Demand Supply Gap in Urban Water Supply and Sanitary Services- A Case Study of Mangalore City Corporation Area

Abstract

Today, some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitations. These twin deficits were rooted in institutions and political choices, not in water’s availability. Household water requirements represent a tiny fraction of water use, usually less than 5% of the total, but there is tremendous inequality in access to clean water and to sanitation at a household level. In high-income areas of cities in Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa people enjoy access to several hundred litres of water a day delivered into their homes at low prices by public utilities. Meanwhile, slum dwellers and poor households in rural areas of the same countries have access to much less than the 20 litres of water a day per person required to meet the most basic human needs. Women and young girls carry a double burden of disadvantage, since they are the ones who sacrifice their time and their education to collect water.