World Water Day

World Water Day



“Water is said to be the blood of mother earth”






22nd March is celebrated as World Water Day and this year theme is






“Clean water for a Healthy World”






We present here a note on situation of “safe drinking water in India”



1. Unsafe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene causes approximately 3.1 percent of all deaths over 1.7 million deaths annually and 3.7 percent of DALYS world wide (WHO 2002)






2. Degraded water quality costs countries in Middle East and North Africa between 0.5 and 2.5 percent of GDP per year (WB 2007)






3. Economic losses due to lack of water and sanitation in Africa alone is estimated at USD 28.4 billion (UNWWAP 2009)






4. Population growth is expected to result in a decline in the per capita availability of fresh water- 5,150m3 in 1947 declined to 2200m3 in 2000 it is estimated to decline to 1600cu m.






5. Annual utilizable water in India, surface and ground water is about 1,100 BCM (billion cubic meters) and the fast-growing urban centers the water requirements are expected to double and by 2025 the water requirement would be 770 BCM for agriculture only (Chitale 1992)






6. About 10 percent of the rural urban population doses not have access to safe drinking water






7. About 70 million people in 20 states are at risk of being exposed to fluroisis, and 10 million exposed to arsenic due to drinking of contaminated water.






8. Over extraction of ground water has made water more saline, unsuitable for drinking and irrigation in many of the coastal regions.






9. 195,813 habitations in the country are affected by poor water quality .






10. Total cost of environmental damage in India is USD 9.7 billion annually and 59 percent results from the health impacts of water pollution (world Bank 1995)






11. Rural People in India spend at least Rs 100 each year for the treatment of water/sanitation related disease which accounts for Rs 52 cr less than the total annual budget of health ministry (Sunita Narain 2002 as referred in Khurana and Sen R).






12. The National Rural Drinking Water Supply Programme 1969 -tech support from UNICEF at an expenditure of Rs 254 Cr against 1.2 million bore wells dug and 17,000 piped water supply installations






13. Accelerate Rural Water Supply Programme in 1972-73; assistance to states and union territories.






14. National Drinking water mission (NDWM) was formed in 1986






15. The National Water Policy drafted in 2002 by ministry of water resource : The success depends on operational action plans (water resource plans) in a time bound manner within two years. The policy talks mainly about conservation of water resources for humans and wild life use (pollutants, maintain water quality etc), water sharing, irrigation and provision of safe drinking water to all.






16. Counter argument is that water policy should focus on over-exploitation of ground water and concomitant drastic lowering of ground water table and the policy need to integrate: discharge of treated water into river, maximization of recycling of treated sewage effluent for irrigation in the growth of agriculture, water harvesting, pricing of potable water (Chakrabarti SP, titled: quality of life and our national water wealth)






17. NDWM renamed to Rajiv Gandhi NDWM in 1991, and onus of providing drinking water lies on PRIs (Khurana and Sen R) objectives:



a. Providing safe drinking water to all villages,



b. Assisting local communities to maintain sources of safe drinking water in good condition, and



c. Giving special attention for water supply to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.







18. The policies and legislation's lack to address “Right to water” in India (Priya Sangameswaran: Rights, State Legislation, and Civil Society initiative in India, 2007)



19. Current analysis of water situation in India (GoI 2007)



a. Water supply coverage: avg. 81.2%



b. Water availability: avg. 4.3hrs/day



c. Consumption average: 123.3l/c/d



d. Production per person: avg 0.244m3/d/person



e. Connections metered: avg 24.5%



f. Average tariff : Rs 4.91/m3



g. New connection fee: avg. Rs 1584



h. Average capital expenditure/ connection: avg. Rs 1591







Thanking You,







Best Regards,



Team HSRI

To celebrate World Water Day, National Geographic has come out with its single topic issue “Water: Our Thirsty World” which highlights the challenges facing our planet's fresh water, and is available for free download until April 2.