The problem and prospects of water utilization in Hyderabad metropolitan region

Not AvailableWith more than four million residents, the city of Hyderabad is the capital of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (Figure 1). It is India’s seventh largest city and one of its fastest growing. Over the last two decades, the city’s population has expanded at an average rate of over three percent per annum; more recently, this rate has increased to 5.6% per year. Now, every ten years, 2.2 million more people come to reside in Hyderabad. By 2020, it is expected that its population will reach 11 million.1 Andhra Pradesh’s dynamic young Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu, likes to take credit for both the growth and the increasing productivity of Hyderabad. Ever since he took power in 1995, Naidu pursued an aggressive strategy of modernization and technology-based development. He hoped to steal the mantle of “Software Capital of India” away from the city of Bangalore, capital of neighboring Karnataka. Recognizing that Hyderabad lacks Bangalore’s numerous universities and defense research centers, Naidu aggressively targeted technologybased businesses to locate in his state’s capital by promising to provide them world-class infrastructure. Among Naidu’s major successes were luring Microsoft to establish its Indian headquarters in Hyderabad in 1998 and hosting US President Bill Clinton during his whirlwind visit to India in 2000. Naidu is proud of his achievements, but he is also worried about the ability of his city to cope with the roughly 250,000 new people that relocate to Hyderabad each year. He is particularly concerned about fulfilling his promise of providing high-quality infrastructure to firms and households. A combination of heavily subsidized pricing for public services and a lack of adequate investment funds has put tremendous pressure on Hyderabad’s public agencies. For several years, Naidu has led a reform effort in Hyderabad’s public service agencies, encouraging government employees to become more customer-oriented and professional in their performance. In his re-election campaign of 1999, Naidu pursued a strategy novel in Indian politics by openly promising better public services in exchange for higher tariffs—a pledge that won him re-election. Although many of Naidu’s reforms have improved performance in Hyderabad’s public agencies, they have not fully addressed the key challenge of expanding infrastructure to keep pace with the rapidly growing city. With encouragement from the World Bank, Naidu has become convinced that privatization of key utilities is the most expedient solution to Hyderabad’s impending infrastructure crisis.Not Availabl