UN Declaration of 2010 has recognized access to water as a Human Right. Providing safe, reliable, piped water to every household is an essential goal for all countries and civic bodies in charge of water.

Despite access to drinking water having improved from 1900 to 20101, water quality remains a major issue. Governments focus on access to water, while quality of water supplied not being much of a concern. This lack of concern over quality of water supplied results in increased health and economic burden.

Assuring that water reaching people is safe for consumption is a challenge for Governments. However, till the time mechanisms for providing safe water to everyone 24*7 are put in place, there is a need to promote Household Water Treatments and Safe Storage (HWTS) methods enabling access to safe drinking water for all.

Current policy mechanisms dealing with water quality is insufficient requiring more measures for facilitating access to safe drinking water for all.

According to World Bank estimates, 21% of communicable diseases in India are related to unsafe water2, with around 37.7 million Indians being affected by waterborne diseases annually. It is estimated that around 1.5 million children die due to diarrhoea alone. Estimated 73 million working days are lost due to waterborne disease each year, resulting in an estimated economic burden of $600 million a year3.

Diseases caused due to poor water quality is a big concern. Diarrhoea is the second largest killer of children below 5 years of age. Waterborne diseases like diarrhoea, gastroenteritis and dysentery are caused by pathogens (germs) such as viruses, bacteria, protozoa, helminthes (worms) which are invisible to naked eyes. Most perceive that transparent and odourless water is free from contamination.

Poor water quality and health linkage is one of the most serious challenges requiring immediate attention. Wise choice is not to pollute the water first and then clean it up, but, to protect the source of drinking water. However, municipalities and water agencies have no control over pollution of drinking water source – surface or groundwater. If pollution is not checked, it has health costs in terms of waterborne diseases resulting in mortality, morbidity and loss of productive man-hours.

Government is responsible for providing access to safe drinking water to its citizen. However, the current focus of the Government is on providing access to all and quality of water supplied is not yet a perceived priority.

Interim solution to the problem of water quality is promotion of Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS) Methods, till the municipalities and water agencies are enabled to provide piped safe drinking water to everyone 24*7 in their constituency.

HWTS systems provide first or extra barrier of protection to ensure drinking water quality. HWTS treats water at the point of use, preferably using effective but low-cost treatment technologies that could be developed using locally available raw materials. The most common HWTS methods used include solar disinfection (SODIS), filtration, boiling and chlorination.

According to Centre for International Trade Development, water market in India is estimated to be worth more than $ 4 billion, and growing by 10-12% annualy 4. HWTS water products which were earlier ‘public good’ are now becoming a ‘market good’. Private companies marketing HWTS from across the world have established their presence in India. The targets of these companies earlier were middle and high income families with high levels of awareness on water quality.

They are now coming up with range of products which are below the price range of INR 1000 targeting bottom of pyramid (BoP) population. However, awareness levels on water quality-health impacts in poor and marginalised section of society is virtually absent. Low cost technologies, though effective, are not popular among them due to perceived poor taste of water, unavailability and inconvenience factors. There is a need to make poor aware regarding water quality-health impacts so that they demand access to safe drinking water.

There is a major lacuna in the current policy and regulatory mechanisms for ensuring access to safe drinking water to people. These mechanisms are not stringent and lack effective monitoring systems for various related agencies to follow.

According to the Constitution of India, water is a State subject. Under 74th constitutional amendment, responsibility of local supply of water lies with respective Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). Role of the Centre is to provide technical and financial support.

Moreover, there are around a dozen agencies involved in water sector. Involvement of so many agencies in the process is one major bottleneck for effective implementation. Each agency reports to their respective ministry and there is limited coordination among them. Provisioning of quality water requires them to work in close association. For details of diffrent agencies working on water sector refer to Table 1.

Standards for drinking water quality exist in the country but these are merely recommendatory in nature, except for bottled drinking water industry. These are not mandated or implemented through a statutory framework (Report on UIWSS, 2011). Water supplied in urban areas should meet the BIS 10500: 2012 drinking water specifications. A model legislation providing for enforceable drinking water quality in the country was prepared in September 2007 and circulated but is yet to be finalised.

In most cases, water supplied does not meet acceptable limits (MoUD manual, 1999) of drinking water quality standards. Urban population has to suffice with just permissible limits of water quality in absence of an alternate source. Situation in rural areas is far worse, where both quantity and quality are inadequate.

As per Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, relating to Protection of Life and Personal Liberty, right to pollution-free water is guaranteed under this provision. User has the right to know whether water provided at source is free from any contamination as claimed by authorities. Financial expenditure on water supply schemes and results of water quality testing should be made public. Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board have done this and the data is available on their website.

All ministries and agencies dealing with water have funds for Information, Education and Communication (IEC) component which remain unutilised. However, Governments during monsoon season create awareness about water treatment methods. These funds can be used innovatively for designing and implementing Behavior Change Communication campaigns on water quality.

While, household water treatments are highly accepted and adopted. There are no regulations on quality certification of technologies and products entering the market. There are no norms for disclosure of information at present. It is often seen that information regarding shelf life, service life, precautions, material safety issues, replacement of filters, end of life indication; safe disposal etc. is not explicitly mentioned.

New technologies like reverse osmosis and nanotechnology have penetrated the market in various sectors including water. However, there remains ambiguity on standards and regulations related to quality and risk management. Policies, norms and guidelines should be formed for making the product supplier/service provider accountable for performance of these products.

To overcome these challenges of enabling access to safe drinking water for all requires stringent policy mechanisms for ensuring water quality. Efforts of the Government should be targeted towards ensuring access to safe drinking water for all. q

¹ http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/environ.shtml

² http://www.who.int/mediacentre/multimedia/2002/ind_sanitation/en/

³ http://www.wateraid.org/~/media/Publications/drinking-water-quality-rural-india.pdf

⁴ http://www.s-ge.com/sites/default/files/BBF_India_WaterAndWaterTreatmentInIndia.pdf

⁵ http://www.wateraid.org/~/media/Publications/drinking-water-quality-rural-india.pdf