Planning for Water Accessibility of Urban Poor Settlements: Case Study of Vijayawada City, Andhra Pradesh, India
Water is a central basic unit and vital for life. Access to a safe, affordable supply of water is universally recognized as a basic human need. For a large proportion of the world's population, to match water demand to its supply has become a big problem; it meant lack of provision of adequate water for domestic use especially in case of slums. It is thus very important to assess and evaluate their water resource availability, accessibility, capacity in using them properly. In order to achieve this, a more holistic approach needs to be adopted; efforts are being made to develop a water management tool known as the Water Poverty Index (WPI) The idea of WPI is to combine measures of water availability and access with measures of people's capacity to access water. Keeping the above said knowledge, the researcher has chosen the Vijayawada city, Andhra Pradesh, India, as study area for further investigation. The researcher analyzed the existing water supply distribution network in the study area, comprising of 111 notified slums, with three operational zones. The researcher has made an attempt to quantify the demand and supply of water supply and the study witnessed that there is a gap in demand and supply of water in slum pockets. In order to assess the water problems, WPI has been evolved for slum areas based on five slum specific key parameters, viz. Resources, Access, Capacity, Use and Environment. Out of 111 slums, 9 slums have been chosen to assess the slum water stress. Study reveals that resources and access are the two major constraint parameters which lead to water stress in slums. Based on the findings of the research study, the researcher has made an attempt to develop water accessibility mapping and recommended appropriate planning strategies, which can facilitate better water supply accessibility network in