Availability of safe drinking water has remained a long-pending issue in the country.
We live in a world where millions of people – the majority of them children – die every year from diseases that are associated with non-availability of safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene.
In comparison to that about 663 million people are still without any kind of access to safe drinking water and facilities for sanitation.
In a span of a quarter of a century between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of the global population using an improved drinking water source has increased from 76% to about 91%.
The country has an ambitious National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) – a centrally-sponsored scheme – which is aimed at providing every person in rural India with adequate safe water for drinking, cooking and other domestic basic needs on a sustainable basis.
Safe water is to be readily and conveniently accessible at all times and in all situations and therefore, the scheme focuses on the creation of the infrastructure.
The government report says there were as many as 662 “quality-affected villages” in Assam during 2017-18.
One key factor responsible for non-availability of safe drinking water in villages across India is the lack of community participation and community ownership of the projects.
Global goals and national priorities on reliable energy, economic growth, resilient infrastructure, sustainable industrialisation, consumption and production, and food security, are all inextricably linked to a sustainable supply of clean water.
Through Goal 6 of the SDG, the countries of the world have resolved to achieve universal access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation and hygiene to all in the next 15 years.