quenching the thirst of mega cities

cities develop around rivers/lakes, i.e., assured perennial water sources.
delhi - yamuna
mumbai - mithi
chennai - cooum
kolkata - hooghly
and so on.

in addition to such water sources, there were innumerable tanks and wells which served individual homes and small clusters.

over years of neglect, accumulation of sewage, crunch for space, etc., these water bodies have been corrupted beyond imagination.

this has mandated cities to reach out to the hinterlands for their water supply. and this usually gets done by damming rivers.
for e.g., mumbai gets its water from over 150 kms away.

and now it is delhi's turn to head out even further - to himachal pradesh.
and dams (regular readers will recognise that i am anti-big dams) will cause people displacement and displacement will cause discontent which one cannot control.

cities need to work towards storing the water they receive via rain, clean up and maintain their rivers/lakes and i think most critically, stop flushing down clean drinking water down the toilet.

else, big pipes are easy targets for venting discontent...