Urban water governance is a challenging issue, globally. Questions are often raised about the viability of the existing practices and a new paradigm of integrated urban water management is proposed. Overcoming spatial differentiation in service delivery, providing quality service, and devising measures for source sustainability are emerging challenges of urban water management in Thiruvananthapuram city. Despite strong commitment to decentralisation, water management is fragmented and centralised with little role for the city authority. Applicability of integrated urban water management concept has been examined in the case Thiruvananthapuram city. It is suggested that participatory polycentric governance may be developed considering the city and the hinterlands and necessary space may be created to debate and evolve alternative urban water management practices suitable for the city.
Srikumar Chattopadhyay and Harilal K.N. (2021), “Water Governance in Thiruvananthapuram City, Kerala: Existing Practices and Alternative Paradigms” in Baleshwar Thakur, Rajiv R. Thakur, Srikumar Chattopadhyay and Rajesh K. Abhay (Eds.) Resource Management, Sustainable Development and Governance: Indian and International Perspectives, Springer
K N Harilal 