Analysing potential health impacts of drinking water: A case study of Delhi slums

Abstract

New Delhi is home to about 17 million people. It is the largest Indian city in terms of area, and has the highest population density in the country. New Delhi has housed about 6,343 slums with approximately 1 million households. While the census indicates that 83% used treatedtap water as a primary potable water source, only half of the slum households have any water source within their housepremises, which reflects the insufficient availability and overreliance on unreliable shared sources. Provision of clean drinking water is vital to improving people’s health and reducing the incidence of diseases and deaths. This drudgery is not only undesirable in itself but it also takes away other opportunities for self-development, productivity and income generation. Broken hand pumps and lack of piped connections results in women having to travel long distances to fetch water. The aim of the paper is to examine the drinking water related health issues which are often faced by slum dwellers due to lack of sanitation facilities. The analysis of the paper has been carried out using primary survey of 100 respondents, 25 respondents from each surveyed slum and gathering secondary data from Delhi Jal Board and Central Pollution Control Board. The water from hand-pumps is considered non-potable and it is not recommended to be used for drinking and cooking purposes. This implies that the poor people in the slums, often without knowledge and ability to filter the supplied water, are the most vulnerable to receiving non-potable water and, hence, most vulnerable to water-borne diseases.