Turn on the tap.
Although the country has been recognized as one of the nations that has done the most to improve access to clean water, it is still home to 163 million people – half the population of the United States – who do not have access to safe drinking water.
15 of 2018 published by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India based on its findings as of March 2017.
The sheer scope of the engineering, labor, and volume of materials needed is almost beyond comprehension.
China faces a similar crisis.
It is likely that South Africa will face another water crisis within the next year.
Meanwhile, the objective of India’s National Rural Drinking Water Program is “to provide safe and adequate water for drinking, cooking, and other domestic needs to every rural person on a sustainable basis.” The NRDWP data shows 2017 Goals Actual Status 100% of rural habitations to have access to safe drinking water Only 44% have access to safe drinking water.
100% of government schools and anganwadis [1] to have access to safe drinking water Only 85% of government schools and anganwadis to have access to safe drinking water 50% of the rural population to be provided potable drinking water (55 lpcd1)[2] by piped water supply.
Only 18% of the rural population has access to potable drinking water by piped water supply.
35% of rural households to be provided household connections.

For 10 years, some residents in Denmark, South Carolina, have been suspicious of the rust-colored water coming from their taps.
They’ve been collecting samples in jars and using bottled or spring water, even though the local and state government assured them it was safe.
But through a Freedom of Information Act request and a one-year investigation, CNN has found new information that may cast doubts on those assurances.
The state government was adding a substance to one of the city’s four wells, trying to regulate naturally occurring iron bacteria that can leave red stains or rust-like deposits in the water.
The substance, known as HaloSan, was not approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency to disinfect drinking water.
CNN was told by the state that it has been adding HaloSan to the water in Denmark since 2008.
A spokesman for South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control told CNN in an email that it believed HaloSan was EPA-approved for drinking water based on the way the system was "advertised."
An EPA risk assessment from 2007 shows that HaloSan can be a "significant eye and skin irritant."
The EPA told CNN that HaloSan is not a registered pesticide product and has not been reviewed by EPA’s pesticide program.
But Edwards says he couldn’t let go of a nagging feeling that there was something missing, especially after finding red flags, like a 2010 local newspaper story where a city official declared the water had safe lead levels nine days before the testing was conducted.

A section of residents of Woraiyur in Tiruchi city has complained of getting drinking water mixed with sewage for the last five days.
He then alerted his neighbours and residents of other nearby areas.
The water supplied to the residents was full of sewage.
It was black and unfit for human consumption, said a resident, who displayed bottles filled with the contaminated water.
“It was detected five days ago.
But we do not know how long we have beendrinking the contaminated water.
We have now stopped consuming it,” a resident said.
Acting on a complaint, a team of workers engaged by Tiruchi Corporation on Monday began the task of detecting the point of sewage mixing with drinking water on Monday.
They continued the work on Tuesday too.
But they were unable to detect the sewage mixing point.

CHICAGO — Toxic waste contaminates water sources near all but two of the coal-fired power plants in Illinois, according to a new analysis based largely on testing conducted by energy companies.
Most of the waste in Illinois has been mixed with water and pumped into unlined pits, where testing shows harmful levels of arsenic, chromium, lead and other heavy metals are steadily oozing through the ground toward lakes and rivers, including the state’s only national scenic river.
Another is a Joliet quarry where ComEd and other companies dumped coal ash until NRG overhauled a nearby coal plant in 2016 to burn natural gas.
Ten of the sites pose a danger to the drinking water supplies of nearby communities, according to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, including the Joliet dump and ash pits surrounding another NRG coal plant along the Des Plaines River in Romeoville.
Nonprofit groups behind the new report, including the Environmental Integrity Project and the Sierra Club, are urging Democrat J.B. Pritzker, the state’s next governor, to require coal plant owners to stop polluting the state’s protected waters and to set aside money to clean up their pits of hazardous coal ash.
Former Democratic Gov.
In August, a key federal appeals court handed down a scathing ruling that regulations adopted during the Obama administration weren’t tough enough and did nothing to prevent leaks at scores of ash pits near shuttered coal plants.
But the Trump administration is pushing to replace the Obama-era regulations with an even weaker set of requirements.
Most of the coal plants in Illinois are owned by two companies, New Jersey-based NRG and Houston-based Vistra Energy.
Vistra-owned sites include unlined pits in the floodplain of the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River, the state’s only national scenic river.

Toxic waste contaminates water sources near all but two of the coal-fired power plants in Illinois, according to a new analysis based largely on testing conducted by energy companies.
The compilation of industry-supplied reports from 24 coal plants highlights how federal and state officials have failed for decades to hold corporations accountable for the millions of tons of ash and other harmful byproducts created by the burning of coal to generate electricity.
Most of the waste in Illinois has been mixed with water and pumped into unlined pits, where testing shows harmful levels of arsenic, chromium, lead and other heavy metals are steadily oozing through the ground toward lakes and rivers, including the state’s only national scenic river.
Another is a Joliet quarry where ComEd and other companies dumped coal ash until NRG overhauled a nearby coal plant in 2016 to burn natural gas.
Ten of the sites pose a danger to the drinking water supplies of nearby communities, according to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, including the Joliet dump and ash pits surrounding another NRG coal plant along the Des Plaines River in Romeoville.
Nonprofit groups behind the new report, including the Environmental Integrity Project and the Sierra Club, are urging Democrat J.B. Pritzker, the state’s next governor, to require coal-plant owners to stop polluting the state’s protected waters and to set aside money to clean up their pits of hazardous coal ash.
In August, a key federal appeals court handed down a scathing ruling that regulations adopted during the Obama administration weren’t tough enough and did nothing to prevent leaks at scores of ash pits near shuttered coal plants.
But the Trump administration is pushing to replace the Obama-era regulations with an even weaker set of requirements.
Most of the coal plants in Illinois are owned by two companies, New Jersey-based NRG and Houston-based Vistra Energy.
Vistra-owned sites include unlined pits in the floodplain of the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River, the state’s only national scenic river.

