Potable Water Privation and Health Issues in Varanasi District

Water pollution has emerged as one of the gravest environmental threats in India. This study focuses on the implications of water borne diseases due to polluted drinking water in Varanasi district. Polluted water is not only virulent for human beings but also harmful for the aquatic ecosystem. Contaminated ground water is leading to health degradation, with its usual socioeconomic impact on individuals, households and the economy through economic loss, which is the sum of productivity loss due to lost days of work and wages, and treatment cost. People of urban and rural areas are wasting more than 3% of their total expenditure as economic loss and slum people are wasting more than 10% of their total expenditure as economic loss due to water borne diseases in the Varanasi district. This study has looked at the problem of potable water scarcity and concomitant issues such as incidence of water borne diseases, out of pocket expenses on healthcare and man-days lost due to illness.