State: Centre’s drinking water scheme fails to quench thirst

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Union government’s ambitious Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) has so far been falling short of its objectives as a study has revealed that 42 per cent of rural households in Karnataka do not have tapwater connections.

The scheme’s stated goal is to provide a safe and sufficient amount of potable water to all rural households by 2024. Any state that achieves this goal will be given the ‘Har Ghar Jal’ (water to every house) status. However, the survey in question tells us that 34 per cent of households face water scarcity at one point or another every year and two-third of them do not have an alternative source of water.

Progress has been made on laying down relevant infrastructure like pipelines, borewells, among other facilities but maintenance of the same has been inadequate, observers said. However, the number of people falling ill or in rare cases dying after drinking contaminated water continues to be alarmingly high in Karnataka. The reasons for this are varied.

For instance, the survey conducted in 2022 revealed that 67 percent of households in Karnataka draw their potable water from the ground but only five percent of them have a recharge structure. When the groundwater level decreases significantly in the summer, toxins increase in concentration and wreak havoc on the health of consumers. Moreover, 68 per cent of the water samples tested didn’t have residual chlorine, which is an essential disinfectant.

Only six per cent of villages reported chlorination mechanisms. Dearth of testing facilities for water toxicity is also a continuing problem. Another issue is uranium contamination in some rural areas in Karnataka, which the Centre acknowledged in March 2022 and had directed the State government to take corrective measures.

However, once again the state didn't have enough resources such as district laboratories and technicians to test an adequate number of samples. Continuing with the theme of scarcity of human resources, it is to be noted that 47 per cent of the villages did not have trained pump operators who are required to use field kits to test water quality on the spot.

As many as 35 per cent of the villages do not have Village Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSCs) or Pani Samithis, which are instrumental in educating the masses about water health. Only 16 per cent of the villages are able to manage water supply. Decentralised, community-level management of the scheme has therefore seen little progress.