India's urban water supply outlook

Overview

At the start of this decade, only 74 per cent of India’s urban population had access to safe drinking water. The situation is becoming critical as urban infrastructure struggles to keep up with accelerating growth in the number of city dwellers.

The government hopes to reach 100 per cent coverage by 2012, but achieving this will take huge investments and private sector participation. Even though roads, ports and power have begun to receive large amounts of private funding, urban...