DRINKING WATER IN INDIA

Key findings of Report:

• The government is increasingly starting to accept small water enterprises — such as water ATMs and community purification plants — as an alternative solution to the safe drinking water challenge.
  • Community water purification plants have grown from less than 12,000 in 2014 to almost 50,000 in 2018 as they have been incorporated into government planning.
    
    
  • The water ATM is a dispensation system, which can be automatic with a coin or smart card, or manual. Essentially, it’s a community RO (reverse osmosis system) to purify your water for drinking.
    
    
  
  
  
• The government needs to spend ₹44,000 crore on 2.2 lakh small water enterprises to provide safe drinking water to about 37 crore people, mostly in urban slums where piped water infrastructure is difficult to build, and in rural areas with contaminated water sources.
  
  
• These enterprises cost only a fraction of piped water infrastructure, policy changes and at least a doubling of tariffs are needed to help these enterprises to bridge the safe water gap.
  
  

Present status of drinking water situation in India:

• A recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) pointed out that only 18% of the rural population has access to potable piped water, failing to meet the 2017 target of 50%.
  
  
• According to Niti Aayog, India is ranked at 120 out of 122 countries on the Water Quality Index. Also 70% of the country’s water supply is contaminated.