Think Bigg

Imagine spending your entire day on the phone trying to arrange for private water delivery because no water comes out of your tap.

Or shopping for an apartment that advertises with the slogan, “Imagine never being thirsty for water.”

Or bathing and washing in a river that is “clinically dead,” absorbing more than 950 million gallons of sewage each day.

Image Source

These experiences are part of the daily lives of the residents in India’s growing urban centers. The New York Times reports today on the water distribution and sanitation crisis gripping the cities of India.

Roughly two-thirds of the population, or 700 million people, do not have access to adequate sanitation, 25 percent of New Delhi households had no access to piped water, and 27 percent get water for less than three hours a day. Nearly two million households, the report also found, had no toilet.

According to the United Nations, the lack of clean water leads to the deaths of 2.1 million children under the age of 5 every year.

“Unless dramatic changes are made — and made soon — in the way in which government manages water,� the World Bank report concluded, “India will have neither the cash to maintain and build new infrastructure, nor the water required for the economy and for people.�

To learn more about what the Dehli Human Development Report called an “unparalleled water crisis,” read the full text of the NYT article.

Share This