Mukherjee, Sacchidananda; Chakraborty, Debashis --- "Demand for infrastructure investment for water services: key features and assessment methods" [2017] ELECD 333; in Chaisse, Julien (ed), "Charting the Water Regulatory Future" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 257

Book Title: Charting the Water Regulatory Future

Editor(s): Chaisse, Julien

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781785366710

Section: Chapter 13

Section Title: Demand for infrastructure investment for water services: key features and assessment methods

Author(s): Mukherjee, Sacchidananda; Chakraborty, Debashis

Number of pages: 40

Abstract/Description:

With the rise in the global population, the demand for safe drinking water, the lifeline of human civilization, is simultaneously growing. Projecting future demand for water has thereby become particularly important given the growing pressure on this natural resource. Amarasinghe and Smakhtin have noted that the present average per capita domestic water withdrawals have already crossed the projected ‘business as usual’ scenario developed for 2025, which, even discounting for a possible underestimation, is a matter of serious concern. The urgency of fulfilling this ever-expanding ‘thirst’ have been duly acknowledged in Target 7. C of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which intends to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. Reaching the MDG target on time is crucial in global development cooperation architecture owing to the fact that the implementation experience will provide important lessons to the countries to achieve universal access to improved water supply and sanitation (WSS) facilities by 2030, as per Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aspires to, ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.