According to the Ministry of Water Supply and Sanitation, only 27% of the population has access to clean drinking water due to a dilapidated state of water pipelines and tanks, some of which are over a century old, leading to contamination with minerals.
The situation has been exacerbated particularly by frequent natural disasters like landslides and floods, which further pollute water sources.
The National Census Report 2021 states that while 34.6% of households have access to tap or pipe water within their premises, 22.4% rely on tap or pipe water located outside their premises. Additionally, 29.8% use water from tube wells or hand pumps, with smaller percentages utilizing water from covered wells, spring taps, jars, bottles, open wells, and even directly from rivers and streams.
Doctors state that potential consequences could include diseases such as diarrhea, vomiting, jaundice, typhoid, and cholera, as well as the heightened risk of Hepatitis A and E – from the continued consumption of polluted drinking water.
With inputs from RSS