Urban water supply and management

Abstract

Population growth and rapid urbanization lead to considerable stress on already depleting water resources. A great challenge for water authorities of urban cities is to supply adequate and reliable safe water to all consumers. In most of the developing countries water scarcity and high demands have led the water authorities to resort to intermittent supplies. Surface and groundwater are the major sources of supply in urban cities. The direct consequences of intermittent supplies and poor sanitation practices have led to the incidences of many water borne diseases thereby risking the public health. In order to minimize the supply-demand gap and to assure good quality of water, new techniques or models can be helpful to manage the water distribution systems (WDS) in a better way.  In the present paper, a review is carried out on the existing urban water supply management methodologies with a way forward for the proper management of the water supply systems.