ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS :
I. Answer the following questions in one sentence each :
1. Write down in brief about Anna Nagar ?
Ans: Anna Nagar is in the city of Chennai . The area looks lush and green with lawns maintained by a generous spraying of water . Bungalows here have tap water for major part of the day .
2. What are the essential public facilities needed by everyone ?
Ans: Water , health care and sanitation along with above other facilities like electricity , public transport , schools and colleges are also necessary , known as public facilities .
3. What is the important function of government ?
Ans: The most important function of the government is to ensure that public facilities are made available to everyone .
4. Why is private company aiming ?
Ans: The private companies aim at profit , and not doing social work .
5. Why is the responsibility of public facilities with that of government ?
Ans: Public facilities is people’s basic needs. The right to life that the constitution guarantees is for all persons living in the country. The responsibility to provide public facilities,therefore,must be the responsibility of the government .
6. How does middle class people able to meet the shortfalls in water supply ?
Ans: When faced with water shortages, they are able to cope up through a variety of private means such as digging bore wells, buying water from tankers and using bottled water for drinking .
7. Why is it said that there is far cry for right to water ?
Ans: The wealthy have more choices, for water through bottled water and water purifiers . People who can afford it have safe drinking water, whereas the poor are again left out.
8. What should be the consumption per person per day of water ?
Ans: The supply of water per person in an urban area in India should be about 135 litres per day (about seven buckets) a standard set by urban water commission.
9. Why do children below the age of five die every day ?
Ans: Children below the age of five die every day in India because of water related disorders .
10. Whose responsibility is it to provide public facilities to the citizens ?
Ans: It is the responsibility of the government to provide public facilities .
II. Answer the following questions in three sentences :
1. What is the problem of water in Subramaniam apartments in Mylapore ?
Ans: Subramaniam’s apartment in mylapore suffers from water shortage . This area gets municipal water once in two days . A private bore well meets some of water needs of residents . Bore well water is however , brackish so residents use it in their toilets and for washing . For other uses , water is purchased from tankers. Subramanian spends upto Rs 500-600 per month on buying water from tankers . For drinking water, residents have installed water purification systems in their homes .
2. Why can’t Siva bring his family to Chennai ?
Ans: Siva lives on rent on the first floor of a house in Madipakkam and gets water once in four days. Shortage of water is one major problem . Siva buys bottled water for drinking. Hence Siva can’t bring his family in Chennai .
3. How does Public facilities help the society ? Explain ?
Ans: The important characteristics of a public facility is that once it is provided its benefits are shared by many people . For example, a school located in a village will enable many children to be educated . Similarly , the supply of electricity to an area can be useful for many people that is farmers can run on electricity , students find it easier to study and most people in the village will benefit in different ways .
4. How are the benefits of public facilities based ?
Ans: The important characteristics of a public facility like a school in a village will enable many children get educated . The supply of electricity facility to an area can be a useful to many people , farmers can run pump sets to irrigate their fields , people can also open small workshops that run on electricity .
5. Why has ground water level dropped drastically ?
Ans:
i) The shortage of water has opened up opportunities for private companies in a big way. Many private companies are providing water to cities by buying it from places around the city .
ii) In Chennai, water is taken from nearby towns like mamandur , Palur , Karungizhi and from villages to the north of the city using a fleet of over 13,000 water tankers .
iii) Every month the water dealers pay farmers on advance for the rights to exploit water resources on their lands
6. What is the contract between government and private companies regarding water supply ?
Ans: In Chennai , the department has taken several initiatives for harvesting rainwater to increase the level of groundwater . It has also used the services of private companies for transporting and distributing water but the government water supply department decides the rate for water tankers and gives them permission to operate . Hence they are called on contract .
III. Answer the following questions in four sentences :
1. How does Padma struggle for water ?
Ans: Padma works as a domestic help in Said pet and lives in the nearby slum . She pays a rent of Rs 650 for the hutment, which has neither a bathroom nor a tap connection . For, 30 such hutments there is a common tap at one corner, in which water comes from a bore well for 20 minutes twice daily . A family gets to fill a maximum of 3 buckets within this time. The same water is used for washing and drinking. In summer the flow becomes a trickle, so that one family gets water only at the cost of another .
2. How is water a part of Fundamental Right to life ?
Ans: The constitution of India recognizes the right to water as being a part of the Right to life under Article 21. This means that it is the right of every person, whether rich/poor, to have sufficient amounts of water to fulfill his or her daily needs at a price that he/she can afford .
3. Why is water essential for life and health ?
Ans: Water is essential for life and for good health . Not only is it necessary for us to be able to meet our daily needs but also safe drinking water can prevent many water related diseases .
4. What problem does India face due to unsafe water ?
Ans: India has one of the largest numbers of cases of diseases such as diarrhea , dysentery , cholera over 1600 Indians , most of them children below the age of five ; reportedly die every day because of water-related diseases . These deaths can be prevented if people have access to safe drinking water .
5. Why is it said that water has universal access ?
Ans: The constitution of India recognizes the right to water as being a part of the Right to life under Article 21 . This means that it is right to every person, whether rich or poor, to have sufficient amount of water to fulfill his/her daily needs at a price that he/she can afford . In other words , there should be universal access to water .
6. What was the case in Andhra Pradesh high court ?
Ans: In 2007, the Andhra Pradesh High court restated this while hearing a case based on a letter written by a villager of Mahbubnagar district on the contamination of drinking water . The villager’s complaint was that a textile company was discharging poisonous chemicals into a stream near his village, contaminating ground water, which was the source for irrigation and drinking water . The judges directed the Mahbubnagar district collector to supply 25 litres of water to each person in the village .
7. Why do people feel private companies to be allowed to take over the task of water supply ?
Ans: Some people argue that since the government is unable to supply the amount of water that is needed and many of the municipal water departments are running at a loss . So they should allow private companies to take over the task of water supply .
8. Why was there need to hold water facilities in the hands of government ?
Ans:
i) Throughout the world, water supply is a function of the government .
ii) There are areas in the world where public water supply has achieved access.
iii) Where the responsibility for water supply was handed over to private companies, there was a step rise in the price of water, making it un-affordable for many. Cities saw huge protests, with riots breaking out in places, forcing government to take back the service from private hands.
iv) Within India, there are cases of success in government water departments thought these are few in number and limited to certain areas of their work. The water supply department in Mumbai raises enough money through water charges to cover its expenses on supplying water.
9. What problems does Chennai face regarding water supply ?
Ans: In Chennai Municipal supply meets only about half the needs of the people of the city, on an average. There are areas which get water more than others, which are close to storage points than those which are far away .