Data for Water Services Provision in Rapidly Urbanising Villages - A Comparison of Rural and Urban Governance in Mumbai and Chennai regions in India

This work presents a quantitative study comparing drinking water services available to households in three types of towns in different stages of transition from rural to urban, located in close proximity : • Young Census Town (young CT): recently urbanised and under rural governance. • Old Census Town (old CT): urbanising for a longer period, still under rural governance. • Statutory Town (ST): under urban governance. From each of the two metropolitan regions of India, Mumbai and Chennai, three such towns were selected for study, resulting in a total of six towns. In addition to town-level analysis, the study also examines water services available to three settlement types within these metropolitan regions: low-income settlements, long-term resident settlements, and multi-storied apartments. Parameters and Indicators of Water Supply The data includes four principal parameters of water supply, each measured through specific indicators: 1. Accessibility -Measured by whether the principal water source is located within the household premises. -This is a nominal variable. -Additional data include the type of primary source accessed by the household. 2. Quantity of Water Available Assessed through two indicators: (i) Whether the household receives sufficient quantity for daily needs(the bare minimum scenario). (ii) Whether the household receives the required quantity whenever needed (the best-case scenario). -Both are nominal variables. -Supplementary data include reliance on supplementary sources and reasons for such dependence. 3. Regularity of Supply Measured through: (i) Average number of hours water is available per day. (ii) Average number of days water is available per week. -These are quantitative variables. -Additional insights were gathered on household water storage practices, reasons for storing water, and details of storage infrastructure. 4. Reliability of Supply -Measured as the average number of breakdowns per month. -This is a quantitative variable. Analytical Approach Hypothesis testing was employed to examine whether town type or settlement type has a significant influence on these variables. For quantitative variables, the Kruskal-Wallis test was applied. To test whether the town type has any association with the nominal variables, a Chi-square test was employed. Structure of Data Sets The analysis was conducted separately for Mumbai and Chennai, resulting in four datasets: 1. A master dataset for the Mumbai region used for descriptive analysis 2. A master dataset for the Chennai region used for descriptive analysis 3. A subset of the Mumbai master dataset used for hypothesis testing 4. A subset of the Chennai master dataset used for hypothesis testing EP/S022066/1