Building Smart Water Communities: Technology and Institutions Toward Better Water

Abstract

This chapter focuses on water service in small communities in India and demonstrates how a combination of technological and institutional aspects can bring reliable service for a better quality of living that can be sustained in the long term. Based on analysis of field research, literature review, and interviews of professionals, researchers, and policymakers, this chapter argues that creative solutions can be developed to make improvements over key, urgent problems of basic water service. The unit of analysis is a community formed by a cluster of households that may be situated in urban, peri-urban or rural or remote areas. Through a study of specific mechanisms in such diverse communities in the states of Karnataka and Telangana, the chapter makes two arguments: one, how technology and institutional mechanisms can make for “smart water”; and two, how such mechanisms can help build “smart water communities”. The chapter describes what “smart water” and “smart water communities” mean and offers insights into building such communities through innovative ways of diversifying water resources and forming effective institutions toward better quality of life.