The figure shows the percentage of people across the world who use unsanitized drinking water. And it is alarming to see the percentage of the population in so many countries that do not have such a small population with access to clean drinking water.
Understanding the global scenario and the availability of clean water
The water demand is on the rise owing to population growth and urbanization. Access to safe drinking water is the basic requirement for health. However, data shows that in the current state of things, billions of people will lack access to clean water by the year 2030.
To begin with, how do you define clean drinking water? Clean drinking water denotes an improved water supply that is available when required and is free from any contamination.
Blame it on poor management, misuse, and over-extraction of groundwater our freshwater supply is stressed. Underinvestment in water, degraded ecosystem and climatic changes are water-related and add to scarcity woes in obtaining clean and safe water.
To reach the optimum level of making clean and safe drinking water available to all universally it is important to increase the current progress at least fourfold. Only then will it save the millions of people who succumb to death because of diseases caused by unsafe water?
Today over 2.2 billion people globally lack access to safely managed water services. The problem is highly prevalent in the rural areas
Access to the safe water crisis in India
The above figures related to water issues in India is alarming. Water crisis is a huge concern and it is imperative to act without delay.
India with a population of over 1.4 billion people struggles hard to bridge the gap between need and availability of safe drinking water.
Around 6% of the population which is over 91 million people do not have access to safe water.
The current challenges in India include contaminated water surface, extreme water stress, and lack of piped water supply access. Rising sea levels and drought add to this worry.
Safe water is the backbone of any healthy economy. However, this is a sphere that is highly underprioritized across the globe. While the government of India has stated the urgency of offering tap water to every house by 2024, we are yet to see how the policy takes shape. Also, Promote the use of a Wastewater Treatment plant at the rural level and decrease the use of drinkable water for other purposes.
Additional expenses caused by unsafe drinking water
Water-borne diseases have cost over USD 600 million in a year and is especially the case seen in flood-prone and drought areas which has affected the Indian population in the last few years.
Also, groundwater meets almost 85 percent of the drinking water needs in rural areas and around 48 percent of the requirements in urban areas. However, over two-thirds of the total 718 districts in India are affected gravely by water depletion.
India is today the highest user of groundwater sources due to the rise in drilling in the past few years which has aggravated the scarcity of groundwater.
The impact of the trench between the need and availability of clean water has an indirect impact on rural India too. Without a safe and reliable source of water women and children are given the responsibility of collecting water which in turn has seen a rise in the school dropout rates.
In the year 2015, India achieved 93 percent of improved access to clean water in rural areas.
However, with the shift to the sustainable development goals as per the new baseline estimate only about 49 percent of the rural Indian population is using the safely managed drinking water.
The water problems in the Indian States
The graph shows the population of India on the left side with the data on water and sanitisation cases as a percentage against the household percentage that get access to clean drinking water in their homes.
Nearly half that is over 48.3% of the households in the urban and rural areas do not have access to clean drinking water.
Around one-fourth of the houses get clean water through any public and unrestricted source. This is the data from the national sample surveys or NSS.
On average a family of four world need at least 40 litre of water a week if they conservatively use just 2 litres of water each day. This is as per the allocation per person by the government in rural areas.
Groundwater sources in various states
If the state-wise estimates are made then Madhya Pradesh has 57.5% and West Bengal has 50.1% of its population that had to use a public water source for getting clean drinking water. It was 23.3% in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh was at 21.3% and Bihar had just 4.7% as households mostly use chappakal or hand pumps installed outside their homes. Thus for Indian households a hand pump is the main source of drinking water in rural areas.
The improved drinking water sources include piped water into the yard or dwelling, borehole and tubewell, protected spring, rainwater, bottled water, or a community reverse osmosis plant. However, it is not necessary that the water that is obtained from the improved sources would not have any negative health impact on those who consume it.
Initiatives that are being taken to address the water needs
A few ways to manage and supply drinking water across the country could be:
- To stream groundwater depletion which is being highly exploited. It works to help the villagers understand the availability of water and its usage pattern.
- The idea of 24/7 water is something that can be achieved by gaining a professionally run water utility company managing the business and being accountable to citizens directly.
- It is imperative to manage the iconic rivers of India. It is required to make irrigation predictable which needs immense investment in infrastructure to usher agriculture.
- Minor irrigation schemes, tracking floods and droughts, and implementing rainwater harvesting systems or recharging underground aquifers could be ways to narrow this gap. Solar disinfectants and filter usage are areas that can be worked on to solve the problems of clean water access which is a basic human right.
Once the summer months set in water becomes an even more rare commodity in India. The country has just 4% of water resources which makes it among the most water-stressed countries in the world. Climatic change, floods, and droughts bring in more distress.
We at Bankabio Understand the future needs and come up with Solution products to ensure access to sanitation, hygiene, and wastewater treatments in the most disconnected areas of India.
