Stories about millions of Indians struggling for water have caught the world’s attention but here’s a grave story about those who have had access to water.

Notwithstanding available vaccines & medicines, polluted water killed seven people a day in India in 2018, while at least 36,000 people were diagnosed with water-borne diseases every day.

In 2018, 2,439 people died because of four major water-borne diseases — cholera, acute diarrhoeal diseases (ADD), typhoid & viral hepatitis. In all, more than 1.3 crore people were diagnosed with these diseases.

As per this data, accessed from the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI) & the ministry of health & family welfare, ADD — known to affect children below five years the most — was the biggest killer, accounting for 1,450 (60%) of the 2,439 deaths in 2018.

In the past five years, 11,768 people have died of these diseases — one every four hours on average — while 7.6 crore people were diagnosed with them during the same time. The trend of ADD claiming the most lives, followed by hepatitis, is common to all five years. Hepatitis killed 584 people in 2018.

Healthcare Access

Dr M K Ramesh, dean at Bangalore Medical College & Research Institute, sees it as a healthcare problem. “While it is established that several people do not have access to potable water, this is a problem of lack of access to healthcare. Today, there are medicines for all these diseases, but if people are still dying, it’s because they cannot avail it.”

Dr Ajith Benedict Rayan, who has been practising for nearly 30 years, had earlier told that overuse of antibiotics was another major reason for the deaths. He had said that in many cases patients are taking antibiotics even when not required which results in temporary relief while the actual disease still persists, which could also be killing more people.

Arguing that while the government is spending a lot of money on tertiary health centres (hospitals), Ramesh says it needs to focus on primary healthcare. “Hospitals like Bowring, Victoria, or even BMCRI, are all tertiary healthcare centres but nearly 80% of the patients visiting them are coming for primary healthcare issues. This shows that the PHCs (primary healthcare centres) are not working optimally,” he said.

Dependence & Pollution

According to CBHI & the ministry, all these diseases are caused by contaminated water. Separate data accessed from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) shows that 50% of the 620 districts in India have contaminated groundwater, while data from the ministry of water resources shows that 56% of Indians depend on groundwater for their needs. A senior scientist with the water resources ministry said there were two kinds of pollution: geogenic (caused by nature) & anthropogenic (man-made). Chemicals like fluoride & arsenic are largely geogenic although some industries also contribute to such pollution. Overall there is a problem of water & that is because of over exploitation.

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