Access to Water in Urban Areas- Indian and French Experiences

The research that led to the publication of this volume was initiated as part of the university cooperation programme ARCUS 2006-2008: India, developed by the Rhone-Alpes Region and French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and coordinated by the University of Grenoble, Grenoble, France.

The water resources in the Indian cities of Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai are mismanaged as against a healthy scenario in the French city of Grenoble. As a solution to the issue, the WATER-UP model has been discussed with its application to the Indian cities.

The pros and cons of various policy approaches with their national and international experiences have also been discussed at length as appropriate options to the Indian situation.

This volume which looks at the problem of access to water in urban and peri-urban areas of Indian and French metropolises will be invaluable for scholars of urban studies, development, environment and resource conservation, as well as for administrators and policy makers and persons responsible for water resources management.

The contributors include Anastasia Angueletou-Marteau, Mahfoud Boudis, Yves Saillard, Gundappa Sathyanarayana Sastry, Sivaraman Vanathy and Lingappam Venkatachalam.

Yves Saillard is a Research Fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France. Dr Saillard's areas of specialization are social policy, analysis of effective access to public goods and benefits, with particular interest in institutions and norms, and the autonomy of individual behaviour.

Gundappa Sathyanarayana Sastry is a Senior Fellow at Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), Government of India, New Delhi. Dr Sastry was a visiting professor at LEPII, CNRS, Grenoble, France; Indo-French Visiting Fellow, Sir Ratan Tata Trust Fellow and Sastry Indo-Canadian Visiting Fellow. Dr Sastry's areas of specialization are urbanization, environment and natural resources economics, water resources, environmental policy. sustainable urban, regional and mountain area development.

The research, 'Water Territories and Sustainable Development: Access to Water in Peri-urban Areas', that led to the publication of this book was initiated as part of the university cooperation programme ARCUS 2006-2008 — India, developed by the Rhone-Alpes Region and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and coordinated by the University of Grenoble. Support was also received in 2006-7 and 2007-8 from the Rhone-Alpes International Mobility Scholarship Programme (MIRA, Mobilite Internationale Rhone-Alpes) for a research project entitled 'Prospective Analysis of Water Supply and Demand in Urban and Peri-urban Areas of Bengaluru and Comparative Analysis of the Situation in Mumbai and Bengaluru'.

Research undertaken by Anastasia Angueletou in the context of her doctoral thesis entitled 'Access to Water in the Peri-urban Areas of Mumbai: Water Poverty and New Urban Governance' provided an opportunity for the initial contacts with India. The study used interviews and questionnaires completed by households to examine access to water in the north, north-east and south-east peri-urban areas of Mumbai. It was funded by a scholarship from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the support of the Centre for Human Sciences (CSH) in New Delhi. The publication of the book in English was funded by the Consulate General of France in Bengaluru, India.

Under the ARCUS programme, a cooperative research project was set up between members of the Institute of International Integration and Production Economics (LEPII UMR 5252 CNRS — Universite Pierre Mendes France, Grenoble) and members of the Institute for Social and Economic Change in Bengaluru. In addition to fieldwork in India and France by members of both institutes, academic exchanges were also developed as part of the programme, notably with Professor L. Venkatachalam (Madras University), who was invited to spend two months in Paris in 2007 with the support of the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme-Paris. Professor G.S. Sastry spent two months in Grenoble in November and December 2008, with the support of the Universite Pierre Mendes France and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme-Alpes.