C.Ramachandraiah: Urban Water and Inequality in India. March, 2000.

The main beneficiaries of the highly subsidized amenity of water supply in urban areas are the upper and middle classes and they are less inclined to pay for the service despite growing cost of its provision. Lack of access for the urban poor to a vital facility like water does not evoke more than lip sympathy despite proclamations to the contrary in the policy documents. The accentuation of metropolitan growth over time and pollution of water sources meant that water had to be drawn from longer distances at increasing cost which seems to find favour with the ruling elite. Water scarcity is made to appear "natural" and a flourishing business of water seems to be on the rise. Issues like differential pricing of water and levying higher charges on the well-to-do sections do not figure prominently in the debates on treating water as an economic good in India. With the targets for total coverage getting postponed as usual in successive five year plans, the urban poor may have to put up with lesser supplies, polluted water and suffer from morbidity, large number of deaths of children and loss of earnings for a long time (Working paper No. 37).