The Hindu : Karnataka / Mysore News : `110 crore people lack access to safe water'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 23, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Mysore

`110 crore people lack access to safe water'

By Our Staff Correspondent

MYSORE, MARCH 22. World Water Day was celebrated here today to create awareness among people about the imperatives of using the resource judiciously.

A programme was organised by the Mysore Agenda Task Force's Water Supply and Sanitary Working Group at the office of the Mysore Zilla Panchayat. The convenor of the group, M. Lakshmana, said that development efforts will fail in the absence of adequate fresh water supply. He said 110 crore people around the world lack access to safe drinking water and about 240 crore people do not have access to adequate sanitation.

The MATF said 82 per cent of people in rural areas in the State are dependant on groundwater. Most of the borewells in the State have high fluoride content that is dangerous to health, and the best solution to avoid a water crisis is to resort to rainwater harvesting.

Mr. Lakshmana said the water-table will be replenished if water recharging pits are constructed and underlined its importance, as Karnataka is the most drought-prone State next to Rajasthan. He said the State received 750 mm of rainfall annually, and even if rainwater is harvested over an area of one hectare, it will yield nearly 10 lakh litres for every 100 mm of rainfall and meet the requirements of 7,500 people. He said the Government must make it mandatory for houses to harvest rainwater.

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