Water Disparity in Urban and Rural areas of West Bengal

There are not much water crisis issues in urban areas, but in the case of the rural areas, it is different. Tankers are very well available to the people residing in urban areas, but this is not done in remote areas.

So, how people in rural areas are going to cope with this situation?
Now, if you are wondering which place we are talking about, then it West Bengal under question right now?

A massive state with a valuable contribution to the nation is currently facing an enormous challenge in the water crisis. A water crisis is the story of a lot of places in India. With unpredictable monsoon and extended drought, India faces a water crisis. It is also the community mismanagement that leads to unavailability of water.

If we talk about the rural parts of West Bengal, then it would be right to say that it has become a dried state and it will continue to be so if restoring and mitigation measures are not taken.

Purulia District

NITI Aayog has given a report where the deep water crisis results in the death of about 2 lakh people a year, in the nation. An older woman (60) named Sukumoni Shabar from Purulia District had faced a sunstroke when she went to fetch water from a small river. She was safe, but the problem of water persists. Her family has to walk for hours every day to get adequate drinking water.

This is the story of Purulia district. This region is massively hit by drought in intervals, and in 2016 and 2018 the intensity of drought was quite high.

Why there is a huge difference in rural and urban water availability?

People in rural areas go months without pure drinking water. Yes, the development project has made provisions for piped water into villages, but the supply still has not reached them. Like that, many projects have been laid out and started but has not concluded.

Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) has been making efforts to improve. Yet, the vast gap in water sanitation in urban and rural areas is not getting filled up.

In the Onda village (located in Purulia) the situation is so bad that people are using water that is kept in buckets for about 2-3 days. This is known to all of us that stagnant water becomes the breeding ground for mosquitoes.

This, in turn, will lead to the spread of infectious diseases.

There are many big projects on the way, but their completion is highly doubted. That is to say, that one cannot predict the time. Even after reliefs in terms of new projects and self-sufficiency, the water crisis will still be around.

Some of the reasons are more intricate than it appears. For example, the increasing population will not bring down water consumption no matter how many new projects are launched.

The problem is not limited to rural areas. A city like Delhi is also facing severe water shortage. Awareness is the main area where we need to work tremendously.

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