"Water is a powerful indicator of sustainability. It also is an indicator of the level of social development in a particular community. It is an indicator of poverty and social tensions. Water is also an issue that is linked with health, nutrition and many other factors that affect our society including the condition of nature itself! It is not an exaggeration to say that water is life."

CLEAN Brigade Testing Water Qulaity in Delhi Slums

Municipal supply is taxed to the limit and there is no option but to restrict the supply timings to just two hours a day. The situation worsens during summers when main water sources like rivers, lakes, reservoirs, canals have reduced water levels in them. A fine balancing act has to be done to cater to the needs of the urban supply as well as irrigation needs. Sometimes the situation gets aggravated due to disputes among riparian states on the quantum of water to be released for municipal supply.

The mushrooming of bore-wells and hand pumps has a negative impact on the water table. To provide housing to the needy population, town planners have no option but to allow high rise buildings as office complexes and residential flats. These buildings cannot do without tube-wells to pump up water for the domestic needs of the occupants. Even private bungalows have tube-wells to safeguard against the water-supply crisis. Such activities have resulted in the water table going down by several feet, with detrimental repercussions on the green cover and the environment.

Due to political compulsions, the water supply authorities lay pipelines in slums and unauthorized colonies without taking adequate precautions against contamination. A leaking pipeline could be a major health hazard in such colonies with unhygienic conditions where there is no proper arrangement for sewage, waste disposal and safe water supply. Such areas are sources of large scale leaching, affecting the ground water and culminating in gastroenteric epidemics.

Health services in cities and towns are taxed to the limit. Water-borne diseases like cholera, hepatitis and dysentery are highly contagious, and could prove to be extremely dangerous for overpopulated slums. Due to the large population, the health services cannot effectively monitor the health and sanitary conditions of the people and the environment in which they reside. The residents of these congested colonies do not have access to medical facilities, nor do they have enough finances to pay for their treatment. The disease is either untreated, or self-medication is practiced and as a last resort, some unauthorized/incompetent medical practitioner is engaged. Such measures are responsible for a huge drain on the health services.

CLEAN Students Interviewing Commuters Regarding the Air Quality in Delhi

Evolving a well-formulated strategy to prevent run-offs during the monsoon season: This would include conservation measures like check dams, tanks, and ponds, contour trenching, etc. It is estimated that if the rain from a normal monsoon season is harvested, it will be more than enough for the whole year’s domestic and agricultural needs. This has been proved in the recent past in some drought affected regions of Gujarat. Such measures, besides providing surface water, raise the water table and enhance the water level of wells.

Increasing the tree cover by planting species that conserve water, prevent land degradation and soil erosion.

Preventing the unrestricted boring of tube wells, which are a drain on electrical power and are also responsible for lowering the water table: Although such measures increase food production, the multiple cropping is a strain on the land that is deprived of its essential nutrients in the long run.

Sources of Water Supply

The major sources of municipal supply in towns and villages (both in the plains and mountainous regions) are rivers, streams and canals. Our major rivers are getting polluted day by day. Various action plans are discussed at high level meetings, strategies formulated but enforcement measures leave much to be desired. For example, the Yamuna Action Plan was initiated in 1977 but even now the stretch between Wazirpur Headworks and Okhla is a virtual drain, with industrial effluents and sewage pouring into the river. The administration took no preventive steps in curtailing the mushrooming of small-scale industries, which generate toxic effluents and spill them into the river without any treatment. Environmental laws including the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act 1974 are quite lucid but their enforcement leaves much to be desired. Action for construction of water treatment plants to cater to the main drainage system of the capital city is evolving at a very slow pace.

Some Alarming Facts

w Out of the total world population, 200 million do not have access to safe drinking water. The worst effected are under-developed countries, developing countries having large populations (especially in the Asian region and the arid zones where there is shortage of rainfall).
w Amount of utilizable water available per person per year is likely to reduce from 1250 to 760 cubic metres by the year 2050. The effect, once again, will be felt in the countries as mentioned above.
w India incurs an expenditure of about Rs 36,600/- crores per year on treatment of water related diseases.
w 0.5 million children under the age of five die each year due to water borne diseases.
w Only seven percent of the Indian population have access to municipal sewage system. This has implications on the sanitary conditions and contamination of water.