Bengali Report - Bengalee Association Bihar

As regards the source of drinking water for the households, the pattern varies
considerably across the districts; this is very expected due to the varying
hydrological conditions prevailing in different districts. In the absence of supply of
piped water (available generally in urban areas), the most preferred source of
drinking water in rural areas is ‘own hand pump’ and this facility is available to 67.4
percent of the Bengali households (Table 15). For the other three sources of
drinking water, the coverages are — common hand pump (23.2 percent), well (6.7
percent), and piped water (2.7 percent). For the general population of Bihar, the
sources of drinking water display a similar pattern. It may be noted here that,
compared to many other regions in India, the availability of safe drinking water is
relatively wider in Bihar, because the state is part of the Gangetic plane where
ground water is abundant and its level is also rather high.
Table 15 : Percentage Distribution of Bengali Households by Source of Drinking Water
Districts
Percentage of Households getting drinking water from
Well
Common
Hand
Pump
24
Own
Hand
Pump
Piped
Water
Total
Purnea 2.7 11.9 83.9 1.5 100.0
Katihar 11.3 35.9 48.1 4.7 100.0
West Champaran 7.6 19.5 71.6 1.3 100.0
East Champaran 1.4 41.8 56.2 0.6 100.0
Bhagalpur 25.8 8.9 30.2 35.1 100.0
All Districts 6.7 23.2 67.4 2.7 100.0
Bihar 6.0 21.6 68.0 4.4 100.0
The toilet facilities available to the members of a household is another important
indicator of living conditions and, as is well known, this facility is largely lacking in