<< ... seeing the first water shortages of the busy season in the Porvorim area. Municipal water has not flowed for three days ... .
Contrast ... the fact that ...l Met Dept has just issued its end-of-monsoon 2005 briefing which tells us that the Konkan and Goa met division has received 25% more rain than the average until end-September (their data is normal=2,781 mm; actual=3,477 mm). >> Rahul G See http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=13958925 No Indian city has 24/7 water supply: WB Friday, 07 October , 2005, 18:05 New Delhi: A World Bank Report today brought out the startling fact that *no Indian city has water supply 24 hours a day seven days a week* and said it would target its assistance programmes regarding urban water supply and sanitation to a few selected projects in mega cities like Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. ''The Bank would also provide assistance to selected reforming states with smaller urban centres, mainly with the aim of designing options that can be easily replicated,'' Smita Misra, Senior Economist, South Asia Energy Infrastructure, in the Delhi office of the World Bank told a Press Conference here. Misra and Alan R Locussol, Lead Water and Sanitation Specialists, Water and Urban, South Asian Region, were briefing on the Report: 'India - Water Supply and Sanitation'. The Report highlights that no city has water supply for 24 hours and seven days a week and lists some cities on the basis of per capita availability of water supply and the number of hours for which the supply is available. The following is data relating to per capita water supply measured in terms of litres per day (lpd) and the number of hours of supply a day (in brackets): Goa -- 341 lpd (8 hrs a day); Chandigarh 342 lpd (10 hrs a day); Mumbai -- 240 lpd (five hours a day); Delhi -- 223 lpd (4 Hrs a day); Patna -- 222 lpd (10 hrs a day), Ludhiana -- 220 (10 hrs a day); Jodhpur -- 190 lpd (2.5 hrs a day), Bisuya -- 184 lpd (ten hrs a day), Derabasi -- 173 lpd (eight hrs a day); Jaipur -- 149 lpd (three hrs a day), Ahmedbaad -- 145 lpd (2 hrs a day); Bikaner -- 133 lpd (1.5 hrs a day), Bangalore -- 123 lpd (2.5 hrs a day), Gurdaspur -- 108 lpd (ten hrs a day), Bhatinda -- 106 lpd (8 hrs a day). Bharatpur -- 105 lpd (1.5 hrs a day), Udaipur -- (80 lpd (2.5 hrs a day), and Chennai -- 32 lpd (1.5 hrs a day). Misra said in the rural sector, where the Bank is providing support through three ongoing projects and three under preparation, it would gradually move towards a sector-wide approach in states where full agreement can be reached on policies, investment plans, implementation arrangements, and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. ''The Water and Sanitation Programme, which has a significant budget for policy dialogue for both urban and rural water supply and sanitation, should continue to disseminate best practices and to assist selected states in formulating the concept of sustainable projects and developing detailed procedures for sector reform and for the preparation of financing applications for Indian and international lending agencies and independent appraisal procedures,'' she said. The Report says in India's urban areas access to drinking water considered safe by the Government's standards rose form about 82 per cent of the population in 1991 to 90 per cent in 2001. This figure, which includes access to non-piped water, could rapidly reach 100 per cent, consistent with the aim of the Ministry of Urban Development to achieve 100 per cent coverage in 2007. But in an urban environment non-piped water may not be considered a safe source. In rural areas access to drinking water increased from about 65 per cent of the population in 1990 to about 90 per cent in 2001. ''Thus it appears likely that if India sustains investment at a level similar to that of the past decade, it could achieve 100 per cent coverage of water supply infrastructure, if not by 2007 then probably 2012,'' the report says. The rural population share with access to basic sanitation, which may have been as low as 5 per cent in 1990, rose to about 20 per cent in 2001. If it is reach 53 per cent at the end of the 12th Plan to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets, India may be somewhat behind. Meeting the MDG target in rural areas would require investment of about Rs 37000 crore and Rs 33000 crore for the Eleventh and Twelfth Plans, and recurrent expenditures again of the same order of magnitude of about Rs 30500 crore and Rs 35500 crore respectively. -- PS: If you wish to have a *Gmail* e-mail address, do write to me. Will send you an invitation to open a *Gmail* e-mail account. :-)