Urban Water Crisis in Delhi: Stakeholders Responses and Potential Scenarios of Evolution

This paper proposes to question this conventional diagnosis with a case study of the capital city of India, Delhi. Based on this case study, the paper shows that the scenario of convergence towards universal access to potable water supply through a centralized public network is not the only long term scenario that can take place in developing cities similar to Delhi. Considering alternative scenarios, in which private coping systems play a role in shaping the long term technical trajectory of the urban water management system, allow the highlighting of certain important policy tools in achieving the sustainability of water management in developing cities.