Water Infrastructure

Water infrastructure is an essential element in water management. Together with institutions, policies and regulation, it provides basic services to growing populations, especially in developing countries, where much of the growth is taking place. In the Asia-Pacific region, for instance, populations are growing not only in size but also in affluence, straining further the existing infrastructure and demanding urgently the development of a new one. While 79% of total water use in Asia occurs in agriculture, the fastest increases in demand are emanating from industry and from urban areas. This trend is a natural consequence of the fastest industrialization and urbanization process in history. By 2030, more than 55% of Asia's population will live in urban areas, an increase of 1.1 billion people. Nevertheless, water infrastructure is of concern not only in the global South but also in the North, where much of the drinking-water infrastructure needs upgrading or replacement, a significant undertaking as infrastructure is more than a hundred years old in many cases. The American Water Works Association estimates that changing all of the water pipes in the United States would cost more than USD 1 trillion. In this book, in-depth case studies on water infrastructure challenges and policy solutions are presented from different parts of the world. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Water Resources Development.

Cecilia Tortajada is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Water Policy, National University of Singapore. Asit K. Biswas is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.

Foreword Kishore Mahbubani 1. Infrastructure and development Cecilia Tortajada and Asit K. Biswas 2. Water infrastructure as an essential element for human development Cecilia Tortajada 3. The worldwide urban water and wastewater infrastructure challenge Michael Rouse 4. Is water scarcity a constraint to feeding Asia's growing population? Colin Chartres 5. Water services industry reforms in Malaysia Yen Hua Teo 6. Water infrastructure in China: the importance of full project life-cycle cost analysis in addressing water challenges Shuping Lu 7. Water infrastructure for the Hindu Kush Himalayas David James Molden, Ramesh Ananda Vaidya, Arun Bhakta Shrestha, Golam Rasul and Mandira Singh Shrestha 8. The Gujarat State-Wide Water Supply Grid: a step towards water security Andrea Biswas-Tortajada 9. Positive externalities of irrigation from the Sardar Sarovar Project for farm production and domestic water supply M. Dinesh Kumar, S. Jagadeesan and M.V.K. Sivamohan 10. Environmental over enthusiasm Chetan Pandit 11. The changing role of hydropower: from cheap local energy supply to strategic regional resource Jacob Snell, Daniel Prowse and Ken Adams 12. Interbasin water transfers at the US - Mexico border city of Nogales, Sonora: implications for aquifers and water security Andrea Harrop Prichard and Christopher A. Scott 13. The 2012 Murray-Darling Basin Plan - issues to watch James Horne 14. Environmental water management in Australia: experience from the Murray-Darling Basin Benjamin Docker and Ian Robinson