A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development

Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1998

Over the past few decades, the accelerated growth in urban areas widened the gap in the delivery of urban services, like water supply, sanitation, solid waste disposal etc., especially to low-income settlements. New approaches have emerged in recent years to attain sustainability of the infrastructure in urban areas with increasing beneficiary community involvement in planning and management. The present study aims at identifying appropriate methods of planning, financing and implementation of community infrastructure systems, particularly water supply and sewerage system for a low-income settlement, Sastrynagar of Chennai. Lessons drawn from the successful implementation of Slum Networking Project in the City of Ahmedabad are incorporated in the proposed management system for Chennai. The micro level analysis conducted addressed the design issues in water supply and sewerage and their integration with the citywide systems. The financial analysis in the form of a simple water tariff model is proposed that can be used by the community for fixing the water tariff through its registered society. Mechanisms to address legal and institutional issues are provided to make the community play a major role in the decision making process through the formation of a registered society with a legal status. The study deals with the complex issues of ownership of land, assets and the institutional roles in proposed system. A framework is proposed which adopts community initiatives with citywide plans when multiple agencies are involved in service delivery.