To save water or not? : A study of water scarcity at multiple levels, and people's attitudestowards it in Bangalore, India

• Main Author: Bognäs, Désirée
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för naturgeografi och kvartärgeologi (INK) 2011
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-59320

In a situation where population growth and development is to be sustained throughnaturally limited water resources, something needs to be done to either render waterusage more effective or make more water available. This is the situation in Bangalore Urban District (BUD), an ever growing city lying far from perennial water sources. This thesis presents the water situation in BUD, and aims to analyze the current status of water resources on multiple levels in BUD. Further the aim is to look at people‘s attitudes towards water scarcity. The methods used are literature studies and semistructured interviews. The study shows that there is a lack of water in relation to the population on basin level, creating the perquisites for water scarcity. Even so, the water stress on city level does not seem to be a direct effect off the water scarcity on basin level, but rather a result of inefficient governance and inadequate infrastructure. This means that to solve the issue, the governing entities in BUD must firstly look at improving the situation on city level rather than focusing on Water Supply Managementon basin level. The perception of this problem varies among people in BUD, and the perception of water stress in relation to the most favorable incentives to care which are a combination of personal and common good incentives, can affect household‘s water behavior. The significance of these results is that people‘s attitudes towards water resources will affect how they handle and use water. Through further research this knowledge can be vital to understanding how to achieve behavioral changes that can lover usage in a growing city like Bangalore.