Survey reveals, In India, only 2% to get water fit for drinking in their taps

Even though November 1–5 is designated as India Water Week, many people still consider access to clean drinking water to be a pipe dream.

 

According to a survey released on Wednesday by the social media platform for local communities, LocalCircles, only 2% of Indian households receive water of a quality that is suitable for drinking, and 65% use some sort of contemporary filtration system.

 

When asked how they would rate the municipal/water department or panchayat that supplies piped water to their home, 5% said ‘very poor’ and 15% ‘poor.’ Moreover, 5% of respondents said their homes don’t have piped water.

 

And how do they clean water for drinking, cooking, and other uses at home? 34% of people use a water purifier, 31% a RO system, 1% chlorination, alum, and other minerals, 14% ‘boil’ the water, and 5% utilise clay containers to purify the water. The results showed that 7% of households purchased bottled water instead of purifying their water.

 

‘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,’ according to Sachin Taparia, the creator of LocalCircles.

 

According to a research published in the BMC Public Health Journal in May of this year, an estimated 37.7 million Indians are impacted by water-borne diseases each year; 1.5 million children die from diarrhoea alone, and 73 million working days are lost as a result.

 

According to Water.org, a global civil society organisation, ‘more than 6% of the Indian population lack access to safe water.’ According to a 2017 Unicef analysis based on government data, just 50% of India’s population has access to clean drinking water that is free of chemical contamination or dangerous levels of toxins.