“It is not so much the lack of water for irrigation. If people lose crops, they can still depend on public wage schemes like NREGS, but if they do not have drinking water, they cannot get a water bottle,” said Mahapatra.

Water Aid has been collaborating with over 220 citizens’ groups across the country and over 10 groups attended the first meeting today, where groups pointed to the existing network and lacunae in promoting equitable water accessibility. The Citizens’ Report, which is expected by December 2009, will highlight domestic water, sanitation and hygiene related issues from the citizens’ point of view.

The drinking water situation has been acute in the past five years, with the government’s response continuing to be poor. “People do not get even a minimum of 3 litres of water a day. The government’s response of providing tankers has not been effective and hand pumps continue to deplete ground water resources, as adequate recharging is not being done,” Mahapatra noted.

Over the last few decades groundwater levels have depleted with the movement from wells to handpumps and borewells. “The ground water level is also polluted because of the presence of fluoride and chlorine in several districts of the state. The bacterial contamination of water in rural areas is between 19 and 59 per cent, according to statistics

from the Groundwater Survey and Development Agency (GSDA),” said Seema Kulkarni, SOPPECOM, in a presentation at the workshop.