Water: The new challenge

Reports are that a hospital in Japan used water meant for toilets as drinking water for 30 years. What happened there could, certainly, not be an isolated case at least across the Asian continent – where a milling 60 per cent of the world population live and most nations are run by democratically elected governments. The scenario could be worse in India, compared to other nations in the continent, for the reasons that life in its hugely populated urban sprawls are chaotic while the nation’s systems are progressively weakening due to poor governance, massive corruption and lack of strong leadership.
What is common in the Indian situation in city after big city, is of drain water getting mixed with drinking water. Drainage systems run close to and parallel to drinking water pipelines. In the event of road-laying etc, these get broken and water gets contaminated. Such contaminated water reaches our homes and hotels. Only a minor segment of the people, families and hotels have their own purification system before this water is used for drinking and household purposes. Municipalities that oversee the drainage system and the authorities that take care of the water pipelines often do not show the seriousness to check such grim situations. When stench emanates from tap water or the water colour changes, the affected people make a hue and cry and remedial action is often taken. Drains in cities like Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, for instance, experience the wear and tear because those in the central cities were laid a century or so ago. Periodic renovation is a matter of urgency but is not done by citing issues like funds crunch. The water bodies across India remain largely polluted and many of these emanate stench. The Clean Ganga project, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi shortly after he came to power in 2014 with a fund outlay of Rs 20,000 crore has drawn a blank in the past seven years. The holy river remains as polluted as ever and the money sunk into the project has gone waste.
As is the wont today, politicians and bureaucrats might have shared the spoils and enriched themselves. So too with the other such cleaning missions.What is reported from Japan is a wake-up call to India as well. The health of the common man is seriously affected by the establishment’s failure to ensure quality drinking water to the people. With governing entities changing after every five years, the onus keeps shifting from one to the next and even urgent matters are ignored. No one is accountable in the long term.