A small study of water samples from urban and rural households that apparently receive drinking water from ‘improved’ sources has shown that about 42 percent of urban and 60 percent of rural households were actually getting contaminated water. About half of the surveyed anganwadis where small children and pregnant mothers were taken care of also had contaminated water.

Last year, UNICEF and WHO had reported that India has done some impressive work in providing safe drinking water to its citizens with over 90 percent now getting treated water. This was the cause of much celebration because it also meant that India had achieved one of the Millennium Development Goals (#7c) of halving the number of those without access to safe drinking water.

However, serious doubts have been raised about this water quality by a study of the water that is considered ‘safe’. Published in the medical journal Lancet, the study was conducted by a team of researchers from Pratham Education Foundation, Delhi; Montreal University; and Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies between May and October 2013.

The survey covered 685 households in a New Delhi slum (Kirti Nagar) and 1,192 households in 60 villages of Hardoi - a poor rural district of Uttar Pradesh. Apart from interviews with people, the survey carried out tests on the water used by the household for drinking purposes using a UNICEF-validated rapid test for coliform bacteria. Contaminated water was found in 42 percent (284 of 685) of the urban and 60 percent (715 of 1191) of the rural households.

According to the researchers, given India's population size, there is every reason to question claims to have achieved the Indian and global MDG drinking water targets. The consequences of drinking contaminated water were evident in the survey. Mothers in the surveyed households were asked about recent cases of their children falling ill. In urban homes, 24 percent and in rural homes 55 percent of children had suffered from diarrhoea in the past 15 days. Fever was reported in 34 percent of urban children and 49 percent of rural children.

Bad water has the most harmful effect on small children because their immunity has not yet developed. The survey found that 11 percent of urban homes and 23 percent of rural homes had experienced the death of an infant.

Source: TNN