Muddling Through to Uphold the Right to Water? An Examination of Delhi's Free Water Policy

This dissertation questions the prevailing strategy adopted by governments to uphold the right to water by subsidizing it or providing it for free. By examining the case of Delhi’s free water policy using quantitative and qualitative methods, this dissertation lends support for more grounded approaches for transitioning towards more equitable and sustainable water management. It also demonstrates methods for using economic frameworks and quantitative analysis to effectively involve the public in prioritizing investments at a city scale. The first paper utilizes a stated preference technique, Best-Worst Scaling Case 2 (profile case), from a survey of 728 households in Delhi to elicit people’s preferences for subsidies as compared to their desire for improvements to piped-water services. In the exercise, respondents were asked to choose what they found the best and worst aspects of different hypothetical water service profiles that were made up of two water policies: 1) the water subsidy, and 2) the provision of household piped-water connections in slums, as well as three aspects of water service provision representing: 1) the time of the day water would be provided, 2) the billing frequency, and 3) water quality testing. The analysis of the choices using multinomial logit models provides quantitative measures to compare the differences in utilities for the different aspects of the water services. The second paper uses Best-Worst Scaling Case 1 (object case) to derive a framework for equitable distribution of water subsidies in Delhi. Respondents were shown a subset of four out of six water subsidy targeting strategies along with the option for the current subsidy policy. Respondents were asked one of two versions of a question asking them to choose subsidy policies in terms of fairness or as per their preferences for implementation. The third paper is based on semi-structured interviews with 27 landlords and renters who share water connections in Delhi. Using a property rights framework and Sen’s entitlements approach, typologies of informal water sharing arrangements and water payment arrangements are identified, as well as factors affecting the water payment arrangements between landlords and renters.