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Making clean, piped water available

Last Updated 06 May 2021, 21:37 IST

Chennai gets an average of 1,400mm rainfall every year, and yet, in 2019, it had to bring truckloads of drinking water for its residents. This is barely any surprise as the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas released by the World Resources Institute (WRI) ranks India at 13 among the world’s 17 extremely water-stressed countries. This means that the water demand here exceeds the available volume or poor-quality limits its use. Indian metropolitan cities such as Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Nashik, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Indore are among the cities facing ‘extreme risk’ of crunch in steady availability of drinking water. Lack of access to clean drinking water adversely impacts Indian citizens’ right to life. It also poses a challenge to fulfil the UN Sustainable Development Goals, ensuring inclusive access to clean water and sanitation facilities. Along with sanitation measures, clean and safe drinking water is critical to mitigate the risk of water-borne infections and enable people to earn their livelihoods. The cities at risk are the economic hubs, and securing water resources will be essential for businesses to ensure continuity of their operations there.

Clean drinking water

Access to clean and safe piped water at home is a feature in middle-class urban residential quarters. However, it is still a pipe dream for those living in community setups – urban slums and rural areas. Around 3.27 crore rural households, out of 17.87 crores, get water through pipe connections, making access to clean, treated and safe water accessible to only 18% of India’s rural households. Treating water is essential to get rid of impurities and industry-induced pollutants. While treating water to purify, it incurs a cost, providing adequate or more than that supply of water features as a prominent election promise, and a sizable chunk of it is provided for free. There are two problems here: firstly, unviable economies of scale, and secondly, consumers failing to value finite natural resources.

Policymakers need to assess free of cost access to clean and safe piped drinking. It is also time to increase widespread involvement to improve the availability of clean water to those deprived of it even today. Some measures for rationalisation of water use and inculcating water-saving habits may include:

Incentivising solutions such as rainwater harvesting (RWH): This can prove beneficial in cities and towns that do not have direct access to water sources for supply. Delhi can be an example where most of the water supply is dependent on piped water extracted from the Yamuna River before it enters the city. The rest is managed through inter-state collaborations.

Information, Education and Communication for behaviour change: Sustained communication for inducing a change in the way people use water is critical to ensure wider availability. Awarding role models and roping celebrities can make the communication more impactful. Besides, the government needs to sensitise people to help them understand the importance of graded tariff for water for domestic use.

Rationalising water usage for agricultural and industrial purposes, two of the biggest water consumers is critical. Besides, innovative ways to use water for regular jobs, such as washing solar panels, can help to reduce fresh water consumption. Artificial aquifers may be created to assist the recharge and recovery of groundwater systems. In the Union Budget announced this year, Jal Jeevan Mission, a central government initiative to ensure all households in rural India receive safe and adequate water through individual household tap connections by 2024, received Rs 50,000 crore and a roadmap for Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban) was laid. The JJM (U) makes a commendable move in u

sing innovative steps to meet the requirement, especially that of industrial units.In five years, JJM (U) aims to provide 2.68 crore households with tap water and revive water bodies to promote freshwater supply sustainably. It plans to create green spaces and sponge cities to reduce floods and implement an urban aquifer management plan. Together, they give us hope that water tankers will soon become a thing of the past.

(The writer is CEO, IHW Council)

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(Published 06 May 2021, 20:50 IST)

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