Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answer to this item should be based on the…
Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answer to this item should be based on the passage only.
Passage: Our urban bodies cannot possibly ensure sustainable delivery of water in our cities unless financing mechanisms are put in place. Water delivery requires heavy investment in collecting it from a natural source, treating it to make it potable, and laying a distribution network of pipes for delivery to the users. It also requires investments in sewerage infrastructure and sewage treatment plants so that the sewers can carry the wastewater to these plants to ensure that no untreated sewage is discharged back into natural water bodies. If our cities were rich enough to meet the entire cost, water could be delivered free. They are not.
What is the most logical and crucial message conveyed by the passage?
Urban local bodies must recover costs through user charges.
Urban local bodies are not efficient enough to meet the water requirements of our cities.
Water shortage in our cities is a perennial problem that cannot be solved.
In view of the water crisis in our cities, there is an urgent need to limit the population of cities by adopting an upper limit of population size.
Solution
The passage stresses that sustainable water delivery requires financing mechanisms because cities are not rich enough to provide water free. The most logical and crucial message is that urban local bodies must recover costs (through user charges). Options B, C and D introduce ideas not supported by the passage.