In this book, case studies highlighting different paradigms are discussed. Some cases pertain to water management by local self governing bodies within the overall institutional framework of the government; others to purely informal community level set-ups and still others to more formal systems set up by local communities in response to their drinking water needs. Each case has some feature which makes it unique and which displays an entirely different aspect of the functioning of such schemes. The one common thread to all the case studies is that they were all successful, although to a greater or lesser extent. In this manner we have tried to identify the various factors that contribute to making a water supply scheme successful.