Vijeta Singh, Patna
Monsoons are here but the cities in India still complaining about water shortage as situation really getting worse day by day. Not to mention many villages which lack safe drinking water. In the list of 122 countries rated on quality of portable water, India ranks a lowly 120.Although India has 4% of the world’s water, studies show average availability is shrinking steadily. It is estimated that by 2020, India will become a water-stressed nation. Nearly 50% of villages still don’t have any source of protected drinking water.
This happens because most of us thought that water is that natural resource which we can in a way we want as it is going to be renew by its own without our proper attention. The thing which has value and can benefit us in future is the land which has solid return. But before making such mind set of ours we forget the fact that life becomes possible on earth is because of water and its availability makes him unique in the universe.
According to 2001 census 68.2% households have access to safe drinking water. The department of drinking water supply estimates that 94% of rural habitations and 91% urban households have access to drinking water. But according to experts these figures are misleading simply because coverage refers to installed capacity and not actual supply.
The ground reality is that of the 1.42 million villages in India, 1, 95,813 are affected by chemical contamination of water. The quality of ground water which accounts of more than 85% of domestic supply is a major problem in many areas as none of the rivers have water fit to drink. The available data in front of us is just to mislead so that the worse situation can be avoided .
Health is not the only issue; impure water is a major burden on the state as well. And the fact is that the situation is really out of control and it needs a proper attention of both the government and the citizen because the life giving water most of the time became the horror in our life only because of our improper planning and water management. And that the reason why the problem of flood and crisis occurs.If we have proper arrangement of storing water than both the uncontrolled situation can be avoided.
