Coming down heavily on the Punjab [state] government for the sale of clean potable drinking water to the poor in the cotton belt of Malwa affected by incidents of cancer, the Punjab Congress [...] promised to supply subsidised drinking water to these sections after coming into power in the next Assembly elections.
[A party statement] said the poor in these villages of Malwa belt were not in a position to pay for treated water [supplied by reverse osmosis (RO)] and they continue to drink polluted water from other sources.
He said the RO system installed in the affected village was of no use to the poor under such a situation.
[Party spokesperson Parminder Singh said] it was shocking that the poor continued to rely on the polluted water in the absence of paying capacity. He said the economic conditions of the poor had deteriorated to such an extent that they were not in a position to pay Rs 2 [4.3 US dollar cents] per 20 per liters for the treated water available from the government installed RO systems.
He said the state government should also go into the technical aspect of this system as the problem in this system was the disposal of the residual water after treatment and in this case this water is allowed to be absorbed in the soil, it would further pollute the ground water.
He said the government must take the necessary steps or go in for some alternate technology.
Related news: India, Punjab: every village to store enough drinking water for 15 days, minister orders, Source Weekly, 18 Sep 2009
Source: UNI, newKerala.com, 13 Aug 2010
