January - March 2013 - National Institute of Rural Development

Drinking Water and Sanitation in Uttar Pradesh: A Regional Analysis 63MethodologyBased on the above background ofdrinking water and sanitation, the paper studiesthe following aspects :1. To assess the inter-regional disparity incoverage of drinking water andsanitation services in Uttar Pradesh.2. To identify the determinants ofsanitation and subsequent policyimplications for the State.The study is based on the analysis ofsecondary data. The data from Surveysconducted by the National Family & HealthSurvey (NFHS-3), District Level Health Survey,Uttar Pradesh HDR Report (2003&06), NSSReport No. 435: (2008-2009) and Census(2011) are used for analysis.Multiple Linear Regression Model(normal and double log model) are used tostudy the impact of various determinants onsanitation. Various explanatory variables, viz.,literacy rate, female literacy rate and per capitaincome are considered to be significant factorson sanitation. Moreover, regional disparity isobserved by using various rounds of NFHS -2&3, DLHS, Uttar Pradesh HDR and NSSO data.Access to Drinking Water and Sanitation inUttar PradeshWater supply is a state subject, whereUnion Government is only responsible forsetting water quality standards, but StateGovernment has to establish departments orspecial agencies for supply of domestic waterto urban and rural areas. These Stategovernment agencies are also responsible formonitoring the quality of water supplied(Srikanth, R., 2009). Uttar Pradesh is the mostpopulous State having the largest urbansystem in the country with 628 municipalities.However, it ranks 18 th in the level ofurbanisation. The process of urbanisation in theState has been favourable towards larger cities.The emerging trends of urbanisation in theState necessitate two-pronged strategy forbalanced regional urban development, i.e.,better management of large cities andinducing planned growth of small andmedium towns (Uttar Pradesh Annual Plan,2010-11).Extent and Composition of DrinkingWater : Uttar Pradesh State Water Policy, 1999says, “Water for drinking and domestic use hasthe highest priority while allocating the waterresource of the state. The state has to provideadequate drinking water facilities (both forpeople and livestock) to the entire populationin both urban and rural areas up to the year2025. Sanitation facilities for entire populationin urban areas and most of the rural areasshould also be provided.”There are significant disparities betweenUttar Pradesh and India in regard to use ofsources for drinking water (Table 1). The bulkof the households in urban India depend onthe municipal water supply for their dailyneeds, i.e., more than 70 per cent depend ontap water. It may be noted that about 63.4 percent of urban households in Uttar Pradesh usetubewell/handpump as their major source. Thismeans that the main source of drinking waterin urban Uttar Pradesh is tubewell/handpump.One noticeable feature of urban householdsduring 1998-99 to 2005-06 can be observedfrom NFHS (2&3) that there has been a gradualdecrease in the share of “piped water”. On theother hand, there has been a gradual increasein the share of “tubewell/ handpump” for bothUttar Pradesh and India. The penetration ofmunicipal water supply is not only low, butalso quite poor in terms of access. Mosthouseholds depend on tap water either fromneighbours, or on basis of group sharing, orboth (Bajpai & Bhandari, 2001).Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 1, January - March : 2013JRD 2 (1)