The Megalopolis of Mumbai gets its water from the local governing body called the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), and the organisation plans on making Mumbai at par with the Chinese counterpart, the city of Shanghai, and also uses many benchmarks as the milestones for such fulfilment. Now, Shanghai, just like any other world city, has a robust water management where it looks into providing drinkable water 24x7. Mumbai doesn't have such a luxury yet. The average water availability in Mumbai is 6 hours a day, so an average Mumbaikar wakes up to a heavily water-cycle-influenced day regularly. Now, we might think Mumbai probably doesn't have enough fresh-water resources. We're wrong.

Mumbai has enough water for its almost 20 million citizens, enough for a 24-hour supply. Say the experts, so says the BMC and studies from the World Bank. An estimation of daily water supply in Mumbai suggests that Mumbai gets 3.35 billion (3350 mn) litres a day, but the population count distorts the clarity.

So, if we have enough water, why don't we get it? The answer lies with the BMC and a derelict & appalling condition of the pipe network in the city. Our pipes waste a lot of water! They are bountied with leaks and rusting, and result in more than 20% of water go waste. David Ehrhardt, the chief executive of Castalia Ltd, a global infrastructure consultancy firm that in June 2007 studied Mumbai's water supply in Andheri and commented, "Mumbai has enough water for a 24-hour supply but water gets wasted because there are too many leakages in the old pipe network".

Mumbai is believed to lose more water in its conservative supply than what the other world metropolis lose during the entire day. This loss is curable but at a huge cost. Majority of the pipelines around Mumbai are underground, now when we are cementifying the roads it's a rather more tedious of a process to dig in deep and revamp the entire water-supply infrastructure. To add to that, the BMC believes that they aren't even sure about the entirety and nitty-gritty of the underground tube layout.

Managing water resource is critical for a city like Mumbai, with ever so growing population of the island city, such problems need to be addressed as a backlog which have existed for more than decades. Distribution of water is also highly depending on the affluence of an area and its residents. Unfortunately, Mumbai is immensely cobbled into this capitalist setup where abundant water is made to believe a luxury.

To be close to Shanghai, Mumbai needs to aim at an aggressive infrastructural push which might seem distant as per the current political scenario. The local polity and social awareness also need a mention in such an argument where in case of Shanghai, the Chinese establishment leaves no pockets empty and Mumbai remains a democratic yet largely unaware city.