The World Bank estimates that around a quarter of communicable diseases in India are water related. Of these, diarrhoea has the largest burden, with particular impact on mortality in children under the age of five. Provision of good-quality drinking water is one measure that is desperately needed to reduce the incidence of water-borne diseases, even as other factors like prevalent unhygienic practices during water collection and storage, poor hand washing and limited access to sanitation facilities have to be tackled.
According to international practice, health surveys estimate the coverage of households with improved sources of drinking water, which include piped water to the household, tap water in a public place, bore wells, tube wells, protected springs and rainwater.
The five states, amongst the large states, that have the maximum coverage of improved source of drinking water are Punjab, Bihar, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. However, according to the National Family Health Survey-3 data from 2005-06, though 71 per cent of urban Indian households had access to piped water, in Bihar piped water accounted for just 2 per cent of urban households. While another 8 per cent of urban households in Bihar sourced water from public taps/standpipes, the majority, 76 per cent, used tube wells/bore holes.
| SIP SOURCEs | |||
| Share of households having access to | Urban | Rural | Total |
| Improved sources of drinking water | 95 | 84.5 | 87.6 |
| Piped water into dwelling/yard/plot | 50.7 | 11.8 | 23.5 |
| Public tap/stand place | 20.3 | 16.1 | 15.3 |
| Tube well/bore hole | 21.3 | 53.2 | 45.8 |
| Other improved sources | 2.7 | 3.4 | 3 |
| Non-improved sources of drinking water | 4.8 | 15.4 | 12.2 |
| Source: National Family Health Survey-3, 2005-06 | |||
At the other end of the list is Manipur, which reported at 52.2 per cent, the lowest percentage of access to improved sources; here 27 per cent of urban households had piped water, while another 24 per cent used a public tap/standpipe. The issue of “safety” of water is, of course, not addressed by data on the source of drinking water, and problems abound in water quality, with contamination and high concentrations of nitrates, fluoride, arsenic and salinity. For example, 15 out of Bihar’s 38 districts have been found to have high arsenic levels, with significant health impact already documented. The focus has to be on improving access to piped water, as well as addressing problems in existing water supply networks.
| DRINK DRIVE Percentage of households with access to improved sources of drinking water | |||
| Top five states | Bottom five states | ||
| Punjab | 99.5 | Manipur | 52.1 |
| Bihar | 96.1 | Jharkhand | 57.0 |
| Haryana | 95.6 | Nagaland | 62.8 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 94.0 | Meghalaya | 63.1 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 93.7 | Kerala | 69.1 |
| Source: National Family Health Survey-3, 2005-06 | |||
The Millennium Development Goals aim at halving by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation — to meet this target, even in urban India, piped water coverage, which increased from 68.5 per cent in 1990 to 74 per cent in 2001 needs to touch 86.5 per cent by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan.(Click for graph)
More than 85 per cent of the sources in rural drinking water supply schemes are groundwater-based and recognising this problem, the objective of improving coverage of surface water sources and quality of water was taken up under the Bharat Nirman programme. However, though a target of 2.17 lakh quality-affected habitations was identified at the beginning of the programme in 2006, the states submitted an action plan for covering only 195,813 such habitations. Till June 2010, under Bharat Nirman, 84,523 habitations were fully covered with completed schemes and the aim is to cover the remaining by 2012.
As the testing expands, more areas with problem will be identified, while some habitations with safe drinking water may slip back. Providing access by piped water and regular monitoring of quality are crucial, both in urban and rural areas, to ensure that Indians get good-quality, safe drinking water.
Indian States Development Scorecard is a weekly feature by Indicus Analytics that focuses on the progress in India and the states across various socio-economic parameters.
