From intermittent to continuous service: Costs, benefits, equity and sustainability of water system reforms in Hubli-Dharwad, India

•Upgrading from intermittent to continuous water services affects net-benefits, sustainability and equity.•In Hubli-Dharwad, India, household-level financial and time savings were neutral to positive in all wealth categories.•System-level net present value (NPV) was negative when including the costs of supply augmentation.•Equal cost recovery across all users resulted in a negative NPV for lower-wealth households.•Capital or capacity constraints may force a trade-off between positive NPV and scale-up of continuous supply.