In January 2015, SaciWATERs has undertaken a two and half year project entitled “Ensuring Water Security in Metropolitan Hyderabad: A study of Hydrological settings and Informal Institutional dynamics”, in order to understand the contribution of informal markets to the overall water security of Metropolitan Hyderabad. In order to go to the detail of informal water market, the project is studying the present status of groundwater around the city and how the present water usage can impact future water availability. In addition to studying institutional setup of informal markets, the organization of various line departments responsible for water supply and how it interacts with the informal market is also being studied. This will help to avoid institutional collective dilemma and bring in institutional convergence. Finally, a comparative cost-benefit analysis of the remotely accessed (from Krishna and Godavari) bulk water supply V/s a locally based water security system based on rain water harvesting, water conservation practices, etc is done.

This blog-series is part of the above-mentioned project. Through multiple blogs different project findings at different stages of the project, review of various existing literatures on the subject and field experiences of the research team will be shared. The target audience of the blog series is a wider group of readers who don’t have access to the peer-reviewed journals, or who have less technical knowledge to understand the complex dynamics of water market. The blog articles will also be useful for other civil society organizations, practitioners and policy makers who are working in the domain, but whose work may or may not be directly related to informal water market. The articles of the blog will also present a platform where anyone with knowledge or interest can contribute and keep the discussion going. The principal objective of the blog series is to highlight the issues that common people are facing concerning the sustainable management of the water, different impacts of informal water market and thus helping them to manage the natural resource i.e. water in a sustainable manner. By focusing the articles on the ongoing debate on informal water market, the blog series will attempt to raise awareness of common people regarding various issues of sustainable management of water resource.

To kick off the series, we will start with an analysis of different formal institutions responsible for the distribution of water in Hyderabad city and its surrounding areas (HMDA Area) and the role of institutional convergence in ensuring water security of households.

By Samir Bhattacharya, Sumit Vij, Poulomi Banerjee, Sai Kiran