Provision of Safe Drinking Water and its Impact on Public Health - A Study

After provision of solar supported drinking water supply by The Public Health Engineer Department, Govt. of West Bengal, in an arid zone of the district of Midnapore a comparative assessment was conducted using Longitudinal (Same area – ‘Before’ and ‘After’) as well as Cross Sectional (Neighbouring area) survey procedures. The indicators in this paper covered are Demography (Family, Gender, etc; Occupation; Income etc); Water supply; Water quality; Sanitation; Hygiene; Food Hygiene; Diarrhoea; Worm Infestation; ARI; Cough and Cold; Tuberculosis; and Low Birth Weight. Results obtained in summary are; there was significant enhancement in accessibility, per family and per capita availability, quantity as well as quality of water, sanitation status improved to some extent, general hygiene and food hygiene status improved, incidence of diarrhoea reduced consistently in children (0-5 years) as well as in all other age groups, worm infestation reduced consistently in all age groups, especially in children, both ARI, cough and cold rates decreased and incidence of Low-Birth-Weight babies reduced. Inferences drawn are; more water availability and improved quality leads to better personal, domestic as well as environment hygiene leading to reduced infections, reduction in infection rates leads to reduced diseases and sicknesses, availability of more time (due to easily accessibility to water), leads to better care of children, family and home as well more income opportunities, this also leads to reduction in loss of body calories, drudgery and work load, especially for woman and eventually there is an improvement in the overall health status.