Water for All?

After solidifying transportation plans to India, I redirected my focus towards living more sustainably while in-country.  Something I am looking forward to the most is indulging in some delicious, authentic Indian cuisine.  But of concern for a westerner living and traveling in India are the sanitary conditions used in food preparation, especially as they pertain to clean water.  And furthering that concern, finding safe drinking water to pair with all that food sampling is not something to be ignored.  Of course, bottled water is available for purchase, but even if I was willing to take the risk that the bottled water was, in fact, purified and not simply tap water in a re-sealed and resold bottle, drinking bottled water for two months hardly seems like the best, most sustainable solution to this problem.  But what other options might there be?

The Problem

Though households in India with a source of drinking water have increased by almost 30% (37 million households) since 2001, about 18% still don’t have access to any source of drinking water in or near their homes.  Even for those with access, the water is not necessarily fit to drink, and more than 27 million households drink untreated water.  Because of this, the World Bank has estimated that “around 21% of communicable diseases in India are related to unsafe drinking water.”  (Source: WSJ)

Organizations like Water.org and Drinking Water for India are doing their part to help bring clean, safe drinking water to those in need, but the problem is clearly still widely spread.  And even though I will be living in Hyderabad for the majority of my trip - a metropolitan area with ready access to tap water - the water available will not be safe for me to drink.  Putting the much larger problem of water accessibility for all aside momentarily, I would be extremely susceptible to waterborne diseases and other illnesses from ingesting untreated tap water.  So I dove right into researching point-of-use water treatment options that might provide both a safe option for purifying tap water and an alternative to leaving behind a wake of slowly-degrading, landfill-polluting plastic bottles.

The Options

In A Survey of Point of Use Household Water Treatment Options for Rural South India, Kendralyn Jeffreys explored six different water treatment options:  chlorine disinfectant with safe water storage, chlorine-flocculant sachets, biosand filters, ceramic filters, solar water disinfection (SODIS), and boiling.  All have benefits and drawbacks, but when effectiveness, ease of use, and cost are taken into consideration, two stand out.

Proctor & Gamble has developed PUR chlorine-flocculant sachets which contain both a powder that coagulates heavy metals, organic material, and microorganisms, reducing the turbidity of the water, and a powdered chlorine disinfectant.  One PUR sachet treats 10 liters of water and costs less than $.01 per liter.  The packet is simply emptied into the untreated water; then, when the solid particles separate and settle, the solution can be poured into another container through a thin cloth material that collects the clumped substance while the chlorine disinfects the remaining water, making it safe to drink.

Effect of PUR on Water 

Boiling is another simple and reliable method of treating contaminated tap water.  All that is required is a pot and a heat source.  The water should be brought to a “rolling boil”, effectively killing most pathogens and making the water safe to drink.  Once it has been treated, the water can be stored in containers and chilled to a more desirable drinking temperature.  Because no measuring is involved, this method may be preferable,  especially at the end of my trip when I'll be doing most of my traveling and will not have access to consistent storage options for treated water.

Final Thoughts on Clean Water

Though it will take some pre-planning and preparation on a regular basis, avoiding the use of plastic bottled water should not be extremely difficult and will prove to be much more environmentally beneficial during my two-month stay in India.  All of this research, however, has brought to light the much more dire situation faced by citizens of developing nations the world over.  Something we take for granted and waste on a daily basis in the U.S. is a precious resource for which people walk miles each day, transporting contaminated containers of unsafe water that is needed in whatever form it is available for survival.  If simply having access to the knowledge that this resource is not infinite is not enough to wake us up to our wasteful ways, maybe a look at a life without clean, readily available water will help drive the point home.