planned areas of the city, along the core areas, such as
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BTM for instance, there is good coverage of piped water. On the other hand, in areas such as HSR Layout, there is piped water, but the pressure is nearly negligible. Due to drying up of their borewells, each apartment arranges its own tanker facility and the costs are shared by all the residents. For them, drinking water comprises of filtered tanker water.
They incur high costs of water, with a bill of Rs. 70,000 per month for the
apartment complex, only on water. Since, their water bill burns a hole in their pocket; water is a primary concern for the people. The respondents said they were plagued daily by the tension of how to manage the water needs in case of electricity cuts or if the tanker does not turn up. Having witnessed red-tapism, and bureaucratic corruption, they often had to grease the palms of some water inspectors in the hope of better provisioning of piped water, they have a bitter attitude towards government provision of water. The case of Sarjapur is a unique and special category of its own. Since, the area is outside of the jurisdiction of municipal areas of the BDA and BBMP, it presents an interesting example to understand how areas outside formal municipal scope meet their demands for basic utilities such as water. As soon as we enter the area of Sarjapur, two common sights meet our eyes- firstly, the never ending rows of large multi-storeyed apartments and gated communities with ongoing construction activity nearly everywhere, and secondly the innumerable tankers plying the area. What can be rightly called a concrete jungle, the waterscape of Sarjapur is pockmarked with the presence of private water tankers. In Sarjapur, the number of borewells being dug is alarming. It has perhaps the largest presence of informal tanker water markets like its urban outgrowth counterparts. People prefer own sunken private borewells to tanker water, since they do not have to depend on an external source to meet their tanker needs. A combination of tankers and borewells forms the next major share of drinking water sources in the area. Since, tanker water has the smell of iron, it is not considered fit for drinking by many. Therefore, the area also has a significant entrance of the canned water industry as a source of drinking water. The respondents also said that they have to additionally invest in water purifiers such as R.O. to render the tanker water fit for drinking. The areas of east Bangalore, which includes the suburb of Marathalli, have an indelible mark of the existence of very poor infrastructure. The residents of these areas are almost entirely dependent on private tankers. Purchasing water from tankers has become embedded in the habitus of the residents- a part of everyday stories of the people. The suburb of Marathalli area is witnessing a rapid growth vertically, while Sarjapur is growing vertically and horizontally due to the adjacency of these areas to the airports and
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IT clusters. The areas may be conspicuous by the absence of basic services, yet this has not proved to be an impediment to the real estate boom in the area. The areas are completely in the hands of private property dealers and real estate agents, who are very quickly selling off plots to new migrants in the city, and start sinking new borewells in the name of providing the huge complexes with water. Property owners do not hesitate to invest in multiplying the storeys and digging borewells, even if the water cannot be used for drinking purposes. Cauvery water is a dream for them, and many residents in Sarjapur are hopeful by that within two or three years they too would be connected to the municipal supply, like their luckier counterparts in the core areas of the city. If the water from the borewells or tankers is found unfit for consumption due to the hardness, then residents resort to buying canned water. Informal tanker markets and bottled water have penetrated the gap left by municipal supply of water. However, those living in Marathalli are more practical. They believe they have never been provided Cauvery water and they never would. In fact, some households are known to have sanctioned water connections, and water pipes are laid in the area, but they do not get even a drop of water from the connections. This according to a respondent is the result of the machinations of the local water mafia. Thus, for these residents, the absence of water in these areas is not natural or scientific, but a result of artificial scarcity. The local tanker suppliers in concert with the government officials, land brokers and politicians strive to create a situation of artificial water scarcity in the areas so that the residents are forced to buy water from tankers and packaged water. The profits are then shared amongst themselves. Water then, is no longer only an economic or public good, but has political dimensions in its provision and access. The official perspective cites the reason behind this being purely administrative, technical or even blames it on the topography for the unavailability of Cauvery water in these areas. They vociferously negate the presence of deliberate politics in the matter. Deferred payment, pending arrears and resistance to meters by the people is also used to justify the sorry state of water supply in the areas. 1.2.
Why Do People Depend on the Informal Market?
The main reason why people call tankers is primarily because of the extremely low pressure of the piped water is another reason for calling tankers. For the respondents in the areas of Sarjapur and Marathalli, pressure is not an excuse since they do not receive a drop of piped water. The flexibility in time offered by the tankers mean that whenever they have a need for water mostly, i.e. early in the morning before leaving for office, they
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can call a tanker. Drying up of private borewells, coupled with insufficient pressure, is another reason behind calling tankers.
Figure 9: Main Reason for Calling Tankers 1.3.
