This report summarizes the methodology and results of a water use survey and presents a prefeasibility study of options for improving water quality. The study was based on a random sample of 1,100 households in Dehra Dun in Uttar Pradesh, India, for the purpose of estimating the real costs of an intermittent water supply (investment in equipment and time spent queuing) and for predicting consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for a continuous full-service metered supply. Survey data were used to generate both qualitative descriptions of coping strategies and an econometric estimate of the household demand for water. Separate estimates were prepared for households with their own connections and for those using public taps. Results were as follows. (1) Consumer WTP for a continuous water supply exceeds the revenues currently received by the Dehra Dun water works department (WWD). (2) Current coping costs (investment in storage and time costs) are at least as great as the amount paid to the Dehra Dun WWD from water billings. (3) Full service water supply is a commercially viable proposition. (4) The poor, who use public taps, currently pay higher real costs for water than those who are connected. Survey results also indicate that providing an adequate supply of water for the whole city at reasonable rates would not require much more water than is currently available if it is treated as a scarce commodity and conserved; many households with unmetered connections waste water since there is no incentive to conserve it. The real problem with Dehra Dun's public water supply is not one of affordability, but of distribution. While some households may be comparatively worse off with a metered system, the population at large would benefit enormously by a more equal distribution of water, even if it is achieved by making everyone pay for the amount of water used. It is noted that the study methodology is expensive to implement; in a country like India, it is viable only for very large projects in cities of over 5 million people. (Author abstract, modified)