I read the article, "Rains or Not, India Is Falling Short on Drinkable Water", by Gardiner Harris from the New York Times. ( http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/world/asia/rains-or-not-india-is-falling-short-on-drinkable-water.html?ref=earth ) This article focuses on the struggle in India to find clean drinking water. Whether it is a monsoon or dry season, finding drinkable water in India is a challenge. 70% of India's population lives in rural areas and over half of the water supplies in these areas are contaminated with toxic bacteria. Some people are forced to walk miles just to fill up their water jugs in a stream or spring. The toxic water is causing a lot of problems as you can imagine. Employment in these areas have declined a great amount because companies cannot access clean water. Also, over 600,000 children in India die each year due to contaminated water. What about water in the cities? 30%-70% of water is lost due to theft and leaky pipes. The water that is not lost before it reaches households is still unsanitary because there is barely a maintenance system put in place. Smita Misra who is a senior economist says, "India is lagging far behind the rest of the world in providing water sanitation both to its rural and urban populations. Not one city in India provides water on an all-day, everyday basis." This means that anywhere you go in India, there will be a poor supply of sanitary water. As bad as things are already in India, conditions are expected to worsen. It is expected that by 2030, India would need to double its water generation capacity if they want to keep up with their growing population.
After reading this article, I think you would agree that something definitely needs to be done about this. Efforts have already been made to try to increase the amount of clean water in India. On February 28th of this year, Palaniappan Chidambaram, who is India's finance master, provided the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation with 2.8 billion dollars. Experts say that this is not enough to help a country with more than 100 million people. I agree with the experts that a lot more is going to have to be done if we want to see a change. After reading this article I learned so much about the struggles in India that I had no idea about. This article relates to Biology class because at the beginning of the year, we discussed environmental issues and this is a huge environmental issue not just in India, but in many countries around the world.
I agree greatly with you Nicole that something has to be done because this just simply is not a way to keep up living with conditions like this. The numbers and percentages you showed us really amazed me as well especially since in our country we don't have to worry or think about something like that happening to us. I'm very curious to see what people do to try to come up with a solution for this problem. I think it will take a while and many tries to find something that is effective in solving this water crisis. I really enjoyed your post Nicole!
ReplyDeleteNicole,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your blog post because it made me realize that other parts of the world are struggling because it is hard for them to attain water due to harsh environmental issues like monsoons and their dry season. Your blog post let me understand how fortunate we are as Americans to have as much water as we want whereas other parts of the world like India do not even have drinking water in their cities. I agree with you and think that something major has to be done since India's population of 100 million is expected to grow and the country is already behind in providing water sanitation to their rural and urban areas. The struggles in India with water sanitation help me understand that we are very fortunate and should help others in need because we sometimes don’t even think about the accessibility we have to water and other resources. Great post!
This was a great post. I agree with Carolyn in the fact that we don't know how lucky we are to have easy-access to fresh drinking water. Sometimes, we don't even realize that for other countries, attaining sanitary and drinkable water can be quite a struggle. Of course, India's dry climate does not help the fact that the country is losing its drinkable water. Do you know if other countries are in the same situation? Are any organizations or managements working to help with this issue? Great job on you post! :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Nicole that water is very valuable. This post really makes me think of how much we take for granted here in America. But in other places they do not even have water to drink. Water is probably the most valuable thing to us even though we dont notice it. And we only think of it as a nob on a sink or shower. They need to walk miles just for a jug of water. I do however, think India needs new plans for how to sanitize water. I forget where but in some countries they have sanitizers that change ocean water to drinking water. I wonder if they are working on makeing or buying one. Good job on your post.
ReplyDeleteGreat job Nicole! After reading your article I realized that water is more precious than I had ever imagined. It is sad that so many people take drinking water for granted, when really we should be thankful that every day we have access to as much purified water as we want. I agree that something needs to be done about India's problem. I hope that this problem is recognized and fixed so that the population of India can be supplied with clean water. I noticed that your article included that clean water was being "stolen." Hopefully this will be a sign to the Indian government that it is time to take action.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! In America we don't realize how much we take water for granted! After reading your article, I've now learned how much of a struggle other countries are in with providing water. Water plays a very important role in our health throughout our whole body as we have learned through many of our topics in Biology class this year. It is sad that over 600,000 children in India die each year just because of contaminated water. I can't even imagine the hardships for the people in India in the future. While India's populations are growing it is time to take action before water supply falls too behind to catch up. Your article has made me a lot less ignorant on this topic. When people tell us often to take quick showers or turn the faucet off, we often refer to that being saving energy. Which it is, but now we can think of it as being aware of the state other countries are in and the problems they are facing so that we are sure not to take our water for granted.
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