Drinking water woes: India meets UN millennium goals!

[desiman]

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Drinking water woes: India meets UN millennium goals!

India has achieved the Millennium Development Goal for drinking water by providing 84 per cent of its rural population with access to improved sources of water, Rural Development Minister C P Joshi said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

However, the country is facing a tremendous challenge in sustaining drinking water security in rural areas as most water sources are ground water based and have been overexploited for agriculture and industry besides being subjected to untreated sewage, he said.

"India has achieved considerable progress in providing clean and safe drinking water in most rural areas of the country. I am happy to say that we have achieved the MDG for drinking water. However, there is much to achieve. Our goal is to provide every household with an improved source of drinking water by 2012," Joshi said.



The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organisations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015.

A recent report by the World Health Organization and United Nations International Children's Fund said that the world is on track to surpass the Millennium Development Goal for drinking water access, but will fall short by one billion people for sanitation if current trends continue.

The report also notes that access to an improved water source does not mean access to a quality water source.

The report finds that 2.6 billion people, or more than one-third of the world's population, do not use improved sanitation.

While progress has been made in northern Africa, Southeast Asia and East Asia, large parts of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa go without proper facilities.



The goals focused on poverty, health, hunger, education and gender equality, with the water and sanitation target aiming to half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. This goal uses 1990 as a baseline year for comparison.

Global access to an improved water source, defined as being protected from outside contamination, exceeds MDG targets.

Nearly 1.7 billion people have gained new access since 1990. Improved sources include piped household connections, protected wells and springs, public taps, and boreholes.

Joshi said over exploitation of ground water sources is posing a "growing" threat to the country's drinking water security.

"We are, therefore, moving away from exclusive dependence on groundwater to reviving traditional water bodies and to the practice of collecting rain water, practices that were neglected when the hand-pump revolution came up."



There have also been "heartening" examples of community ground water monitoring and crop water budgeting in Andhra Pradesh and elsewhere, "models of which we hope to replicate on a larger scale to avoid over-drawing the ground water resources," he said.

Listing the other challenges, Joshi said government has to meet the increasing demand from rural areas to provide piped water and household tap connections.

"Only about 12 per cent of the rural households had tap connections in 2005. Our goal is to move up the water ladder from hand pumps to piped water supply through public taps and then to household tap connections culminating in continuous metered supply of safe water," he said.

The WHO/UNICEF report states that open defecation, the most unsanitary behavior, is declining.

The report also found wide gaps between coverage in rural and urban areas for both drinking water and sanitation.

More than eight out of ten people without improved water sources and seven out of ten people without adequate sanitation live in rural areas, according to the report.

Joshi said the government is also working to ensure an open defecation free rural India by 2012 through the Total Sanitation Campaign, he said, adding the campaign has so far seen an increase in sanitation coverage.

"Between 2000 and 2008, 104 million people adopted improved sanitation in India of which 71 million were from rural India," he said, adding the total number of those opting for improved sanitation in India in the last two decades was more than the 2008 population of UK, France and Germany combined.



Drinking water woes: India meets UN millennium goals! : Rediff.com Business

And We continue to move forward - Jai Hind

[lhuang]

What a cute elephant

[PeacefulIndian]

Still long way to go I guess. Merely having access to purified water is no good if the supply is going to be once in 3 days or so. And that is the case in many villages & some parts cities too. Access to water on a regular basis so that all the household needs are satisfied, is the key.

[desiman]

Still long way to go I guess. Merely having access to purified water is no good if the supply is going to be once in 3 days or so. And that is the case in many villages & some parts cities too. Access to water on a regular basis so that all the household needs are satisfied, is the key.

Alteast we are working, things are moving and steps are being taken. Contrary to popular belief the Indian Government has been taking quite a lot of steps to improve the lives of every Indian. Just give India 10 more years, the seeds of our hardwork will bear a lot of fruit

[Avatar]

JAI HIND !

[Justin Joseph]

Alteast we are working, things are moving and steps are being taken. Contrary to popular belief the Indian Government has been taking quite a lot of steps to improve the lives of every Indian. Just give India 10 more years, the seeds of our hardwork will bear a lot of fruit

True.

Punjab installs RO system for clean water in villages

[desiman]

What a cute elephant

Thats the Indian elephant my friend just starting to grow

[ARCHON]

Sanitation now on national agenda in India, says Unicef representative


New Delhi: Lizette Burgers, the chief of water and environmental sanitation of Unicef has said India is heading towards achieving Millennium Development Goal (MDG) in sanitation as it has put sanitation on national agenda.

Addressing a press conference here, Burgers said, "In the case of sanitation, the total sanitation campaign has succeeded in putting sanitation on the national agenda.

Sanitation has been showing an increasing trend since 1999. The latest ...programme data indicates a sharp acceleration from 2006 onwards and we are hopeful that with further dynamics and sustained support India is inching closer to the MGD target." Rural development minister of West Bengal Chandra Prakash Joshi said the state had achieved the MGD goals for drinking water.

"I am happy to say that we have achieved the MGD for drinking water by providing 84% of our rural population with access to improved sources of water as compared to goal of 83%. However, there is much more to achieve, our goal is to provide every household with an improved source of drinking water by 2012. Our challenge is also to meet the increasing demand from the rural areas to provide piped water and household tap connections. In this sense, we have quite some distance to go," Joshi added.

He further said that provision of sanitation and a clean environment are important to improve health of the people and reduce the incidence of diseases among children.

The programme focuses on sharing India's development experience and its drive towards achieving the MDGs for water and sanitation. Experts from around 18 countries would visit different states to study aspects of water safety and sanitation.

The groups would be visiting Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Madhya Pradesh.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report...tative_1370979


Waiting for the shchinese guy to jump and call toiletss toiletss toiletsssss.....

[intelarpit]

Still a long way to go.....but yes we are working on these ground issues as well and these reports are very encouraging....

Jai Hind

[ARCHON]

Still a long way to go.....but yes we are working on these ground issues as well and these reports are very encouraging....

Jai Hind

When rural India starts reflecting the good deeds of strong urban developments and achievements, India would be a force to reckon with.

[ARCHON]

Thats the Indian elephant my friend just starting to grow

Hey .. Just bookmark this thread for later use.

[Mirza Jatt]

A very satisfactory news....one by one other goals will be achieved as well

[peacekeeper]

JAI HIND,

great work by indian government
however it should be ensured that there is proper and quality supply of water,

and also other ways of water replenishment like rain water harvesting and RO should be promoted

[peacekeeper]

Thats the Indian elephant my friend just starting to grow

hahaha

Good one

[lhuang]

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^ I just got it hahaha