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Clean drinking water is still a great challenge
in India; in 2008 96% of Urban Indian and 84% of Rural India had access to
improved water, averaging to 88% which is a drastic improvement from 72% in 1990.
But unfortunately 67% of Indian
households do not treat their drinking water, even though it could be
chemically or bacterial contaminated, thereby increasing the vulnerability to
water borne diseases.
Clean drinking water is directly linked
to health of the nation, lesser diseases would only mean a healthier and more
productive human resource, and hence access to clean drinking water cannot be a
privilege for the few but should a Right for all.
Many innovative approaches have been
taken to improve the quality of drinking water in India, one such innovative
step that has see a large scale success is the Any Time Water (ATW) project
initiated by Sri HK Patil in Gadag few years ago.
Taking cue from Gadag success
Kanakapura MLA and current Energy Minister Sri DK Shiva Kumar undertook a large
scale implementation of ATW’s under the banner of DKS
Charitable Institution Trust in every single Panchayat of Kanakapura Assembly
constituency and later extended to several parts of Bengaluru Rural.
Over the last 7-8
months my visits to Bengaluru Rural on various projects gave me a first hand information of the working of the swanky ATWs in most remote Panchayats. The
citizens are happy that at a drop of just Rs 1
into the vending machine they are getting 10 liters of clean drinking water. Many
of them said that they are demanding more ATW’s in Panchayats where there are more number of
villages. It is indeed commendable that the access to clean
drinking water has almost become a Right in this part of the country.
Success is indeed contagious; off late few Bengaluru Urban MLA’s are
making an earnest attempt to replicate the model in their constituencies, and
why not with urban poor almost at an alarming 25-30% clean drinking water is
the least one could provide to ensure that urban poor do not spend their
earning on medical bill due to diseases arising for unsafe/contaminated water.
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Every BBMP ward has its fair share of
lesser privileged and poor population and efforts should be made to provide clean
drinking water accessible in these urban pockets/areas. In wake of hike in
BWSSB supplied water and linking of usage and making it slab based, access to
low cost rather no cost clean drinking water for the urban poor will be a
logical and right step.
Elected representative should indeed
push the drinking water project aggressively and effectively in their
respective Assembly segments and Wards making clean drinking water accessible
to urban poor in their locality.
A well planned localized monitoring and
distribution mechanism to avoid misuse will go a long way in truly
democratization of clean drinking water.
I also urge the citizen groups, RWA’s,
political activists and NGO’s to take an active role and emphasize the need to
provide clean drinking water for a better and healthier India.