DRINKING WATER QUALITY IN BARAK VALLEY, ASSAM,
NORTH EAST INDIA: PRIORITIZING MANAGEMENT
OPTIONS
ABHIK GUPTA
Department of Ecology & Environmental Science, Assam University, Silchar 788 011,
Assam, India
The major sources of drinking water in the rural areas of Barak Valley, which is situated
in the southern part of the North East Indian state of Assam, comprise individual- or
community-owned dug-wells, ponds and tanks, streams and springs, and hand-pumps.
Piped water supply schemes either exploiting surface or groundwater sources are also
operative in several urban as well as rural areas. These schemes are managed by the
Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) of the state government, and distributed
by urban municipal boards. An assessment of the water quality status of different
drinking water sources in Barak Valley reveals that contamination by coliform organisms
is the major obstacle to maintaining potable water quality in this area. Furthermore, the
recent detection of arsenic in several groundwater sources in one of the valley districts
adds a new dimension to the problem of water quality and public health. Hence,
management strategies adopted in both rural and urban areas need to incorporate aspects
such as a strong environmental education component to make the people aware of the
need to have uncontaminated, germ-free, drinking water, and a hygienic sanitation
system, along with decentralized service provision, empowerment of communities to
instill self-reliance, and adoption of cheap yet efficient and potentially communitymanaged delivery and treatment systems such as solar disinfection and decontamination
of drinking water at household levels using PET bottles.
INTRODUCTION
The area referred to as Barak Valley in this paper includes the districts of Cachar,
Hailakandi and Karimganj in the southern part of the state of Assam in North East India.
This area lies within the geographical limits of 24 0 8’ N – 25 0 9’ N latitude and 92 0 11’
– 98 0 14’ E longitude. The valley derives its name from River Barak, which comprises
the major drainage of this area. The major sources of drinking water in the rural areas of
Barak Valley comprise dug-wells, ponds and tanks, streams and springs, and hand-pumps
that extract groundwater. The dug-wells, hand-pumps, ponds and tanks are either
privately owned or community-managed, while the streams are common property
resources. Piped water supply schemes are also operative in several rural areas that either
exploit surface water sources like streams and rivers or draw upon groundwater sources.
In the urban centers, piped water supply comprises the major source, although
groundwater sources are also being increasingly exploited these days. The piped water
supply in both rural and urban areas as well as its treatment is managed by the Public
1
2
Health Engineering Department (PHED) of the state government, although the respective
municipal boards in urban centers undertake the distribution of drinking water to the
consumers who pay a tax for enjoying this facility. A major challenge for water quality
managers is the widespread contamination with coliform bacteria and other protozoan
and viral pathogens. Consequently, water-borne diseases are prevalent in rural and even
urban areas, posing a serious threat to public health. This paper makes an assessment of
the water quality status of different drinking water sources in Barak Valley, which reveals
that contamination by coliform organisms is the major obstacle to maintaining potable
water quality in this area. However, the presence of arsenic has been very recently
detected in certain groundwater sources in Karimganj district that borders the Sylhet
district of Bangladesh, where arsenic contamination of groundwater is fairly widespread,
as reported by Rahman et al. [1]. This has obviously added a new dimension to the
already formidable challenge of maintenance of drinking water quality in the study area.
The paper, therefore, also discusses some of the possible strategies that need to be
formulated to combat this menace at a very early stage, based on the experiences gained
in worst-hit areas like West Bengal in India as well as Bangladesh, as clearly documented
in Chakraborti et al. [2] and Ahmed [3].
