a, the Chaliyar in Kerala, the Gomati in U.P., the Narmada in | English MCQs & Quizzes
a, the Chaliyar in Kerala, the Gomati in U.P., the Narmada in M.P. and the Sone and the Subarnarekha rivers in Bihar is no different.
According to the W.H.O., eighty percent of diseases prevalent in India are water-borne; many of them assume epidemic proportions. The prevalence of these diseases heighten under conditions of drought. It is also estimated that India loses as many as 73 million man days every year due to water borne diseases, costing Rs. 600 crore by way of treatment expenditure and production losses. Management of water resources with respect to their quality also assumes greater importance especially when the country can no more afford to waste water.
The recent Clean-the-Ganga Project, with an action plan estimated to cost the exchequer Rs. 250 crore (which has been accorded top priority) is a trend setter in achieving this goal. The action plan evoked such great interest that offers of assistance have been received from France, U.K., U.S. and the Netherlands, as also from the World Bank. This is indeed laudable. Poland too has now joined this list.
The very fact that these countries have volunteered themselves to contribute their mite is a healthy reflection of global concern over growing environmental degradation and the readiness of the international community to participate in what is a truly formidable task. It may be recalled that the task of cleansing the Ganga along the Rishikesh-Hardwar stretch under the first phase of the Ganga Action Plan, has been completed and the results are reported to be encouraging.
The crisis of drinking water is deepening because water resources are drying up and the lowering of ground water through over pumping, this is compounded by the pollution of water resources. All these factors increase the magnitude of the problem. An assessment of the progress achieved by the end of March 1985, on completion of the first phase of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Dacade (1981–91), reveals that drinking water has been made available to 73 percent of the urban population and 56 percent to the rural population only. This means that nearly half the country’s rural population has to get drinking water facilities. This needs to be urgently geared up especially when considered against the Government’s professed objective of providing safe drinking water and sanitation to all by the end of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade, i.e., March 1991. The foremost action in this would be to clean up our water resources.
As per surveys conducted by the NEERI, per capita drinking water losses in different cities in the country range between 11,000 to 31,000 liters annually. This indicates a waste level of 20-35 percent of the total flow of water in the distribution system, primarily due to leaks in mains and household service pipes. Preventive maintenance programme would substantially reduce losses/wastages and would certainly go a long way in solving the problem.
According to the Union Ministry of Works and Housing, out of 2.31 lakh problem villages identified in 1980, 1.92 lakh (83 percent) villages have been provided with at least one source of drinking water as of March 1986. The balance (38,748) villages are expected to be covered during the seventh plan. A time-bound national policy on drinking water is being formulated by Government, wherein the task is proposed to be completed by the end of the seventh plan. An outlay of Rs. 6,522.47 crores has been allotted for the water supply and sanitation sector in the seventh plan period, against an outlay of Rs. 3,922.02 crores in the sixth plan. Of this, outlay for rural water supply sector is Rs. 3,454.47 crores. It is expected that this outlay would help to cover about 86.4 percent of the urban and 82.2 percent of the rural population with safe drinking water facilities by March 1991.Hygienic sanitation facilities would be provided to 44.7 percent and 1.8 percent of the urban and rural population respectively within, the same period.
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