Sanitation in India: Good health is where hygiene lies

India’s population has crossed 1.2 billion mark. Unfortunately, more than half of the population has no access to proper washrooms. People living in urban slums and rural areas make a good chunk of these numbers. A major rural population still defecates in the open. Slum dwellers residing along the railway tracks in major metropolitan cities have no access to toilets or a running supply of water. The situation in urban area is not as serious compared to rural areas. However, what adds to the existing wows of people is poor sewage system along with crammed living conditions.  

Sewage system, if at all present, suffers massively from poor maintenance leading to over flow. Today, cities have become immensely populated. Many cities in India, including the big ones have over a million residents. Existing sewage system in these cities can only serve the needs of around 3 million people and not 12-15 million people.

What’s making things worse is that the current infrastructure is unable to handle the needs of a growing population. It’s really sad that a big country like India neither has enough water to flush out the city’s waste nor has adequate sewage treatment plants. Only 30% of India’s water gets treated and rest of it mixes with streams and rivers, creating another problem of safe drinking water. According to a report, 75% of India’s surface water is polluted and 80% of this is due to sewage alone.

It’s worth mentioning that this impacts human health in the deadliest manner. Water pollution causes many diseases like diarrhoea and other intestinal infections. Diarrhoea alone is responsible for 535,000 deaths in children below 5 years. Various malnutrition cases have been reported in children due to contaminated water. Malaria and dengue also contribute in deaths among small children.

Unhealthy people, poor sanitary management hamper India’s growth and peg it back each year. Cost of treatments is rising and families are finding it difficult to afford which impacts the economy as a whole. However, a little more effort from the government and overcoming the demons of poor sanitation will help us become a global phenomenon.