DRINKING TO INDIA'S HEALTH
A review by the World Health Organisation of India's ongoing drinking water mission says it will save the lives of 4 lakh people annually. EPISODE # 130
Dear Reader,
A very Happy Monday to you.
Last week the Union government released the findings of a study by the World Health Organisation on India’s drinking water mission launched in 2019.
Implicitly recording its appreciation for the programme, WHO said, India would save the lives of 400,000 people every year—who otherwise would have succumbed to diarrhoeal diseases—if it succeeds in enabling saturation access to drinking water.
This week I explore this legacy neglect and the gains that will accrue by resolving them. Do read and share your feedback.
The cover picture has been taken by Marine Sintes and sourced from Unsplash.
A big shoutout to Nimesh, Premasundaran, Aashish, Vandana and Kamal for your informed responses, kind appreciation and amplification of last week’s column. Once again, grateful for the conversation initiated by all you readers. Gratitude also to all those who responded on Twitter and Linkedin.
Unfortunately, Twitter has shut down amplification of Substack links and content—perils of social media monopolies operating in a walled garden framework. I would be grateful therefore if you could spread the word. Nothing to beat the word of mouth.
Reader participation and amplification is key to growing this newsletter community. And, many thanks to readers who hit the like button😊.
THE CLEAN WATER REVOLUTION
In 2011, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh undertook a reshuffle of the union cabinet. Gurudas Kamat, Congress member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha elected from Maharashtra, was picked to take over as the minister of state (independent charge) Drinking Water and Sanitation.
You may recall that Kamat turned down the offer. Why? Because the portfolio was not weighty enough! Subsequently, the UPA, compounded its error of ommision by burying the department within the Rural Development Ministry.
This anecdote sums up the legacy of neglect that has driven India’s development programmes in general and to provide access to drinking water in particular.
Sharing a painful outcome of this neglect: In 2019, 72 years after gaining Independence, only 1.94% of rural households in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, had access to drinking water.
Worse, this negligence is fatal.
According to the report released last week by the World Health Organisation (WHO), saturation access to drinking water would have saved upto 4 lakh diarrhoeal deaths every year.
Look back over the last 75 years, do the math: The evidence is both scary and depressing.
A Legacy of Neglect
The WHO study was released in Delhi last week by the institution’s India representative, Roderico H. Ofrin.
It listed the following benefits that will accrue to India if it did indeed succeed in providing safe drinking water to all households in India:
Avert 4 lakh diarrhoeal disease deaths;
Avoid the loss of 14 million DALYs (Disability Adjusted Life Years);
And save upto $101 billion.
According to WHO, women in India, the primary care givers of most households, spend roughly an hour each day to collect water for their households.
“The majority of this (55.8 million hours) happened in rural areas, and approximately three quarters of this burden (48.7 million hours) was borne by women.
Boys and girls spent a total of 3.5 million hours each day collecting water.”
In 2018, all households in India without on-premises water, spent 66.6 million hours each day in collecting water, the report added.
In short, enabling access to drinking water would make these households time millionaires—imagine the impact on productivity of each household, purely because of time saved.
Not to speak of the empowerment of women, especially if we combine it with the government achieving saturation coverage in the provision of toilets in every home.
According to UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund, originally known as the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund), the consequences of unsafe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) are devastating:
“Over 700 children under age 5 die every day of diarrhoeal diseases due to lack of appropriate WASH services.
In areas of conflict, children are nearly 20 times more likely to die from diarrhoeal disease than from the conflict itself.”
It is estimated that every year close to 4 crore people suffer from water borne diseases in India. Many, as pointed out earlier, succumb to these ailments.
Addressing this gap is a business opportunity for water purifying companies—this market was estimated to have grown to $3 billion in 2022; and is projected to double by 2028. Guess, one man’s loss is another gain.
Turning On The Tap
The good news is that India is finally making amends and is seeking to fix the legacy of neglect through the ‘Har Ghar Jal’ programme launched in 2019.
The bad news is that it is still a work in progress.
The proportion of households with access to drinking water in rural India has risen from 16.64% in 2019 to 62.84%. While this progress in a span of 41 months is remarkable, more than a third of rural India still does not have access to drinking water through a tap.
Though it is also a fact that some of the states have achieved saturation coverage. Gujarat, Telangana, Goa, Haryana, Punjab and three union territories—Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Daman Diu and Dadra Nagar Haveli and Puducherry—have reported 100% coverage.
Himachal Pradesh at 98.87%, followed by Bihar at 96.30%, are also poised to achieve this milestone.
The gains from this initiative, which smacks of good governance, will become tangible only in the next decade. Not just in terms of personal and the collective health of all Indians. Collateral gains like women’s empowerment, increase in productivity and the reduction in plastic waste (from water bottles) are equally significant.
Cooperative Federalism
Since water is a state subject, this entire programme rested on the ability of the union government to work with state governments.
While politically the divide between the union government and opposition ruled states has only widened in the last decade, it is remarkable that this has not impacted the roll out of such a vital development initiative. Salute to everyone.
So far, we had assumed that the roll out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), was the best example of cooperative federalism. Some of us even felt that this was an isolated instance, wherein the union and state governments pooled their sovereignty to tax, and came up with the compelling idea of ‘One Nation, One Tax’.
India’s drinking water revolution says cooperative federalism is alive and kicking. Though the political rhetoric echoing in daily news may suggest otherwise.
Recommended Viewing
Sharing the latest post of Capital Calculus on StratNews Global.
In the last few weeks prices of gold have inched closer to the peak of 2067.15 dollars per troy ounce recorded in August 2020. The logic is easy to understand: The supply of yellow metal is limited, while you have lots of takers, including central banks. Last year central banks together purchased over 1,000 tonnes of gold.
Traditionally, gold has always been the go-to hedge during times of uncertainty. Especially in the current circumstances, which are unprecedented. An interplay of three shocks—economic, energy and geopolitical—have roiled the world economy.
With no end in sight to global uncertainty, gold prices are likely to remain elevated. For how long? Will retail consumers have to reconcile to costlier gold?
To answer all these questions and more we spoke to John Reade, Chief Market Strategist, World Gold Council.
Sharing the link below. Do watch and share your thoughts.
Till we meet again next week, stay safe.
Dear Anil,
Very nice article on this important natural resource!Water scarcity threatens the health and development of the entire world , and India due to its huge population will be most severely affected by the drinking water shortage.Climate change is intensifying this problem, many water bodies have vanished or become unusable due to the pollutants.In India the water crisis is more due to the mismanagement.
I like the term " time millionaires" used by you in context of rural households!! After all, time is the most precious commodity!
I really liked the topic. While big ticket items like GDP and stock markets always get coverage, something as basic as water, the current situation and it's economic impact is not something you see often. And this comes out in the article too. Reading the article one also realises that we have been blessed on this front that the worst we have seen is when water was restricted to a few specific hours a day. As you have outlined in the article, the progress is good but we need to get to 100% on something as basic as drinking water access. On a related note would be interested in any similar research and data you have on the impact of pollution on productivity.