Assessing Coping Costs of ‘Unreliable’ Public Tap-Water Supply in Residential Typologies of Gurugram (India)

This paper attempts to understand the households’ coping/monetary costs associated with ‘unreliable’ public tap-water supply (quality and quantity) in various residential typologies identified in Gurugram. The study is based on the primary survey done through the technique of purposive or non-random sampling of 270 households in residential areas of Gurugram from 2014 to 2016. The study found that the residents or the water consumers of the Haryana Urban Development Authority supplied piped-water in Gurugram, in light of intermittent and unreliable piped-water supply, are consistently in practice of devising multiple domestic household methods/sources to meet their day-to-day domestic water needs. The study indicates that the domestic arrangements of water procurement have appreciably higher monetary costs than what the water consumers would have been paying for making the official supplied water reliable in form of monthly water bills. The results of the study suggest certain policy solutions so as to make public tap-water supply reliable in Gurugram.