Water Supply in Selected Mega Cities of Asia

Abstract

Adequate and reliable sources of water supply are essential for the economic progress of urban and regional centers. In developed countries like the United States the growth of cities such as Phoenix in Arizona, Las Vegas in Nevada and the cities of California may eventually be limited by the lack of adequate water supply. The harsh politics of water supply control and development in western United States has recently been addressed by the book, Cadillac Desert (Reisner, 1986). The developing countries of Asia, containing the world’s largest numbers of people, also lack adequate supplies of water. They are primarily dependent on natural sources of water and thus suffer from strong seasonality and insufficiency of rainfall. Thus Asian cities are faced with increasing water supply and water quality problems. These issues, critical to the preservation of health and development of modern economies, have to be addressed and taken care of by planners at all levels — local, regional, national, or international.