The Ripple Effect: India’s clean water crisis has arrived
On the 31st of March 2020, India’s water ministry urged state governments to enforce a message agreed upon by experts around the world: washing hands with soap and water for 20 seconds repeatedly is crucial. In India and many other developing countries, this message ignores a crucial question unnoticed by millions: What do you do if you don’t have clean water?
Less than 50% of the population in India has access to safe drinking water without the contamination of bacteria or chemical compounds like fluoride and arsenic. Cities across India like Bengaluru, have confronted the grim reality that in the near future, clean water might be a luxury commodity. In other areas such as Khan Chandpur in Uttar Pradesh, the groundwater is contaminated with carcinogenic heavy metals thanks to 45,000 tonnes of toxic waste dumped nearby.
Whether it is a village like Khan Chandpur where pumps have been spewing neon green water contaminated with Hexavalent Chromium (a pollutant popularised by the film Erin Brockovich at the turn of the millennium); the 1.57 crore residents of Bengal who are forced to drink arsenic and iron-laden water or the city of Agra with its calcium, fluoride and sulphate loaded groundwater which caused cases of arthritis, fluorosis and anaemia among the residents of nearly 23 villages around the metropolitan area; the problem is lethal and invisible to the human eye. While consuming water, people usually check to see if the water is clear and thereby assume it is safe. However water that looks clean, might not be safe at all.
The most widespread case of poisoning, arsenic, was first reported in 1983 in West Bengal and since then it has spread to Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, in the floodplains of the Ganga river; Assam and Manipur in the floodplains of the Brahmaputra and Imphal rivers and Rajnandgaon village in Chhattisgarh. Some experts say it is a problem in the floodplains of all rivers originating from the Himalayas and the Barail range in the northeast. A WaterAid report in 2016 ranked India among the worst countries in the world for the number of people without safe water.
Untreated sewage, high coliform bacteria levels in rivers like Ganga, Yamuna, Gomti, Chambal, Godavari and critical levels of organic matter have rendered many waterbodies in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh completely useless. The Water Quality Association India has admitted that a regular water purifier doesn’t work with all types of water and that different filters should be used for a different quality of input water. Unfortunately, millions of Indians across the country are not equipped with such facilities to test whether the water consumed and used by them is safe enough or not. The dual problems of not having access to water, or having access to unsafe water have resulted in safe and hygienic water, a basic amenity becoming a luxury.
The solution does not lie in short term attempts to clean up river bodies. The key is to look at securing drinking water and the role communities and individuals play in doing so. It would be a discredit to say that this crisis is being slept on; as government bodies and private sector companies have proved to be valuable stakeholders in this mission. However in the face of dire reports that project a severe shortage of clean water to 40% of Indian households by 2030, the rudimentary question remains unchanged. Can these ventures solve India’s water crisis before it is too late?
