dna edit: Very close to an epidemic

The state of a country’s public health and hygiene is one of the strongest indicators of its progress, and India fares dismally on that count. The findings of the latest report on sewage treatment plants (STP) conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) not only speaks of shocking callousness on the part of the Centre, but also explains why India occupies an embarrassingly low position in the global list when it comes to gastro diseases.

The CPCB report states almost one-fifth of the centrally-funded STPs in the country are “non-operational”, and another nearly one-fifth of the total 152 such STPs is deemed “not satisfactory”. This means millions of litres of untreated water either seeps into the ground, and pollutes ground water or is discharged into the natural drainage system — rivers and lakes — creating a dangerous situation with the potential for an outbreak of epidemic. This could also damage the country’s ecological system. Please bear in mind that the CPCB study has not covered hundreds of other STPs run by different state governments or other agencies, which one assumes aren’t likely to be in better shape than the centrally funded centres.

The devastating effects of the CPCB’s findings can be found in the World Health Organization Report, which says that of the 10 million annual deaths in India, 7.8 lakh are due to lack of basic health-care amenities like proper sewage system, safe drinking water supply, elementary sanitary facilities and hygienic conditions. Almost 90 per cent of diarrhoea cases are due to contaminated water.

Another equally critical World Resources Report says that about 70 per cent of the country’s water supply is seriously polluted with sewage effluents. A UN report ranks India 120th among the 122 nations in its assessment of quality of water available to its citizens. Not just villages, even urban India is not spared the health hazards. Over the years, the situation has shown little improvement. According to a 2005 CPCB report Delhi and Mumbai together have 55 per cent of treatment capacity of 35 metropolitan cities. Only Hyderabad, Vadodara, Chennai, Ludhiana and Ahmedabad have the treatment capacity to meet the volume of sewage they generate.

These stark ground realities underline that waste management and recycling are yet to take off in this country. Even though hundreds of STPs have been set up across the country over the years to treat waste water, these have clearly failed to manage even the waste water generated from households.

The enormity of this nationwide crisis can be found in the performance of the states.
Though Tamil Nadu has the maximum “treatment capacity”, it accounts for a meagre 16.9 per cent. The slide is more pronounced in Uttar Pradesh (16.4 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (15 per cent), Punjab (14 per cent) and West Bengal (10 per cent).

If the Centre and the states allow this to continue, the situation will worsen with more and more people, especially children, falling prey to deadly water-borne diseases.