Abstract
Bangalore and Chennai are two Indian cities thought by many to be moving toward a ‘Day Zero’ scenario. In this chapter, the authors show that rapid, unregulated urbanization and a population explosion pose serious challenges to water-secure futures. Furthermore, the expansive presence of quasi-legal water economies and the colonial legacy of high-modern water management practices impact water resources and their distribution, exacerbated by the unpredictable effects of climate change. This has created a fragmented stakeholder landscape, resulting in suboptimal, disjointed efforts to achieve urban water security that do not reflect the realities on the ground. The incorporation of the Integrated Water Resources Management framework into water management is an important first step and greater collaboration between stakeholders, particularly community-level actors, is critical to avoid ‘Day Zero’ scenarios and build water-secure futures in Bangalore and Chennai.
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Hossain, A.T., MacMurchy, K., Shah, J., Swatuk, L. (2022). Creating Water-Secure Futures in Megacities: A Comparative Case Study of ‘Day Zero’ Cities—Bangalore and Chennai. In: Swatuk, L., Cash, C. (eds) The Political Economy of Urban Water Security under Climate Change . International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08108-8_5
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