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Drinking Water Situation in Villages of North Coastal Andhra Pradesh (AP), India
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109 * TheprincipalauthorsareProfessorsintheDepartmentofEnvironmental Studies,GITAMUniversity.OtherauthorsareAssociateProfessorY.Maruti, andAssistantProfessorsV.Saritha,K.SureshKumarandB.Padmavathi. Thepaperisbasedontheteamworkoftheauthorsaswellasresearchers and students of the Department who participated in the at times highly exhaustingfieldwork. 1 RakeshKumar,Singh,R.D.,andSharmaK.D.,“WaterresourcesinIndia”, CurrentScience89(2005):794–811. 2 Bardon,C.andHomman,K.,“Thecostofinaction:Valuingtheeconomywide costofenvironmentaldegradationinIndia”.AsiaEnvironmentDivision, WorldBank7,OctoberMemo,1995. DrinkingWaterSituationinVillagesof NorthCoastal AndhraPradesh(AP),India N.Srinivas,Ch.RamakrishnaandAssociates* Thispaperisbasedonafieldinvestigationof10villagesinthree districts of North Coastal Andhra Pradesh, India. The drinking water situation is nowhere near satisfactory. Traditional water bodies are not the sources any more. The prevailing precarious situationandanticipatedwaterstressofthefuturetogethercallfor appropriatepolicyinitiatives. 1. Introduction AccesstosafedrinkingwaterisakeyprobleminIndiawherenearly 30% of urban and 90% of rural households still depend completely onuntreatedsurfaceorgroundwater.1 Itisestimatedthatabout21% ofthecommunicablediseasesinIndiaiswater-related.2 Groundwater, instead of surface water, has increasingly become the prime source of 07 IWP Srinivas.indd 109 5/30/11 3:55:58 PM N.Srinivas,Ch.RamakrishnaandAssociates 110 waterinruralareas.Ithelpedtodecreasethemicrobialcontamination, buthasbroughtoutnewerproblemslikefluorosisandarsenicosis. 2. WaterSituationinRuralAP DrinkingWater In rural households only 14% have access to piped water schemes for theirdomesticanddrinkingwaterneeds.Mostusewaterfromtubewells or open wells, while a small minority uses tanks and springs. Hence there is a high dependence on groundwater for drinking and other domesticpurposes.Nearly90%ofruralhouseholdscollectwaterfrom communitysources,whichareoftenremoteandsuggestingthatasubstantial amountoftimeandeffortgoesintowatercollectioninruralAP. Nearly70%oftheruralpopulationisreportedtohaveaccessto safedrinkingwaterasperplanningnorms(40litrespercapitaperday), butthismaynotbeaccurate.Waterqualityisaprobleminthestate. Coastal salinity and fluoride are the most common quality problems forgroundwater.Seawaterintrusionhasoccurredinthecoastalregions and aquaculture is also affecting coastal zone aquifers since the tanks are located in sandy areas. Fluoride affects interior semi-arid areas, especially Nalgonda, Anantapur, Cuddapah, Gunter, Nellore, Chittor, and Krishna. But more than half of the quality affected habitations areyettobecovered. Rainfall Rainfall varies considerably across the state. For example, although average annual is 1000mm, the southwestern area of Rayalaseema districttypicallyreceiveslessthan700mm.Onethirdofthepopulation of AP lives in a drought-prone area. Droughts tend to hit the Rayalseema and Telangana districts most. One in five years on the average, the state rainfall is below 750mm. However, drought years areoftenconsecutive. Irrigation Organized large-scale irrigation began during the 19th century and continuedafterIndianindependencein1947,theKrishnadeltascheme 07 IWP Srinivas.indd 110 5/30/11 3:55:58 PM [3.137.192.3] Project MUSE (2024-04-24 13:35 GMT) DrinkingWaterSituationinVillagesofNorthCoastalAndhraPradesh 111 and the Nagarjuna Sagar project being the most prominent. But in recenttimestheareairrigatedbysurfacesourceshasdecreased(down from 3.1 mha in 1980–81 to 2.8 mha in 1997–98), because of poor maintenance or management problems of surface irrigation systems, andashifttowardsgroundwater-basedirrigationorconjunctiveuseof surfaceandgroundwater. Tanks Andhra Pradesh has a large number of water collection, storage and percolation tanks of various sizes and types. Tanks were an important source of irrigation, especially in the interior semi arid parts, where they help in areas not amenable to irrigation by large irrigationprojects,andplayanimportantroleingroundwaterrecharge. But since the 1960s there has been a continuous decline in the area irrigated by tanks, with a sharp decline since 1980. Poor maintenance has reduced storage capacity and made tanks vulnerable to breaches during heavy rains...