As summer approaches, so do the country's water woes. India has 18% of the world’s population, but only 4% of its water resources, making it one of the most water-stressed countries.
That a vast majority of Indians cannot avail one of the most basic necessities of life – clean drinking water – is hardly breaking news. What is scary, however, are the findings of a recent survey conducted by the Union housing and urban affairs ministry. Christened the first "Pey Jal Survekshan" (drinking water survey), the exercise covered 485 cities and captured more than 5.21 lakh household responses. Of all the cities reviewed, barely 46 cities or municipalities had a 100-per cent pass rate of samples taken from households and water treatment plants! Given that there are 4,000 cities and towns in India, with 300 cities that have a population of over 1,00,000, that should be considered a pretty daunting statistic.
The findings, announced at a ministry briefing recently, said that direct observation and assessments were carried out in 830 water treatment facilities, 941 water bodies, 1,044 used water treatment facilities and 2,005 parks visited for assessing availability of rainwater harvesting structures.
Elaborating on the various categories under the “Pey Jal Survekshan Awards”, the then Secretary in the ministry, Manoj Joshi, said based on the survey scores for access and coverage, and water quality and sustainability parameters, nine awards will be given to cities and nine to states based on their cities’ performance. “Special awards are being given to cities for good quality water bodies, reuse of treated used water and pioneers in sustainable water use,” Joshi said in the statement.
Well, given the sordid realities on the ground, that can be no more than cold comfort.
Some social media platforms have, for some time, continued a campaign for clean drinking water. A survey conducted by LocalCircles, a community social media platform, concluded that only 2% of Indian households get drinkable quality water from their local body and 65% use some variant of modern filtration mechanism. This survey was carried out a couple of years ago. When asked how they rate the quality of piped water that comes to their home from the local municipal/water department or panchayat, 5% said “very poor” and 15% “poor”. What’s more, 5% said they don’t get piped water at their home at all!
As for purifying water at home for drinking, cooking and other purposes, 34% use a water purifier; 31% a RO system; 1% use chlorination, alum and other minerals; 14% do so by “boiling” and 5% use clay vessels. There were 7% of households who don’t purify water and get bottled water supply, the findings indicated.
“The government must consider forming mandatory standards for potable water supply to be followed by all local bodies and give them a few years to comply. Once the majority has complied, the standards must be published for public reference, checks and balances,” Sachin Taparia, the founder of LocalCircles, was quoted by the media as saying.
For the most populous country in the world, the tidings look far from steady. According to another assessment, it is estimated that around 37.7 million Indians are affected by water-borne diseases annually; 1.5 million children die of diarrhoea alone and 73 million working days are lost due to water-borne diseases each year, a study published in the BMC Public Health Journal said.
BMC Public Health is a UK-based open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on the epidemiology of disease and the understanding of all aspects of public health.
While statistics may vary according to the methodology used, the enormity of the problem can scarcely be underestimated. Based on 2017 government data, a Unicef report stated that only 50% of the population in India has access to safe drinking water that is free from chemical contamination, or presence of dangerous levels of toxins.
Under the circumstances, the ministry of urban affairs must be commended for throwing light on a subject, which has long been recognized as a terrible hazard, but making any headway is fraught with roadblocks that are linked closely to economic backwardness, poor infrastructure and the sheer lack of awareness.
A distinguished array of 130 awards is set to be bestowed, reflecting the remarkable accomplishments of cities and states, which have managed to deliver, despite the odds, the Pey Jal Survekshan pointed out.
The evaluation, carried out under AMRUT 2.0 in 485 cities, encompassed diverse parameters, including access, coverage, water quality at treatment plants and households, and sustainability regarding the health of water bodies, availability of SCADA/ flowmeters, and reuse of treated used water.
The methodology used must be considered fairly rigorous. Using a GIS-enabled web portal, geo-tagging and infrastructure mapping, the survey collected accurate and transparent data. With 5 lakh household responses and assessments in over a thousand facilities, it prioritized a comprehensive evaluation, including testing over 24,000 water samples.
There is little point in shying away from the complexities of tackling clean water management, humongous as the task is. Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a call for public participation, along with state governments and civil society organisations, to make the campaign of water conservation a success. Niti Aayog, in a report titled “Composite Water Management Index”, published in June 2018, noted that India is undergoing the worst water crisis in its history and nearly 600 million people are facing high to extreme water stress. The report further mentions that India is placed at 120th amongst 122 countries in the water quality index, with nearly 70% of water being contaminated.
That should be considered a candid appraisal of the situation. While the government of India’s commitment to provide piped water supply to every household in the country by 2024 with a new national flagship programme, the Jal Jeevan (Water for life) Mission, may still be some distance away from reaching its target, the ambitious programme is further backed up with public sector funding of more than US$ 65.6 billion already committed to this plan. "The focus, however, is not only on infrastructure creation, however, but on establishing decentralized, demand-driven, community-managed water supply systems," a statement by UNICEF said.
UNICEF has been the ‘development partner of choice’ for the Indian government and has played a key role in the revamping and implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission. It claimed: "As per the government’s Management Information System for the Jal Jeevan Mission, between August 2019 and May 2022, as a result of the programme, coverage of functional household tap connections in rural areas has increased from 17% to over 49%."
That should be considered good news but pitched against the recent findings of the urban affairs ministry, it needs to be taken with a dose of healthy scepticism.
Experts agree that India needs to overcome challenges in terms of overall water management. There is also a problem of lack of science and data-backed decisions that happen when it comes to management. But there is also promise in the way that different stakeholders are looking at water- for example the government, NGOs and water specialists. Increasingly, water is seen as an economic resource, which it has always been. But now, with the central government's backing, it has acquired a logic of its own.
It is also increasingly seen as something critical for the country’s development story. If India needs to prosper and grow, then water conservation is a given. Happily, that realisation is dawning among different stakeholders. But when it comes to the implementation of different schemes and programmes, there is a need to bring together different stakeholders, by working together better, and finding the means to create a better story out of this.
That remains a truly daunting task.
