Water scarcity is driven by biophysical, political economic and institutional factors. In Darjeeling, one of the wettest places in India, communities have been facing water scarcity for decades. This thesis seeks to unravel this paradox of water scarcity in water-rich regions. Springs are seen to be declining in number both in terms of seasonal flows and water quality. Changes in rainfall events and land use could affect percolation of rainwater and subsistence of springs. Infrastructural investments over the years have been unable to improve formal highlighting two important aspects. Firstly, the increase and predominance of informal water supplies. Secondly, distribution infrastructure or ease of accessibility to municipal water supplies has been inadequate. All these factors have led to households creating water bundles even for a basic water requirement. The socio-economic and physical location of households affects access and creation of their water bundles. Low water availability and uncertainty of supply make the day-to-day functioning of the households cumbersome and discomforting.

Water scarcity studies have focused on physical water shortages addressing them in terms of physical, economic, or institutional scarcity. At the local level, scarcity is a manifestation of all three factors spatially and temporally, with socio-economic status and geographical location becoming additional determinants. Calibrated water scarcity indicators primarily focus on biophysical factors failing to look at the translation of water availability into accessibility. Solutions to water scarcity have been approached through an engineering and management lens while paying little attention to the governance, social and political processes. In recent years, water scarcity studies across disciplines, especially in Political Ecology, and Science and Technology Studies, have moved on to explore political economic, institutional, and social factors to illustrate the manifestation of water scarcity. In addition, exploring water scarcity experiences at the household levels within a city, town or village suggests- how availability, accessibility, and experiences are vastly different. Lyla Mehta’s four orders of scarcity - physical, economic, adaptive capacity, and socially constructed scarcity - which looks at resource allocation, access and entitlement issues have been adapted for this thesis.