It took the deaths of her husband and son to force authorities to supply it to the slum she calls home Weak infrastructure and a national shortage have made water costly all over India, but Sushila Devi paid a higher price than most.
But earlier … the water used to be rusty, we could not even wash our hands or feet with that kind of water," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in Delhi.
Water pollution is a major challenge, the report said, with nearly 70 percent of India’s water contaminated, impacting three in four Indians and contributing to 20 percent of the country’s disease burden.
Yet only one-third of its wastewater is currently treated, meaning raw sewage flows into rivers, lakes and ponds – and eventually gets into the groundwater.
"Our surface water is contaminated, our groundwater is contaminated.
You fall ill because you don’t have access to safe drinking water, because your water is contaminated."
"The burden of not having access to safe drinking water, that burden is greatest on the poor and the price is paid by them."
To tackle this crisis, which is predicted to get worse, the government has urged states – responsible for supplying clean water to residents – to prioritise treating waste water to bridge the supply and demand gap and to save lives.
Currently, only 70 percent of India’s states treat less than half of their wastewater.
That does not stop 10-year-old Gauri, who lives in a nearby slum, from jumping in every day.