Source: The post “India’s overlooked crisis: unsafe drinking water’’ has been created, based on “India’s overlooked crisis: unsafe drinking water” published in “BusinessLine” on 5 January 2026. India’s overlooked crisis: unsafe drinking water.
UPSC Syllabus: GS Paper-2- Governance
Context: India faces a recurring crisis of unsafe drinking water, which causes widespread illness and deaths across the country. Recent incidents, such as the Bhagirathpura tragedy in Indore, where contaminated water led to multiple deaths, highlight a persistent governance failure. Similar outbreaks have been reported in Mahisagar, Gujarat, Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu, and Sambhalpur, Odisha, indicating that unsafe water is a national, not local, problem.
Scale of the Crisis
- Between 2005 and 2022, over 98 crore cases of major water-borne diseases — including Acute Diarrhoeal Disease, Typhoid, Viral Hepatitis, and Cholera — were reported, causing more than 50,000 deaths.
- According to NITI Aayog, nearly 2 lakh people die annually in India due to inadequate access to safe water.
- India ranks 120th out of 122 countries on the global Water Quality Index, with approximately 70 percent of water sources contaminated.
Economic and Social Impact
- Contaminated water leads to lost workdays, higher medical expenses, and reduced labour productivity.
- An estimated 7 million people are affected annually, resulting in a loss of around 73 million working days.
- The human and economic costs of unsafe water are closely linked and affect national development and livelihoods.
Root Causes of Unsafe Drinking Water
- The main problem is not always the source of water but its journey through aging and poorly maintained infrastructure.
- In many cities, sewage contaminates drinking water pipes, often due to poor coordination between municipal departments, road authorities, and utility agencies.
- Lack of accurate underground utility mapping causes accidental damage to water and sewer pipelines, allowing contamination during pressure drops.
- Urban programmes like AMRUT 2.0 focus more on laying new pipelines rather than maintaining existing networks, safety protocols, and monitoring systems.
Governance and Institutional Challenges
- Municipal bodies often act as provider, tester, and regulator simultaneously, creating a conflict of interest.
- Absence of an independent water regulator prevents enforcement of standards and transparency of water quality data.
- Governance remains reactive, with interventions occurring only after outbreaks, rather than through preventive measures.
Way Forward
- There is a need for better underground utility mapping to prevent contamination from construction and pipeline damage.
- An independent water regulator should separate service provision from auditing and enforcement.
- Urban water programmes should shift from coverage targets to “water safety at the tap”, ensuring the quality of water delivered to households.
- Continuous monitoring, transparent reporting, and preventive governance mechanisms should be prioritized over reactive emergency responses.
- Safe drinking water should be treated as a Constitutional obligation and foundational economic necessity, not merely a welfare measure.
Conclusion
Unsafe drinking water is a recurring public health and economic crisis in India. Effective solutions require a combination of preventive governance, independent regulation, accurate utility mapping, and robust monitoring. Addressing these issues can save lives, improve productivity, and ensure India meets its constitutional and developmental commitments.
Question: Examine the challenges in providing safe drinking water in India. Suggest measures to ensure water quality at the tap.