Informal Markets: Understanding Perspectives on Nature of Service Provision
If we examine the nature of service provisions the tanker market provides, we understand that several of the respondents complain of hardness in the water since the water is sourced from borewells. Usual complaints range from a whitish layer depositing at the bottom of the bucket to rotten smell emanating from the water due to water being filled from a lake which was a dumpsite. The advantage of the tankers is that they provide flexibility in time, and if highly dissatified, they have the option of changing the supplier. However, all suppliers in the area provide the same quality of water, hence this option is not well accounted for. Most of the respondents feel the quality of water supplied is average. A few of them who are lucky enough to have good suppliers feel the quality is good. Another small part of the sample, having being cheated by the tankers feel the quality of water provided is very bad. Respondents speak of psychological tension experienced by them when they call for tankers. Two of the respondents were the Presidents of their apartments, and thus had the responsibility of ensuring all the needs of the people, including water were provided for. One of them said that initially to see the tank of the apartment empty early in the
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morning when everyone had to leave for schools and colleges was a big tension. For one family in Marathalli, it was so fed up that it decided to relocate to an area with good supply of piped water primarliy to save the pain caused by tankers everyday.
Figure 10: Nature of Service Provision by Tanker Markets Aggravating it was the wait for the tankers, with no guarantee that they would turn up in time. However, once the people developed close ties with the suppliers by sticking to the same one, it is a guarantee that they would turn up or send some other driver instead. Almost all the residents agree that the quality of water supplied also depends on the bond and closeness customers develop with the suppliers.
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One common problem are the high prices charged by the tankers. The prices are exorbitant during summers, which only increases the burden on the monthly budget of the people. 1.4.
Costs Charged
Costs Charged Per Load 16
12 No. of Respondents 8
4
0
"
Rs. 250-300
Rs. 350-400
Regular Customers charged lesser
Figure 11: Costs Charged per Load by Tankers The tankers also have a system of differential prices being charged, with regular customers being charged at a lesser fixed rate, and posh localities being charged more. The tankers behave like a cartel, which means all the tankers operating in an area charge the same price. If one tanker supplier reduces its price, all others would follow suit. The chance of this happening is a very rare phenomena, but all the suppliers have an implict unspoken agreement about the prices amongst themselves. The timing of the tankers is also a problem several respondents agree that mostly the tankers fail to arrive on time, their duration of delay vary from one hour to 48 hours. This is usually because there is a huge monopoly and demand for tanker waters in the area, and they used to function at their own whims and fancies. Wherever tanker water is the only compulsory source of water, they tankers take advantage of the situation and trouble the customers. When the tankers would not turn up, the residents use to manage water with a lot of difficulty and adjust somehow. They used to go to offices without bathing, and somehow manage cleaning and cooking. Sometimes, they would go to a friend’s
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place to use water. Often, the tanker driver would tell them to call some other driver, as they were busy with some other area. The drivers also would sometimes be on the take, and a few residents admitted to having bribed them after they would demand a little extra money for “chai-pani” (tea/coffee). Water flowing out from the tankers during transportation is a common sight and they take no steps to reduce it. On being asked, the suppliers and drivers admitted that it was a part of ‘collateral’ transportation loss of water, and nothing could be done about it. Private tankers fail to accommodate for income difference and social equity. According to the tanker suppliers, they charged up to Rs. 100 lesser for slum areas. When asked, the respondents from the slums denied the fact and told that they were charged Rs. 600 for more than 1000 litres, although they could not specify the exact quantity. We can understand the perspective of people about tanker water by considering an answer to the question of which source of water do they prefer the most.
Figure 12: Prefernce of Water Sources When asked about their preference of water source given a choice, all the respondents overwhelmingly would prefer piped Cauvery water to tanker water, and even to own sunken borewells. This is because they think Cauvery water is purer, safer, and better tasting. It is easier to access if the pressure would have been better, and most importantly, it is much cheaper than all other forms of water. The costs incurred by the people is a primary reason for the bitterness of the people towards tankers. The respondents accept that apart from the costs paid per load of water, there are also some ignored hidden costs which households have to bear because of being unconnected with the network supply. These includes the cost of buying purifying
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systems such as R.O. to render the hard tanker water fit for drinking. Therefore, it is obvious that there is a strong willingness to pay among the sections of society for piped water. While supplying groundwater to several households across the city, it is interesting to note that the tanker suppliers themselves use Cauvery or piped water for consumption at their homes. While one supplier evaded the question, making it obvious that he does use only Cauvery water, the other supplier clearly said that at home ‘he and everyone else’ uses Cauvery water only’. On asked why he uses piped water, he reply was that if he gets the supply and pays a monthly bill, why should he not use it. Everybody would want to use formal piped water if given a choice, even the informal water providers themselves.
Access To Piped Water Depends On Possession Of Land Titles And Level Of Planning In Area The fieldwork generates enough evidence to suggest that the primary source, price and quality of water accessed depend largely on the possession of land titles. In other words, there is a direct correlation between level of planning, possession of land rights and access to stable source of water. Access to water as a property right is contingent on existing property rights such as land.
