Urban water demand management: prospects and challenges for the developing countries

As the traditional supply-driven urban water management is not sustainable, water utilities should embrace water demand management (WDM) measures to meet increasing water demand. Developed countries are using different technological and management measures to reduce urban water demand as a part of their integrated urban water management strategy. However, all these measures might not be directly applicable for the developing countries. Furthermore, the developing countries might not have access to the technologies and skilled manpower as well as institutional set-up to apply these measures properly. In this context, this paper reviews the different tools, techniques and measures of urban water demand management (UWDM) applied in the developed countries and critically analyses the prerequisites, prospects and constraints likely to be faced in developing countries in adopting these techniques and measures. Furthermore, it outlines a set of activities that will best help the developing countries in attaining the full benefit of UWDM.