Better Water Supply Will Increase Urban Land Supply

According to World Resources Institute, 54 per cent of India suffers from high to extremely high water stress. This can be an important barrier to the government's 'Housing for All by 2022', arguably the most ambitious affordable housing scheme in the world.

Even as the world celebrates World Water Day, PropGuide looks at why improving water supply fits neatly into the goal of making housing affordable in India.

When there is less investment in water supply in the periphery or suburban areas, for example, there will be a shortage of urban land. Why so? When water supply is not efficient in the periphery, the amount of developable land in a city will be lower. When there is less developable land in a city, land in and around the centre will be more expensive. At the same time, wealthy households will bid up the price of real estate in central areas of the city. So, urban land shortage will lead to a housing shortage, which will, in turn, increase rent and housing prices. In such cases, it may make more sense to build water mains than to build new housing projects, because it is more effective to do so. Often, affordable housing schemes of governments do not work because they fail to take such a cross-sectoral approach. 

Water supply is also an important measure of housing quality. Consider the huge variance in the price of a 1,000-square-foot (sq ft) house in one area with proper water supply, sewerage networks and easy access to Metro lines and other transportation networks, and another area that lacks such facilities. 

Though the government measures improvement in housing standards by estimating how the consumption of floor space has improved, this may not be reasonable. The government emphasises floor space consumption more than the consumption of urban services like water supply, sanitation and transportation. This is why urban planners often point out that before undertaking missions like 'Housing for All', the government should measure the quality of urban services consumed, including water supply.