Ensure clean drinking water for all people, Paswan tells states
BASIC RIGHT Minister asks CMs to implement standards for supply of quality drinking water
Following reports of poor drinking water supply, Union minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan, has written to chief ministers of all states asking them to ensure quality drinking water to their people.
Paswan also wrote to the ministry of urban development, housing & urban poverty alleviation as well as the ministry of Panchayati Raj, rural development and drinking water and sanitation, asking them to take necessary steps to implement the standards for ensuring supply of quality water for human consumption.
A UNICEF report titled ‘Water in India: Situation and Prospects’ says, “Despite India’s booming economy, water insecurity and poor water quality remains a major cause of child mortality and morbidity, especially among the poor. India lost more than 600,000 children under five in 2010 due to WASH ( Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) related diseases like diarrhoea and pneumonia.”
The water supplied to people here cannot be consumed without being treated.
In his letter to ministries and states, Paswan said, “Provision of safe drinking water is top priority element in public health policy; steps need to be taken to ensure availability of quality drinking water to the people.”
Paswan, who recently flew to London for a month of medical treatment, further said, “In this context, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has also established an Indian standard on drinking water that prescribes requirements and methods of sampling and tests for drinking water in 2012.
According to experts, countries like South Africa and Singapore prefer tertiary level technology for water treatment – which is reverse osmosis (RO) – for their people while in India the level of water treatment largely continues to be primary and secondary in very limited cases.
It means that people in those countries can drink water directly from taps or in their households whereas in India people have to install individual RO machines to treat the piped water before drinking it.
Paswan told HT last week, “These days we have launched a campaign on pure water asking stakeholders to ensure compliance of WHO standards, and for this we have written to the chief ministers of all state governments.”