Report 2011 - Deepalaya

Water access
“As of 2003, it was estimated that only 30% of India’s wastewater was being treated. Much of the rest—
amounting to millions of liters each day—find its way into local rivers and streams 111 ”.Knowing that access to
latrine is insufficient in rural area like Gusbethi and that infectious diseases (diarrhea, parasites) are spread
through oral-fecal transmission, water in this area is an important cause of intestinal infection and might
contribute to the problem of anemia. In this way, we have noticed a high prevalence of reported symptoms of
intestinal infections (60%) in our survey.
In Haryana, 96% of total population has access to improved source of water (94,7 % of rural areas) 112 Situation
in Gusbethi and surroundings is quite similar as most interviewed women have access to quite “safe” sources
water (57 % are using tube well and 27 % are using hand pump). However, as it is a problem in overall India,
sanitation is lacking in the villages that we have visited (Patuka and Kiruri).”In India the coverage of sanitation in
developed states is also not satisfactory. Taking example of Haryana, a state that ranks very high in terms of per
capita income among the major states, almost half of the household are without latrine and bathroom facility.
Further ¼ households are without connectivity to waste water drainage. The state is marked with a great
amount of variation in coverage of sanitation across the districts 113 . “ Thus contamination is likely to happen.
According to the country’s Tenth Five-Year Plan, three-fourths of India’s surface water resources are polluted,
and 80% of the pollution is due to sewage alone. 114 .
111 Reference 9 - p . 1 3
112 Reference 7 - p . 3
113 R e f e r e n c e 1 8
114 Reference 9 - p . 1 3