Safe drinking

water and
Sanitation in my
locality

21/06/23
Environmental Economics
Jolly Biswas
Roll:05
 Safe Water Drinking In My Locality

I live in Purulia District which is located in West Bengal. Purulia district is one of the backward
districts of West Bengal where more than 87% of the households use open defecation. It is
located between 22°70´29´´N-23°71´33´´N latitudes and 85°82´E-86°87´50´´E longitudes and
covering 6,259 sq.km. There are 20 blocks and 170 GPs & it has three sub divisions such as
East, West and Raghunathpur. In my Locality, the major problem or issues is non-availability of
Safe Drinking water in my area. The drinking water solely depends upon the Ground water
where the Ground water related issues and problems Aries due to following reasons:
1) Iron and Fluoride are the two most common quality issues in the district. PHED, Gov. of
WB have analyzed 24,076 ground water sources (2018-19) from both dug well and bore
wells, out of which 478 sources have Fluoride concentration above 1.5 mg/L and 4809
sources have Iron concentration above the permissible limit of 1 mg/L. The fluoride
concentration in dug wells varies from 0.25 to 1.495 mg/l as per the rapid assessment
report of Fluoride Task Force, Government of West Bengal. Drinking water sources
tapped from bore wells in fractured granitic rocks within the depth of 50 m are also found
to have fluoride contamination.
2) Purulia has a long history of water scarcity. The district as a whole is identified as
drought and water scarce area. Because of the complex hydrogeological set up, the area
experiences limited scope for large-scale ground water development. Moreover, most of
the open wells go dry with the advent of summer season leading to an acute water crisis.
There are several factors which are mainly responsible for the water scarcity of Purulia.
The gap between demand and supply of water is widening day by day due to rapid
growth of population. Both physical and economic water scarcity are observed in Purulia.
Physical water scarcity is inadequate water resources to meet a country's or regional
demand, including the water needed to fulfill the demand of ecosystems to function
effectively (UNDP, 2006). Arid regions frequently suffer from physical water scarcity.
Economic water scarcity is caused by a lack of investment in infrastructure or technology
to draw water from rivers, aquifers or other water sources, or insufficient human capacity
to satisfy the demand for water.
3) The yield of wells constructed is generally low in the district and for water supply, PHED
depends on tapping the alluvial zones (River valleys, channel bars and valley fills) for
sustainable water supply. Because of uncertainty of encountering saturated fractures, bore
wells are limited. Dug wells are mostly used for abstraction through manual means.
Because of this, crop production is limited to mainly lentils that too are limited only in
the rain fed areas. This results in Low Stage of ground Water Development.

1
Therefore, the problems of ground water in my locality which is Govt. now trying to resolve by
providing tap water supply (‘Time call’ in Bengali) in every household in villages or towns.
And also planning many missions to resolve this issues (e.g. Jal Jeevan Mission)

Sanitation In My Locality

Purulia district lags behind others districts of West Bengal in all facets like education, economic
basic cleanliness, consciousness etc. According to the primary survey, 88 percent people in
1240 households use open defecation in unplanted lands, cultivable lands, forests, ponds,
around large reservoirs According to primary survey (2016 to 2019), about 30% out of 1240
households have toilet, 13% of which use the toilet every day. Only 10 percent of HHs use
Government toilets regularly and 91% of HHs use their own toilets regularly. Some of these
families, such as “Pano Maji, a 32-year-old, villager from Bansdi village in Bagmundi block,
got a Government toilet at home in 2016, but it was not used by the people at that time as there
was no water supply in the house. To reduce the OD rate completely, the Government of India
has been providing latrines to BPL, APL, homeless family and many low-income families in
India from 1986 to 2014. In almost all of the 23 districts in West Bengal, people are using
regular Government toilets. As a result, many districts in west Bengal are now open defecation
free (ODF) but the use of toilet in Purulia, a jungle Mohal district in West Bengal, is still
lagging behind. Some said that the toilet construction is too low and the space inside is very
small, healthy people have a lot of struggle in sitting. Moreover, the septic tanks are also very
minor. If the Government inspects the above accusations and determinations it, the tendency of
using toilets in many villages of Purulia will upsurge suggestively. Government and private
NGO workers, SBM officers have to camp for 2-3 months in places like Purulia. This problem
can be resolved by taking to the local people daily. If they can turn a local person into a practice
of using the toilet for two to three months, much of this problematic can be resolved. In my
Locality the road transport network is almost adequate in terms of availability of bus and flow
of goods carriage. But the local streets are not so clean and the drainage system is very poor.
The wastes or plastic usually found on streets and some small roads which causes pollution and
degrade environment and human health.
There is lack of waste storage system and proper drainage system which Govt. should consider
a major problem causing low sanitation in my locality. Even though Govt. using methods like
‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ to clean and maintain the sanitation in my country but my district
lags behind from other districts. So Govt. should focus on fixing the drainage system and
maintain the sanitation in my locality by using various methods and spread awareness about
cleanliness and sanitation.