In the sample population, the slums where the
respondents do not own the land have no access to piped water and have to depend on mixed sources, while the slums where residents posses land rights have a formal individual house connection. The people having their own houses on own pieces of land have a higher probability of obtaining a piped connection. In the apartments, the level of planning of the area determines access to piped water. In the planned areas of the city, which fall under the direct jurisdiction of the municipal corporation, such as BTM there is good access of piped water. The more unplanned the settlements get, the more peri-urban the area is, the lesser is the spread of formal water provision. Such areas have larger presence of informal water markets. The most periurban areas have completely no presence of formal water service provisioning (Ranganathan, 2010). The middle and richer localities have obviously a better access to water than the slums. The monthly per capita consumption for BTM, HSR, and Marathalli varied from 4931.29, 55523.29 and 1565.58 respectively; while for the slums like Ambedkar Nagar, the monthly per capita consumption was 867.84 litres, i.e. only 28.92
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litres everyday for a person, in the month of December2. This, but, is a biased figure since most of the water us consumed outside pipes, for slums and well off areas as we saw above. In a nutshell, the different modes of water access in a city vary from the place of residence to social factors, which are highlighted in Table 1.1. Table 1.1: Different Modes of Water Access in Bangalore Mode of Access
Who Accesses
Public Stand Posts
Poor in slum areas with no Formal Water formal piped connections Utility (BWSSB)
Government Borewells with public taps
Poor in slum areas with no Local Councillor Free or insufficient piped water
Water Vendors
Poor in slums with no alternative of either piped water or even borewell water
Small-Scale bicycle water sellers from surrounding water-rich localities
Water from Neighbours
Poor in slums who do not have option of either piped water or borewell water, and have to travel large distances to access piped water. Also households in unplanned settlements who cannot access tanker water
Accessed by Free exploiting social capital, Neighbours, nearby localities, benevolent employers
Private Tankers
Population in the middle to higher income bracket. Sometimes population in slums in extreme emergency.
Private landowners who sell groundwater from own sunken borewells or leased out bores
2
Provider
Price/Cost Free
50 paise to Rs. 1 per bindige
Varies according to season, locality and regularity of customers. Ranges from Rs. 400 for 4000 litres, Rs. 300 for 1500 litres, exorbitant prices during summers
Based on data collected from BWSSB, 2014
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Private Borewells
Households in the middle to higher income bracket living in own house and possessing own land.
Self – Provision
Accessing water is free of cost. Cost of sinking borewell depends on depth, usually 3 lakhs and monthly electricity costs
Packaged Drinking Water
Used as a supplement to tanker water and bore water, by higher income bracket. Population in slums use sometimes the local cheaper variety of less quality standards.
Large multinational mineral water companies to small local can water providers
Varies. Rs. 40 per 20 litre can in slum by local suppliers, Rs. 60-80 for20 litres can
Piped Water
All planned areas, core municipality areas, and a few areas along the periphery. Requires
Formal Water Utility (BWSSB)
Highly Subsidised, Slab wise rate. Free for slums, low for lower income groups
Source: Adapted from Ranganathan, 2010
Conclusion This research attempts to unravel the institutional arrangements of informality and coping mechanisms which urban dwellers improvise when there is an insufficiency in the provision of utilities by the government. In the due course, it is also attempted to grasp the perspectives of the people on the diversity of water access options, both formal and informal. It follows from the findings that the institutional arrangements of informality are inaugurated when formal provisions of utilities are inadequate. People determine their everyday travails of drinking water through various routine procedures. The negotiated access to water consist of conflicts and clashes, people cavil about fights happening in the queue, skewed extraction from pipes by some, and so on. Apart from the water sources gained through local representation, a transfer of water through the market ensures that the service less sections meet their water needs. This can take the form of being charged for exchange such as by water vendors, or water given freely by some benevolent neighbours. This implies that there is an unequal access to
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water sources in close proximity, where water poor areas are surrounded by water rich localities in the precincts. The existence of substitutes for water access challenges the public utility’s position as the monolithic provider of water. The community and the people, public utilities serve, concoct and produce certain ingenious forms of water access themselves. The motive of most of the people resorting to informal and illegal activities is to redress the inequitable access and acquisition of social goods and service for achievement of services which are important to attain a decent standard of living. Another aim, according to Bayat, is to gain autonomy from the excessive regulations of the bureaucracy. The primary reason which drives people to engage in illegality is to survive, since this justifies all actions, to bring an improvement in the general lives of the people. Ultimately, what they strive for is a form of social justice in terms of access to basic goods, and attempt to achieve it on their own when the state fails to do so (Bayat, 2010: 60-65).  
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Solo, T. M. (2003). Independent water entrepreneurs in Latin America: the other private sector in water services. Washington, DC: World Bank. Swyngedouw, E. (2004). Social Power and the Urbanization of Water: Flows of Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press. United Nations Development Programme. (2011). Small-Scale Water Providers in Kenya: Pioneers or Predators? New York: United Nations Development Programme. Zug, S. and Graefe, O. (2014) The gift of water: Social redistribution of water among neighbours in Khartoum. Special Issue on Informal Space in the Urban Waterscape. Water Alternatives.
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Editorial Board Co-ordinator: Shreya Dixit Editors: Abhay Yadav, Abhishek Acharya, Akheela Ashraf, Ashwin Jangalapalli, Gopal Gajbhiye, Krishna Teja Inapudi, Rajasindhura Aravalli, Rajeev Agur, and Yeshwanth Kumar
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