(715) 
The typical Indian city is not a unit focusing upon a central business 
district as is common in America or Europe, but rather comprises a cellular 
development of seperate sections each with its own functions and structural 
patterns. The Old Town, is a congested quarter of crowded buildings and 
narrow streets teeming with people, cattle, and carts. Buildings here are 2 to 
4 stories in height, constructed of brick and have balconies overhanging the 
streets. The wider streets are bazar areas. The density of population which 
ranges between 500 and 800 people per acre has been reported in a recent 
United National Survey to have increased in some cases to as much as 1,200 
per acre, a tremendous density of over 750,000 per square mile. About 700 
persons per acre can be considered a conservative working average. 
By contrast in the Civil Lines, formerly occupied only by Europeans and 
wealthy Indians, there is an average of only one house to every 2 or 3 acres, 
each consisting of a compound including the main house and several smaller 
servants buildings; there are usually less than 20 people per acre. The buildings, 
streets and gardens are reminiscent of suburban areas of some of our American 
cities. : 
The Military Cantonment, sometimes occupying as much as 50% of the 
urban area and always a separate self-contained city, is a reminder of long 
British occupancy. 
The Railway Area is a large separated section administered by the railway 
and not by the city. It provides quarters for its staff who live as much apart 
from the city as does the military. The quarters are neat concrete or brick 
single dwelling bungalows arranged on rectangular streets and affording health- 
ful surroundings for railway employees. 
There are two types of commercial areas, the one a bazar for retail trade, 
and in some cities a more modern commercial section engaged in the shipment, 
finance and insurance of cotton goods and other agricultural products. 
The industrial area consists of large and small cotton and woolen textile 
mills and leather goods factories. 
I make such skeleton iteration of some of the main features in order to 
present the background of a hypothetical problem. 
Let us examine the water supply of the Indian town. The problem of 
maintaining an adequate supply of water in the face of the rapid doubling and 
tripling of population, particularly in the already congested sections, is one of 
the most difficult for Indian municipal authorities to solve. 
The daily consumption of water in Indian cities averages about 25 gallons 
per capita, but within each city there is a wide variation in the amount of 
water supplied. In the Civil Lines the daily per capita consumption averages 
about 50 to 60 gallons, while in the congested Indian section the amount usu- 
ally averages about 10 gallons per capita. 
Many portions of the town receive no water or only part of their water 
from the central source and depend upon privately-owned shallow wells. In 
view of the increased population these wells are inadequate and the ground 
water is becoming increasingly polluted. 
The establisment of new water distribution systems, particularly for con- 
gested areas is a sore point because accurate statistics are not available. Field 
counts are not reliable because house owners usually are afraid to tell the truth 
concerning the number of inhabitants. The photograph, however, provides a