Water is a basic need like food and air. It is not surprising, then, that the WHO (World Health Organization) has declared access to clean Drinking water as a basic human right. The United Nations and other organizations estimate that each person requires access to a minimum of 20 to 50 liters of water per day for drinking, food preparation, and personal hygiene.

Let’s look at some findings by the WHO:

• In 2017, 71% of the global population (5.3 billion people) used a safely managed drinking-water service – that is, one located on-premises, available when needed, and free from contamination.

• 90% of the global population (6.8 billion people) used at least a basic service. A basic service is an improved drinking-water source within a round trip of 30 minutes to collect water.

• 785 million people lack even a basic drinking-water service, including 144 million people who are dependent on surface water.

• Globally, at least 2 billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with feces.

• Contaminated water can transmit diseases such diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio. Contaminated drinking water is estimated to cause 4,85, 000 diarrhoeal deaths each year.

According to  the UNICEF India:

• Less than 50 percent of the population in India has access to safely managed drinking water.

• Chemical contamination of water, mainly through fluoride and arsenic, is present in 1.96 million dwellings.

• Excess fluoride in India may be affecting tens of millions of people across 19 states

• Less than 49 percent of the rural population is using safely managed drinking water (improved water supply located on-premises, available when needed, and free of contamination)

Let’s now look at the effects of lack of access to clean drinking water:

It seriously affects community health:

Water-borne diseases like diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, typhoid, and Guinea worm disease are a sad reality for the people who live in the poorest regions of the country. However, less serious issues like gastrointestinal ailments, cramping, nausea, diarrhea, headaches, etc. While some of the effects of contamination have immediate effects such as these, a few cause long term damage to the body like heavy metal contamination and radiation contamination.

It is a financial burden on the Government

According to UNICEF, it is estimated that waterborne diseases have an economic burden of approximately USD 600 million a year in India. This is especially true for drought- and flood-prone areas, which affected a third of the nation in the past couple of years. What is costing the Government could be channeled into budgeting for providing safe drinking water to all the households in the country.

It increases the school dropout rate

Most families, especially women and children bear the brunt of lack of access as they spend their valuable hours arranging for clean water requirements of their homes by walking to the nearest suppliers of water. This increases their dropout rate at schools and affects their future prospects.

It escalates the poverty of families

Having to travel to fetch clean water home just eliminates the possibility of planning for a brighter future on part of the families as they are forever stuck in the rut. Further, it is also not safe for women and children to travel through unsafe terrains to access clean drinking water.

Read on to find out the reasons for drinking pure water.

So, what is the solution?

Thankfully, the Government of India has started several initiatives to supply clean water to the majority of households in India.

The government’s rural e-governance initiative, Common Service Centres (CSCs) will now launch a pilot project to provide clean and safe drinking water in 50 villages, following which it will rope in village-level entrepreneurs (VLEs) to set up water filtration plants in 1 lakh villages in the country. It will take into account the mineral contamination profile of these villages.

Technologies are going to be roped in for water treatment. For instance, preparation of composite polyamide RO membrane for brackish water desalination, ultra-filtration (UF) membrane assisted device for removal of iron, solar-power-driven portable domestic brackish water reverse osmosis (RO) technology, domestic water purification device based on photo-catalysis using solar light and fluoride detection kit for groundwater.

But as you can imagine, there is many a slip between the cup and the lip.

In India, it is unthinkable to rely on water supplied by the Government alone. The improvements in purification technology have made a wide range of purifiers available in the market. Based on the individual requirements including the number of members in the household, budget, TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) quotient of the water, and the supply of electricity in their area, Indians can now choose from a range of water purifiers.

While it is understandable that the urban households would have the wherewithal to invest in a better quality of water purification systems like RO (Reverse Osmosis), UV (Ultraviolet) filtration, and UF (Ultrafiltration), even the rural households should budget for a basic water filtration system like Gravity based water filter. Ideally, there should be awareness programs on the usage of water filtration systems of all kinds across the country. Online retail is making shipping of these products to even obscure locations, so it makes sense to budget for one.

We recommend that you go through the Pureit RO water purifier product range.