ACCCRN – City Vulnerability Assessment Report 26
The most important source of water for the city of Indore is the Narmada Water Supply Project which is pumped about 70 kms. The estimated water availability for the city is of the
order of 199.5 MLD at maximum and 171 MLD at minimum to serve over 1.5 million population. The actual situation is much less with estimated per capita availability of around
84 lpcd at maximum and 72 lpcd at minimum. The water supply in the city is unsatisfactory on account of high losses and inefficiencies in the system Dzikus, 2003.
The growth of urban population, estimated at 4 to 5 per annum, has significant influence on water demand and exerting pressures on the available water sources, leading to over
exploitation of groundwater resources. Around 68 per cent of city’s population receives water between one or two hours every alternative day, while the other areas augment supplies by
private water tankers and government and private borewells. The market forces have grown stronger replacing the usual mechanism of water provision by the municipality. Unaccounted
for water UFW as per IMC is not less than 50. This takes into account of leakages and wastage, losses in transmission, unauthorized connections etc. The Narmada Phase III is
under implementation and the project is expected to increase Narmada Water Supply to a tune of 365MLD from current 180MLD. The project is planned ambitiously and the CDP
report of Indore states that the project planned will fulfill the requirement of the population of 2039, whereas it is hard to believe the projections-given the current trends in water
management by the stakeholderscitizens and the overriding climate change phenomena. If one observes the current issues, the water supply problem in the city of Indore is attributed
more to the lack of infrastructure and current management practices rather than lack of water availability Dzikus, 2003.
4.4 Demography
The population of the city increased from 57,235 in the year 1911 to 1.6 million in 2001 as shown in Table 3 below:
Table 3: Population Trends
Year Population
Area MC Sq.km
Decadal Variation
Population Density psq.km
1901 99,880
- -
1911 57,235
- -42.7
- 1921
107,948 -
88.6 -
1931 147,100
- 36.27
- 1941
203,695 -
38.47 -
1951 310,859
- 52.61
- 1961
359,000 55.8
15.61 6,433.6
1971 572,622
- 59.60
- 1981
829,327 -
44.68 -
1991 1,104,000
130.1 29.86
8,481.2 2001
1,639,000 130.1
48.46 11,857.2
Source: Census of India 2001
On an average, the growth rate has been of the order of 40. Thus the average population growth increase for Indore has been higher as compared to the national growth rate 22,
which can be attributed directly to rapid urbanization of the city. It is observed that the
ACCCRN – City Vulnerability Assessment Report 27
increase in population of 1991-2001 has been phenomenal. This is attributed to the industrial and commercial development in the Indore planning area. The population projections for the
Indore planning area for the year 2011 shall be 2.53million and 3.67million in 2021. In the next 15 years population of Indore will increase by about more than 1.5 times Population
projections referred from IDP 2011 draft. The city experts anticipate numbers beyond the projections mentioned for the year 2011.
Population density ranges from 100 personsha in the peripheral areas to as high as 1028 persons per ha in the core of the city. Migration is another dynamic factor which is catalysing
the future population growth of the city. There are no direct figures which suggest the migration rate or its pattern. A large number of people from small and medium towns come
to Indore in search of jobs and livelihoods. These trends have not been studied and therefore in many of the projections these numbers are not accounted. This increase of population
growth in the city has tremendous impact on the housing needs and provision of basic services, especially to the poor.
Indore has a large floating population due its strategic location, educational and medical service sector, and being the only major city in the Western Madhya Pradesh. The hinterland
includes some of the poorest, hilly areas with large proportion of tribal population. With low literacy rates and skill levels, these rural migrants are unable to command sufficient wages
and are forced to stay in slums.
As per the real estate planners, About 100,000 additional houses annually are required to meet the growing housing demands of the city. This amounts to nearly half a million
population requiring housing, which may include people wanting to renew their houses along with new demand. If the city continues to grow at 48 or more per decade, water crisis will
be perpetual over the next couple of decades, unless the whole water supply infrastructure is revamped and water recycling is done to meet part of the low end demands. Since Indore is
also a major industrial hub in western India, the industrial demands’ are also likely to increase to create competing demand.
4.5 Economy
