Dying after consuming water, the basic requirement of life—because of contamination—is as shocking as it can get. Over the past few days, at least six people, including three minors, have died in three districts of Karnataka: Koppal, Raichur and Belagavi. Hundreds of others had vomiting, diarrhoea and fever almost immediately after consuming contaminated water, with many needing hospitalisation. This repeats almost every year without lessons being learnt to prevent water contamination. As per a Lancet study, 14 lakh people in India died prematurely due to water contamination in 2019.
Despite India’s achievements in several fields post-Independence, questions need to be raised over the safety of people threatened by the consumption of as basic a need as water. It is an unforgivable failure. The laboratory reports of water samples taken from Rekalmardi village in Raichur district (where a three-year-old died and hundreds had to be treated) showed the water to be “unfit” for drinking.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has ordered probes into these incidents and sought a report in 10 days. But probes, although required to identify specific reasons, must be supplemented with a robust preventive mechanism to ensure water contamination does not continue its killing spree. A probe is also to be conducted in Karnataka on the implementation of the Centre’s ambitious Jal Jeevan Mission—aimed at providing tap water to every household in India—as the project in some areas has allegedly been implemented without identifying a sustainable source of water. Water contamination can occur due to a variety of reasons: sewage and wastewater mixing with potable water; chemicals, pesticides and industrial waste leaking into groundwater; dumping of waste in the sea; and neglect of water storage tanks. This requires frequent checks of underground water, the safety of pipes to avoid sewage mixing with drinking water, inspections of ground-level and overhead water tanks, and prevention of chemicals from seeping into groundwater. An efficient cleaning mechanism is needed, which is not impossible to implement before the monsoon replenishes water storage spaces.
Recently, the Chitradurga Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer got 8,000 tanks across the district cleaned in just three days after discovering that they had been unclean with mud slurry, snakes, lizards and frogs inside. The right to clean drinking water is the right to life. Let none play with it.