The ongoing heat wave in Odisha is adding to the misery of the people who are struggling to get safe drinking water in this burning summer.
Every person in the country should have water of 70 litters per capita per day within his/her household premises. Every person has right to demand for drinking water as it is vital to health and wellbeing. But it is most unfortunate that the primary basic human necessity for life such as safe drinking water has not been ensured for all in the State having plenty of water resources.
The women of the poor and marginalised sections are travelling every day a long distance with water pots to collect water as mostly it has been the duty of women in family to ensure drinking water for all family members, especially for children and elders. It is the poor and marginalised people and those residing in hilly and mines areas, who are mostly depending on public water sources such as river, canal, stream, tube well, well and pond and about 90 per cent of such source became dried up in summer and tube wells become defunct as the ground water level has gone down. The people in rural areas have to spend time, labour and money to get drinking water whose cost has been increasing day by day.
Public water sources have been getting polluted for a number of reasons and with increasing commercialisation of drinking water the sources of safe drinking water for poor have been getting limited. Water contamination has increased, especially arsenic and fluoride content in drinking water has been a major concern in the State. The struggle to get safe drinking water takes a major time in collection and storage and the inadequate availability of safe drinking water has got an adverse impact over health and wellbeing of the family. World Bank estimates that 21 per cent of the communicable diseases in India are related to unsafe water. Diarrhoea alone causes hundreds of death of children and women in rural area due to non-availability of safe drinking water.
It is the prime duty of the State to ensure basic human need, especially safe drinking water, for those who are not in a position to invest on developing private water sources near their house but, unfortunately, our priority public spending has not been focused on drinking water need of the poor and marginalized. There has been no plan by the State Government to ensure safe drinking water and the State Government has failed to utilize the Central grant under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme besides a host of other schemes such as MGNREGS and RKVY where drinking water has been identified as a most urgent priority. Why a backward State like Odisha with plenty of surface and ground water has not been able to solve the basic human need since last 65 years of planned development is a billion dollar question. It is fact that the majority of households in the State are poor who cannot invest on drinking water. So, needless to say, it is only the State investment that can ensure safe drinking water for the poor people. Water being a most precious natural wealth should be owned and managed and distributed by the State for public utility.
The Rural Development Department data says till February, 2016 only one fourth of the total habitation of the State are covered by piped water but this figure is far from reality. The 2011 census says more than one third of the total household in the State were traveling more than 500 meters from their house to collect drinking water. This number has been increasing in acute distress condition in districts such as Kandhamal,Deogarh, Subarnapur, Dhenkanal, Angul, Keonjhar, Jharasuguda, Sundaragarh,Mayurabhanj,Bolangiri and Kalahandi. In most of the mines and industrial areas, the ground water level has gone down and perennial water streams have dried up as well as water pollution of existing water bodies is very high which has been a major cause of drinking water scarcity.
Water is a free gift of nature and public good which should not be a denied to any one on any ground at any cost. The State Government should distribute water on the principles of economic and social equity and ecological efficiency but water has been denied on economic and social background to the poor and marginalised, especially SCs, STs and other marginalised poor.
The Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in its letter dated April18 to all Principal Secretaries of 13 States including Odisha has asked for a detailed report of measures taken by the State Government to mitigate drinking water scarcity situation. The Ministry has made available financial resources to immediately repair and maintain all water supply systems, hand pumps and bore wells and use sufficient number of pumps along with new bore wells to be set up in areas having good aquifer. The State Government must set up drinking water monitoring cell at State, district and block levels to monitor such activities. The funds spent under drinking water must have priority for coverage of SCs and STs concentrated habitations in the rural areas. At the central level, 22 per cent of drinking water programme funds are earmarked for scheduled caste sub plan and 10 per cent for tribal sub plan to be utilized for provision of drinking water supply to poor SC and ST concentrated habitations in rural areas. Habitations in inaccessible areas and with more than 40 per cent of SC population should get top priority.
It is found that in many rural villages, Dalit people face untouchability while accessing water from public tube well, bore well and tanks in the common place of multi caste village. There have been cases of caste conflict over water issue among rural poor and women are the worst sufferer in such cases in everyday life. A majority of the Dalit habitations lack land and electricity for installing tube well or bore wells. As per guidelines of Government, the women of SCs, STs and OBCs should constitute more than 50 per cent of the members of village water and sanitation committee. The schemes such as MGNREGS resources should be used to build water sources for the poor and marginalized in rural areas. There should be drinking water testing laboratories at district, sub-division and block level to ensure water quality and avoid water contamination and pollution of drinking water.
It is being told by the Rural Development Department that they have supplied field test kits to Panchayats to access the quality of drinking water but the real implementation has yet to happen. The public institutions such as school and Anganwadi centres in rural areas must have linked to safe drinking water without barriers of social discrimination. But it is unfortunate that the State Government has not been following any policy guideline while implementing schemes of central assistance to ensure quality water supply.
The Rural Development Department should be proactively lead the programmes in mobilising resources from various sources that includes central assistance, public sector, State budget and private bodies and also by converging different rural development schemes to build water bodies and water distribution infrastructures in rural areas for public use. The funds under district mineral foundation, SCSP, TSP, MGNREGS, PMKKY, and PRI should be collectively utilised for providing drinking water in war footing basis and all the projects must be completed during a definite time frame.
Drinking water projects should not be getting delayed for reason of financial or administrative ground. It is also equally important to manage, store and control rain water, surface water and its pollution and check the misuse of ground water by regulation, control, and management and to provide equal attention for sustainability of water sources in the State.
(Email-manasbbsr15@gamil.com , Mob -09437o60797)