Adapting to periurban water insecurity induced by urbanization and climate change: insights from South Asia

This paper describes how urbanization and climate change shape water security in four periruban locations in South Asia. Urbanization processes create new demands for periurban water sources and create competition as well as opportunities for conflict. These arise from the links between land tenure and water security, the acquisition of village land and water sources to support urban expansion and the physical flows of water from rural and periurban areas to the city. The effects of these are aggravated by changes in climatic variables such as frequency and intensity of rainfall, occurrence of extreme events, sea level rise and salinity intrusion. The paper then descibes the sociotechnical mediation of water insecurity through technological and institutional innovation by water users as well as changes in household level practices for water use and agriculture. The paper argues for straddling the rural-urban divide in planning for water resources and promoting research to understand the social, institutional and agro-ecological context of adaptation interventions.