When leaving for India from the
Netherlands, with the purpose of field research about drinking water access in
peri-urban Gurgaon, I did not really know what to expect from ‘the Indian
village’. What would be people’s main water resources? Would there be a
government-organized supply or would people rely more on traditional water
sources? And would drinking water scarcity be an issue?
For my MSc thesis in International
Development studies, I joined SaciWaters’ peri-urban project in Gurgaon for the
past three months. Most of my field research was conducted in the village of
Sultanpur. A large part of this village is served by government (PHED) water
supply, but this supply is erratic and the quality of the water is not trusted
to be drinkable by many. The supply does not reach everywhere, as the southern
part of the village is excluded from the network. For drinking water, most
people rely on the groundwater from public hand pumps or private tubewells. Only
a few drink the supplied water and many cannot afford a filtering system. But
as groundwater tables are falling, due to climatic change and peri-urban
pressures, the water is slowly becoming saline, thereby threatening the potable
water reserves.
Now that the research is done and I am
about to return to my home in the Netherlands, it is interesting to reflect
upon the water situation from a Dutch perspective. I will return to a country
where 24/7 water supply is no more than normal. From village to city, no part of the country is unserved by the
public water networks. Moreover, the quality of the water is said to be among
the best in the world: recent research showed that Dutch tap water is of better
quality than the expensive mineral water that can be bought in bottles. As we have a single-tier supply, this
high quality water is also used for bathing, washing and even flushing the
toilet. For most Dutch people, opening the tap and water not coming out, would
be simply unthinkable. I personally cannot recall such a thing happening even
once in my lifetime.
Comparing our drinking water situation to
that of Sultanpur, the differences are obviously huge. The physical labour
involved in obtaining drinking water for the household, is something that
belongs to the past in the Netherlands. People have long forgotten about
hauling water from wells and catching rainwater in reservoirs. It is
eye-opening to see how the people of Sultanpur had to fetch their own drinking
water to their homes. Men and women, elderly and children, all could be seen
carrying the heavy matkas with about
15-20 litres of drinking water on their head or shoulders. It is hard to
imagine having to do this twice a day, for drinking water only! The time that
it takes to walk up and down to the pump, waiting for your turn and then
filling up the pots, which requires some physical labour as well, should not be
underestimated.
Another thing that struck me was the debate
about the quality of the PHED supplied water: is it filtered well enough for
drinking or not? Many villagers choose to remain using their traditional
groundwater sources for drinking water, even though these are depleting. According
to the PHED however, the water is filtered well and suitable for drinking. Such
debates are never heard in the Netherlands, where the water quality is
carefully monitored and tested in order to secure healthy supply. A public
testing of the supplied water in the village might help in establishing more
clarity about the actual water quality. Even if the water leaving the treatment
plant is safe to drink, contamination might occur during the transport, caused
by breakages in the pipelines.
There are many more differences that I
could write about, for instance the open sewage system in many Indian villages
and the enduring influence of the caste system on water security between
different population groups. But one should also keep in mind that the general
situation of both countries is very different. The Netherlands is a small,
low-lying and water-rich country. In fact, keeping the water out is a more
salient challenge than dealing with water scarcity, such as can be experienced
in the hot and dry Indian summers. As a highly developed country, the
investments needed for a good quality public water network are more easily made
than in India, where the scale of the investments needed is much larger as well
(India being 70 times bigger than the Netherlands in terms of population and 80
times in terms of area).
Doing field work in Sultanpur has been a
great learning experience for me, and brought me many new insights on drinking
water access. Most of all, it has shown me that many things I used to take for
granted, are not so commonplace at all.
Afke
van der Woude
Wageningen
University
Student
Intern
(Gurgaon),
SaciWATERs
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