Page 206 - economic review

SOCIAL SERVICE178

Fig 4.10
Access to Safe Drinking Water

Source: MOSPI, Government of India

4.174 National Sample Survey Organisation conducted a nation-wide survey on ‘Drinking Water,
Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing condition’ in its 69th Round of survey. As per the findings, 94.7%
households in Rural Kerala and 90.2% households in Urban Kerala got good quality of Drinking
Water during 2012. With wide variations noted in data available from various sources, the focus
shifts to defining safe water or good quality water and having a common national benchmark for
precise measurement. Hence discussions on the quality of water should move beyond the current
classification based on source.

Quality of Drinking Water in Kerala

4.175 Kerala is one of the most vulnerable states in the country, in terms of water quality. Quality of
water varies from source to source and even place to place. In general, ground water is held to be
of better quality than surface water. However, it cannot be generalised. Hence it is ideal to test and
wherever required, treat water before supply or use for drinking purposes.
4.176 People in Kerala generally depend upon well water system. Around 70 percent of people do
not have access to piped drinking water system and lack of piped water connection enhances the
level of bacterial and chemical contaminations in the drinking water.
4.177 Data available from the results of Field Test Kit under the National Rural Drinking Water
Programme, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation indicate that 40.2% of the sources tested
under the scheme NRDWP in rural Kerala have been contaminated with chemical contaminants like
Iron, Fluoride, Salinity, Nitrate, Arsenic, and biological contaminants like Faecal coliform. About 3.6
% of the contaminated sources had multiple contaminations. Unscientific waste disposal, unplanned
construction of toilets in high density populated areas, discharge of industrial waste etc. are the major
reasons. Most of the states which had chemical and bacterial contaminations have been successful
in reducing the contamination level over years. However, Kerala’s performance in this regard has
been poor.

Kerala State Planning Board