DRINKING WATER SUPPLY: Environmental Problems, Causes, Impacts and Remedies – Experiences from Karnataka

Drinking water is a basic requirement for life and a determinant of standard of living. However, besides government efforts, supply and demand side factors of both surface and groundwater determine the level of drinking water available to people. The supply and demand factors increase with the natural and human factors like pollution. This limits drinking water supply provision and raise the delivery cost. Decline in groundwater table and availability of surface water, particularly in summer months, has put large number of people in risk for drinking water. Poor water quality problem has also been observed in more number of habitations. Inadequate resource management and institutional system seems to be the major causes for the present problems. This paper examines the nature and magnitude of environmental problems, causes and impacts in drinking water supply. The study observes that activities like operation and maintenance of drinking water supply schemes; water quality monitoring; groundwater conservation and rainwater harvesting measures have to be implemented for better provision of drinking water supply. Further, an integrated institutional system for water quality monitoring and groundwater rechargin