Not for public: Taps dirty and dry

Deccan Chronicle: Bengaluru: Sunday, April 28, 2013.

A public tap at Lalbagh

The Majestic bus station that receives over a million footfalls every day, has just one public tap and going by test results its water should be “used only if there is no alternate source around.”

The condition is similar or worse at Bowring Hospital, Victoria Hospital, Shivajinagar bus station, Lalbagh and malls in the city. In fact, over 90 per cent of public places in cities in Karnataka do not have access to safe drinking water, says a report by People’s Campaign for Right to Water- Karnataka  released here on Friday.

The year long survey covered 306 public places in Bengaluru, Mysore, Mangalore, Belgaum, Hubli-Dharwad, Gulbarga and Tumkur to understand availability, access, consistency and quality of drinking water in public places. The sites studied included railway station, bus stations, offices of government departments, hospitals, schools, parks and malls.

“The findings of the survey are fairly shocking. Overall, it is a run down system. In more than 90% of the cases, public fountains have disappeared and been replaced by garbage dumps,” said Dr Kshithij Urs of PCRW-Karnataka.

The researchers also got five samples of water tested in each city. In 20 % to 80% of the cases, the water was not fit for drinking as the storage space was unclean.

The researchers, who also got  information through RTI  found that government departments are not required to provide drinking water on their premises. “The authorities only focus on providing services related to their core service, for example, running buses at a bus station or providing medical care at a hospital. That is why there is no provision of drinking water even in hospitals.

The response of the authorities is that they are not responsible for making this provision or that they are in a rented premises. In many cases, the authorities are in connivance with those in the business of selling bottled water. We want the government to enact a law  to provide water in public places,” Dr Urs underlined.