The Philomath Public Works Department reported a loss of water pressure in the city’s distribution system due to a break in the water line.
City sources said residents will be informed when tests show no bacteria and the boiling of water is no longer needed.
Officials anticipate resolving the problem by the end of Thursday.
Bacteria that could possibly be present in the water supply can make people sick and are a particular concern for people with weakened immune systems, including infants and young children.
• Bring all water to a boil, let it boil for one full minute, and let it cool before using, or use bottled water.
• Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes, and food preparation until further notice.
Boiling kills bacteria and other organisms in the water.
A release from the city states that potentially harmful bacteria include fecal coliforms and E. coli which are bacteria whose presence indicates that the water may be contaminated with human or animal wastes, the city reported.
Microbes in these wastes can cause diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches or other symptoms.
People at increased risk should seek advice about drinking water from their health-care providers.

Chandrapur: Clean and safe drinking water is still a dream for Bandiri village under Chandrapur block in Rayagada district as the defunct water tank fails to supply water.
According to villagers, a water tank was built by the Rural Water Supply Department to provide clean drinking water to around 3000 residents of the village, three years ago.
However, it stopped working after a few days of its construction.
There are five tube wells in the village.
However, they fail to meet the drinking water needs of the villagers, following which the villagers depend on nearby canal and water pits, said Sunil Tangaranga, Indu Tangaranga , Jitendra Tangaranga and other villagers.
Another villager Arjun Malabisoi said the villagers depend on the nearby canal for their daily activities.
However, the problem would be doubled soon as the canal would go dry within two- three months.
On the other hand, some villagers said they have been informing the drinking water supply department about the impending crisis, but no action has been taken so far.
When contacted, the Assistant Engineer of Rural Water Supply Department, Jitendra Patra, said the water scarcity would be tackled within 10 to 12 days after digging a bore well in the village.

Disinfection of public drinking water is one of the great public health success stories of the 20th century.
In 1908, Jersey City, N.J., became the first U.S. city to routinely disinfect community water.
Other cities and towns quickly followed, and by 1920, the typhoid rate in the United States had dropped by 66 percent.
But that battle isn’t over.
Around the world, more than 2 billion people lack reliable access to safe water (SN: 8/18/18, p. 14), and half a million people die each year from diarrhea caused by contaminated water, according to the World Health Organization.
If big cities are struggling, small towns with skimpy budgets as well as the many people who get their water from private wells often have it harder, lacking access to the infrastructure or technology to make water reliably safe.
In this issue, Science News staff writer Laurel Hamers digs into the latest research on water treatment technology and finds a focus on efforts to invent affordable, scalable solutions.
There’s a lot of engineering and chemistry involved, not surprisingly, and also physics — it’s hard to move water efficiently through a filter while also catching the bad stuff.
Her story is a testament to researcher ingenuity, and a helpful primer on how a typical municipal water treatment plant works.
Plus I found data on potential contaminants such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium, as well as information on how residents can get their water tested for lead, which can leach from pipes or fixtures.

Scientists have developed a method to efficiently clean water contaminated with toxic mercury—one of the major causes of environmental damage and health problems worldwide.
It is particularly harmful for children and can also be transmitted from a mother to a child during pregnancy.
Industries need better methods to reduce the risk of mercury being released in nature," said Wickman.
The electrode is made of the noble metal platinum, and through an electrochemical process it draws the toxic mercury out of the water to form an alloy of the two.
In this way, the water is cleaned of the mercury contamination.
The alloy formed by the two metals is very stable, so there is no risk of the mercury re-entering the water.
This is the first time the technique with electrochemical alloying has been used for decontamination purposes," said Cristian Tunsu, researcher at Chalmers.
One strength of the new cleaning technique is that the electrode has a very high capacity.
Thereby, the electrode can be recycled, and the mercury disposed of in a safe way.
Even though there may be many different types of substance in the water, it just removes the mercury.

A six-month-old warning to flush household taps for about 30 seconds in the morning to reduce exposure to lead in drinking water is "common sense", the government has said.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt responded to recommendations by the Environmental Health Standing Committee (enHealth) over lead poisoning concerns, released in July, that was on Sunday highlighted in media reports.
"I’m pleased that now, somewhat delayed, it has been given the prominence that I thought it should have otherwise received."
The enHealth statement — which represents the National Health and Medical Research Council along with Commonwealth, state and territory departments — offers a series of "precautions" to reduce exposure to lead that may be dissolving into drinking water from plumbing products.
Consuming levels above that can have a negative effect on your health.
There is no need for households to have their water tested, it adds.
The federal government is reportedly considering new national guidelines that will reduce the permitted amount of lead in brass fittings from 4.5 percent.
After three years, water tested found the levels of lead to be below Australia’s maximum allowance.
Authorities later deemed the water supply safe.
Minister Hunt said the guidelines do not relate to a particular incident.