Planning Under Uncertainty: Climate Change, Water Scarcity and Health Issues in Leh Town, Ladakh, India

Access to safe drinking water is already a very serious issue for large urban populations in fast-growing economies such as India. This is further being impacted by climate change, leading to increase in water-related diseases. In regions where water is already scarce, integrated urban planning especially of water resources in conjunction with other sectors such as energy and taking health into consideration is urgently needed. The case study Leh Town, the capital of the Ladakh Region, is located in an ecologically vulnerable semi-arid region of the Himalayas and is undergoing very rapid transformation due to tourism and economic growth. Huge increase in water demand coupled with inadequate water supply and wastewater management are augmenting already serious environmental issues. In 2012–2013, we mapped point sources of water pollution using geographic information systems (GIS), analysed medical data and conducted questionnaire surveys of 200 households and ca. 300 hotels and guesthouses. Our study finds that occurrences of diarrhoea in Leh seem to have increased in the past decade, which may be related to groundwater pollution. Further, over 80 % of the water demand is currently being supplied from groundwater resources without regulation, so that these may be being depleted faster than their rate of recharge. This study discusses using GIS to support urban planning decision-making and advocates a partially decentralized sewage system for water resources conservation in Leh.