International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of fresh water and advocating for the sustainable management of fresh water resources. An international day to celebrate fresh water was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day.

Infrequent BWSSB water supply. (Illustration: Madhu Ramaswamy)

It is an irony that in Bangalore, water gets significantly more expensive the poorer you get. Water is a subsidized commodity for those who get water from the corporation. While, the people in the slums living without a BWSSB connection rely on private tankers. BWSSB water is priced at Rs 6 per kilolitre (lowest slab) while tanker water is Rs. 250-350 per load of 6 kilolitre, i.e., a minimum of Rs 40 per kilolitre. Is this discrepancy something we are comfortable with as citizens?

As citizens of Bangalore, do we know if the water we consume at several instances – home, work, bottled water, hotels is safe enough to be consumed? There are simple tests one can undertake to determine the potability of water (i.e. is the water fit to be consumed without risk of immediate or long term harm).

Most of us presume that the odor / look / source determine if we can drink the water or not, but there are more than twenty standardized tests to check for various harmful parameters. For those interested, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) test for good drinking water quality can be accessed here.

Some of the most important tests are for the presence of harmful fluoride / nitrate / bacteriological contamination in the water. Did you know that multiple studies of groundwater in Bangalore show higher than permissible nitrate content (see example here) The primary reason for this being is because sewage is finding its way into our groundwater.

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