Water Governance in Peri-Urban Areas

UPSC Syllabus: GS paper 1: Issues related to water resources And Gs Paper 3- Infrastructure

Introduction

India has expanded rural tap water access through the Jal Jeevan Mission, with nearly 8 out of 10 rural households receiving connections. Yet a major governance gap exists in peri-urban areas, where villages are rapidly transforming into urban settlements without adequate infrastructure or institutions. These regions face irregular water supply, groundwater pollution, poor sanitation, and weak accountability. As India urbanises rapidly, peri-urban areas have become the “missing middle” that will shape the country’s future water security and urban sustainability.

Understanding the Rise of Peri-Urban India

1. Growth of transitional settlements: Peri-urban areas are spaces where farmland and scattered villages gradually turn into industrial zones and dense settlements. Between 2001 and 2011, the number of Census towns in India increased from 1,362 to 3,784, reflecting rapid peri-urban expansion.
2. Neither fully rural nor urban: These settlements are no longer villages, but they are also not fully recognised as cities. This creates an institutional gap where proper water and sanitation services remain weak.
3. Blurring rural-urban boundaries: Rural and urban activities now exist together in the same space. Agricultural land, village ponds, malls, gated colonies, and industries often coexist within the same settlement.
4. Peri-urban spaces as ecosystems: Peri-urban areas are not only land around cities. Wetlands, coastal belts, mangroves, estuaries, and mountain regions facing urban pressure also experience similar water insecurity and resource stress.
5. Rapid urban expansion pressure: By 2047, India will require 230 million new housing units and nearly 500 new cities. Today’s peri-urban fringe will become tomorrow’s urban centre.

Major Water and Sanitation Challenges

1. Irregular and unequal water supply: Many peri-urban households receive water only at limited hours or on alternate days. People often depend on private water vendors because public supply remains unreliable.
2. Governance vacuum and weak accountability: Peri-urban regions fall between rural and urban administrations. In many places, residents pay urban-level costs but still do not receive proper urban services.
3. Pollution and groundwater contamination: Waste dumping and untreated sewage contaminate groundwater in peri-urban regions. Toxic leachate from waste sites damages local water sources and public health.
4. Rural water diverted toward cities: Cities increasingly draw water from nearby rural areas and dams. This reduces water availability for farmers and creates unequal sharing of water resources.
5. Poor septage and sanitation management: Nearly 40 million households in urban and peri-urban areas depend on septic tanks and onsite sanitation systems. Irregular desludging and illegal dumping of septage into rivers and open land continue on a large scale.
6. Encroachment of water commons: Urban expansion often takes over ponds, tanks, lakes, and local water bodies. Groundwater extraction for urban use further weakens peri-urban water security.
7. Diverse and changing water access systems: People access water through many formal and informal systems such as tankers, ponds, groundwater, and wastewater reuse. These changing arrangements make water access unequal and unstable.

Long-Term Risks of Neglecting Peri-Urban Areas

1. Future urban crisis zones: Unplanned peri-urban growth can create long-term water shortages, flooding, pollution, and sanitation problems. Weak planning today may create permanent urban stress later.
2. Loss of local ecosystems: Continuous land conversion damages wetlands, recharge zones, ponds, and grazing lands. This reduces natural water storage and increases environmental vulnerability.
3. Growing social and economic inequality: Poor communities suffer the most from irregular water access and pollution. Farmers and rural households often lose water resources to expanding urban demand.
4. Increasing climate and flood risks: Rapid construction reduces natural drainage systems. Heavy rainfall then leads to flash floods and declining groundwater recharge.
5. Dynamic nature of peri-urban water access: Water sources in peri-urban regions constantly change because of urban expansion, tanker supply, groundwater extraction, and wastewater reuse. This makes water governance difficult and uneven.

Measures Needed for Effective Water Governance

1. Stronger local governance structures: State governments should establish Nagar Panchayats for Census towns under the 74th Constitutional Amendment. Governance reforms should improve coordination, accountability, and administrative capacity.
2. Limits of formal urban governance: Simply bringing peri-urban areas under urban authorities may not solve water problems. Existing informal systems and local governance arrangements also play an important role in water access.
3. Network-based governance approach: Water governance should involve local communities, civil society groups, engineers, and non-state actors along with governments. Existing local water systems should not be ignored.
4. Protection of water sources: Catchments, ponds, recharge areas, and local water bodies must be protected from encroachment and waste dumping. Community-led sanitary inspections can improve source sustainability.
5. Swachh Bharat Mission 3.0 for peri-urban sanitation: A dedicated peri-urban sanitation strategy should focus on faecal sludge and septage management. GPS-equipped desludging trucks and faecal sludge treatment plants can reduce illegal dumping.
6. Decentralised wastewater treatment systems: Start-ups such as Indra Water and Tigreen have developed modular systems that recover over 95% of wastewater using limited land and energy.
7. Support for green technologies and financing: Government support, public procurement, and policy clearances are needed to scale decentralised treatment technologies. Blended finance models like the Uttarakhand approach can support peri-urban infrastructure.
8. Nature-Based Solutions for water security: Deep retention ponds, bioswales, and rainfall parks can reduce flash floods and recharge groundwater. Long-term legal clarity is needed for ownership, funding, and maintenance of these eco-corridors.
9. Dynamic assessment of water security: Peri-urban water conditions change rapidly because water sources constantly shift or disappear. Water governance should therefore focus on people’s lived experiences and changing access patterns instead of only numerical indicators.

Conclusion

Peri-urban India stands at the centre of the country’s emerging water crisis. Rapid urban expansion, weak institutions, pollution, and unequal access are increasing pressure on these transitional regions. Better local governance, protection of water ecosystems, improved sanitation systems, decentralised treatment technologies, and community participation are necessary to prevent peri-urban spaces from becoming long-term zones of water insecurity.

Question for practice:

Examine the major water governance challenges in peri-urban areas and discuss the measures needed to ensure sustainable water security in these regions.

Source: The Hindu