The Need of Pure Drinking Water in India
Since decades, India has faced the challenge of providing an access to safe drinking water. Many people of the rural, urban areas and especially the villages are struggling for safe drinking water. More than 1.5 million villagers have to spend their days searching for the drinking water. This is perhaps why the government in 1980s declared water crisis as a national issue and declared a number of projects to provide safe and pure drinking water ATM in India to the people.
Reasons of Water Crisis/Challenges Government since then has been working a lot so as to provide clean and safe drinking water especially to the rural community, but certain key issues did not allow the projects adopted by the government to succeed such as: • Little to no participation from the local people • Lack of sense of ownership • Lack of maintenance • Thinking that water is their right and is provided free by the government Keeping the water crisis in mind and to change thinking of people, Government of India undertook many projects that spanned ten states: • First generation project: here the ID projects between the years 1991-1996 decided to shift the responsibility of rural water scheme to the local communities from the hands of government so that they can manage their own water supply systems. • Second generation project: in the year 2000, the government agencies became facilitators and focused on formulation of policy, monitoring, and evaluation. • Third generation project: in the year 2005, linkages were established between supply of water to villages, sanitation, the local government, and the state agencies so as to provide long term support in every aspect. • Fourth generation project: here the government adopted a result based approach and focused mainly on the states that had low incomes. With the launch of so many projects studies show that only 1% of India’s rural population got an access to pure water and by 2013 the count reached to only 30%, a goal that is yet to be achieved. The country’s current water requirement as stated by the ministry of water resources is 1100 billion cubic/m/year that shall become 1200 by 2025 and 1447 by the year 2050. The Asian Development Bank has summarized in their reports that India by the year 2030 shall face a water deficit of 50%. A lot more to go, people should understand the price of water and value it just like gold if they are to survive. Trees and planet should be given importance so as to increase the supply of water on Earth…..because if these things are not monitored, no one can put a full stop to destruction. |