Although Asia is the least urbanized continent, it contains half of the world’s megacities and many of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Urban growth is already stressing local water supplies and causing intense conflict among water users—between haves and have-nots in urban areas as well as between farmers and fishers outside the cities. In addition, concern is growing over the depletion and degradation of water sources and over the impact of water policies and patterns of water use on the natural environment. From the perspective of the maturing metropolitan water economy, the contributors to this volume consider the problems of urban water management in the region. They focus on the institutional and policy dimensions of conflict and seek to provide a range of viable options for reducing the growing frictions among water users. Eight specific case studies of urban areas in Asia and the Pacific span a wide range of economic levels of development, physical settings, and hydrological conditions. The book will be of interest to scholars and policymakers concerned with issues of water and environmental policy, urban management, and resource conflict in general.
