Understanding Geographies of Water Accessibility in Hyderabad

Aims: Through the lens of dynamic change in the city’s waterscape, this paper examines Hyderabad’s global aspiration and the ways it impacts water provisions and accessibility issues for the poor locals.

Study Design: This paper is based on descriptive research design accompanied by surveys and qualitative interviews.

Place and Duration of Study: Hyderabad (India). While the surveys and majority of qualitative interviews were done during December 2013, a few more follow-up fieldwork related observations and discussions were conducted during September 2015.

Methodology: This paper is based on qualitative human geography methods – largely consisting of fieldwork observations, application of visual methods, surveys and personal interviews in Hyderabad.

Results: Hyderabad in India provides an interesting account of this trend of neoliberal developments where poor local farmers are pushed out from their land to make way for a world-class knowledge corridor, popularly known as Cyberabad. The processes of worlding have also impacted the larger environment and sustainability issues of the city – from encroaching lakes for real-estate developments to privatizing the water provisions leading to exacerbating accessibility challenges.

Conclusions: This paper concludes that while the state government was able to map Hyderabad into the global map as a high-tech and smart destination, access to basic water supply is increasingly getting skewed towards benefiting the elites and alienating the poor. There is an urgent need for policy makers to address the challenges of water provision and (in) accessibility.