Presentation short abstract

Although surface-water dominance, rooted in the Centralised Piped Water Supply model, shapes urban water governance, cities extensively rely on invisible groundwater for daily needs. This dependence is not temporary or transitory but adaptive, demanding groundwater’s formal recognition in policy.

Presentation long abstract

This paper critically examines the surface-water–dominated discourse of urban water supply and argues that its hegemony originates in the technocratic model of the Centralised Piped Water Supply (CPWS) system. Rooted in Chadwick’s sanitary reform ideas, this model evolved in Europe, was transplanted through colonial regimes across the global South, and remains the default paradigm of urban water management. The CPWS imaginary—built around distant sources, long-distance conveyance, centralised treatment, and piped distribution—structurally privileges large surface water reservoirs. Over more than a century and a half, this model has accumulated an entrenched professional, institutional, and technological legacy that reinforces the perceived superiority and reliability of surface water while marginalising decentralised groundwater.

However, this dominance is increasingly challenged in practice. Analysis of water use patterns in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai reveals a growing reliance on groundwater, facilitated by borewell drilling and point-of-use water treatment technologies. Alongside piped supply, residents use wells, borewells, and handpumps or purchase tanker and packaged drinking water—most of which is groundwater. Household surveys indicate that 62% households in Kolkata and 92% in Chennai, across socio-economic groups, rely on groundwater for part of their domestic water needs. Despite a more than a century-old state-led expansion of surface-water-fed CPWS systems, groundwater use remains substantial and often comparable to CPWS.

The paper argues that groundwater dependence should not be viewed as temporary and transitory but as an adaptive advantage amid rising demand and climatic uncertainty. Recognising groundwater’s centrality requires a shift in policy discourse and its formal integration into urban water governance.