Against the flow

Urban water crisis demands alternative management

Bengaluru’s intensifying water shortage this year is being seen as a prelude to the fate of urban India in the not so distant future. How a city that once boasted an abundance of natural lakes and adequate groundwater aquifers has come to this predicament is a cautionary tale of poor water-supply management. Chennai and Hyderabad have faced similar problems in the recent past, and up north the red signals have been blinking for the information-technology and services hub of Gurugram since 2013. Most other emerging urban conglomerates appear to follow similar water-exploitation templates, pointing to a national water emergency in