MAJOR ISSUES IN DRINKING WATER SUPPLY AND MANAGEMENT
Availability and Supply of Drinking Water
Because of its subtropical monsoon climate, the Barak Valley experiences high rainfall,
about 85 % of which occurs during May – October. Availability of water is, therefore, as
such plenty, although there is water scarcity in the lean season, especially December/
January – March/April, if the rainwater is not conserved adequately. Traditionally, the
rainwater was conserved in the numerous privately owned household ponds or larger,
community-managed tanks, which coupled with dug-wells, used to comprise the
traditional, and in fact, till date is a major source of drinking water for the inhabitants of
the Valley. Streams and rivers also provided another valuable source, especially for the
poorer sections that did not own or had access to ponds, tanks or wells. This traditional
system that had worked reasonably well for more than a century, is now on the verge of
collapse, because of the drastic and widespread decline in water quality in the water
sources and lack of proper management. For instance, historical records reveal that the
water of River Barak as well as several wells, ponds and tanks in Silchar, the major urban
center in this area, had potable water quality in the 1910s-1920s. As will be shown in the
next section of this paper, the quality is at present tremendously deteriorated, not only in
urban, but in the rural areas as well. Among the many interlinked factors responsible for
this decline, the burgeoning population is indeed a major one. The population in the
Valley has increased from 1.116 m in 1951 to more than 3.0 m in 2001 with a
concomitant rise in population density from 161 to about 436 persons per sq. km [4]. This
in turn has led to poor sanitation in both urban and rural areas. In urban centers, old and
ill-maintained distribution pipes experience frequent leakages. Due to poor drainage and
3
resultant waterlogging, contaminated water from the sewers enters drinking water
pipelines, especially during the monsoon months. Inadequately constructed septic tanks
and absence of proper soak pits have also resulted in contamination of both surface and
groundwater in urban areas. The municipal boards are hardly able to address these
problems due to lack of funds and absence of proper planning and coordination. In rural
areas, defecation in the open by both humans and livestock animals is a major
contributing factor towards pathogenic contamination of drinking water sources. Lack of
hygienic awareness also results in people washing themselves, their clothes and utensils
and even their livestock animals in or near drinking water sources like ponds and wells,
leading to contamination by pathogens. Infestation of many ponds, tanks and other water
bodies by invasive macrophytes like water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) has also led
to their present decrepit conditions.
In order to meet the drinking water requirements of the people in rural areas, the
government has been trying to install treated and piped water supply schemes, either
based on surface or on groundwater sources. More recently, however, the government
policy is to project itself as a facilitator rather than a service provider. Keeping in line
with this policy, it has now decided to install schemes on the condition that 10 % of the
capital cost and the entire cost for maintenance and treatment be met by the user
communities. However, the people have become used to looking upon the government as
the sole provider, and the motivation and awareness levels that need to be attained in
order to reorient public thinking, is a goal that appears unachievable in near future.
Hence, even in those water supply schemes that have already been installed under this
joint ownership-management programme, it is doubtful as to how long the desired quality
criteria could be maintained.
Status of Water Quality
The bacteriological status of the drinking water sources in Barak Valley is summarized in
Table 1. The results reveal widespread contamination of almost all types of water sources
including that supplied in the piped supply schemes. This deterioration of water quality is
reflected in diarrhoea, dysentery and other water-borne enteric diseases assuming
epidemic proportions in one or the other parts of the valley every year, and resulting in
several mortalities, especially of infants and children. Hepatitis-A is of very common and
widespread occurrence, even in urban centers. While the relatively aware and effluent
sections of the populace, both urban and rural, are adopting treatment measures at the
household level, such as boiling, UV-irradiation, etc., the poor can ill-afford these
measures, as boiling involves considerable fuel expenditure, while the other devices need
electricity and involve substantial capital expenditure.
4
Table 1. Bacteriological status of drinking water sources in Barak Valley, Assam, North
East India
Area
Source
Silchar City
River Barak
Wells
Handpump
(groundwater)
Piped supply
River Kusiyara
Tanks
Handoumps
(groundwater)
Piped supply
Handoumps
(groundwater)
Karimganj City
LakhipurFulertal (small
urban centers)
ChatlaIrongmaraSilcoorie
(Rural area)
DwarbondBorojalinga
(Rural area)
BinnakandiSingerband
(Rural area)
Srikona
(Rural area)
Jarailtala
(Rural area)
Total Coliform
MPN/100 ml
800-16800
1000-22400
0-2800
Faecal coliform
MPN/100 ml
300-9800
600-10000
0-1500
1000-4800
1290-25600
1900-2800
1100-1600
500-2200
700-14500
1100-1700
600-800
0-35600
0-100
0-22000
0-50
Wells
Piped supply
Handpump
(groundwater)
100-400
200-7300
100-8200
0-200
100-5500
0-5400
Wells
Piped supply
Handpump
(groundwater)
200-25300
700-10900
400-10600
0-12500
400-5000
200-6700
Wells
Handpump
(groundwater)
200-12200
100-500
0-6000
0-300
Wells
Piped supply
Wells
1200-5700
11000-20000
600-10000
800-3000
3200-8500
300-6500
Streams
Piped supply
Well
4300-7400
1200-4200
100-44200
2500-4300
550-2000
0-24300
Ponds
500-73200
200-50000
In addition to the problems posed by pathogenic contamination, the recent detection
of arsenic in the groundwater in Karimganj district bordering Bangladesh, has added a
5
new dimension to the water quality scenario in the Valley. Although the extent and
magnitude of this problem is yet to be worked out in detail, this definitely imposes
restrictions on the use of groundwater, which is increasingly being favoured by many
users for attaining self-reliance in water supply. Before arsenic came into picture, high
iron levels in groundwater in most areas of the Valley rendered it less consumer-friendly,
although this problem could be surmounted by the use of filters. Thus the water managers
and users alike in this region are now faced with the twin challenges of pathogenic
contamination in surface and that of arsenic in groundwater.
MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
As shown in the earlier sections, pathogenic contamination of drinking water sources in
Barak Valley has taken place mainly due to poor sanitation coupled with lack of
awareness and proper management. The situation calls for an immediate review of
management strategies for effectively addressing these problems. It is also felt that such
interventions have to be operative at the grassroot level in order to ensure the
involvement of all stakeholders, and to motivate and energize the communities to play
more pro-active roles in drinking water quality management. Any management strategy,
in order to be effective as well as sustainable, needs to include the following components:
1.
2.
3.
A robust environmental education (EE) component should ideally form an integral
part of any management strategy. Such an EE package should cover all stakeholders
that in urban areas may include individual tax-paying consumers, builders, promoters
and civil engineers, municipal and other concerned officials, and members of the city
as well as state legislatures. The need for proper construction and location of septic
tanks, proper planning in location and construction of apartment blocks and
individual houses, improvement of drainage to prevent waterlogging, replacement
and/or maintenance of leaking pipelines, and more efficient solid waste disposal and
management may be emphasized. In the rural areas, adequate protection of ponds
and wells from faecal contamination, avoiding defaecation in the open by both
humans and livestock animals, and improvement of personal hygiene may comprise
some of the important issues. Involvement of NGOs, especially women’s groups,
prominent citizens like school teachers, members of the village/district councils,
rural medical practitioners, health workers and social activists needs to be ensured to
achieve a reasonable rate of success.
Along with persuasive campaigning, stricter enforcement of existing rules,
supplemented by additional ones, wherever necessary, is also a must. The principle
of ‘polluter/defaulter pays’ should prevail.
The consumers have to be convinced to accept the inevitable shift in the role of the
government from that of a mere service provider to that of an enabler, monitor and
regulator. At the same time, the government should also focus on empowerment and
capacity building of city/village/community-level institutions so that the transition
6
4.
from centralized to decentralized service provision and management could be
smooth and efficient [5]. What need to be achieved are increased understanding,
coordination and partnership among the stakeholders at different levels.
Even if the above strategies are adopted and implemented in full earnest, a
considerable time shall elapse before their effects could be felt. Therefore, there is an
urgent need for introducing treatment options that can be owned, operated and
managed at the community or even at the household levels. Disinfecting water of
microbial contaminants by exposing to UV-A irradiation in sunlight small volumes –
up to 2 l or so – in PET bottles (SODIS), has proved to be a simple, cheap yet
effective method that can be easily adopted by any rural or urban household. This
method, being popularized and disseminated by the Swiss Federal Institute for
Environmental Science and Technology, more specifically its Department of Water
and Sanitation in Developing Countries (SANDEC) [6] is now being promoted
among several communities of Barak Valley by the author and his research team at
the Department of Ecology & Environmental Science, Assam University, Silchar,
India. Similarly, removal of arsenic by solar oxidation (SORAS) could also be tested,
adopted and promoted among the communities in arsenic-affected areas as a
grassroot option. These two methods, coupled with rainwater harvesting, could
comprise effective ameliorative measures for solving the problems of drinking water
quality in Barak Valley. Adopting SODIS/SORAS also helps the users overcome the
problem of storing large quantities of rainwater for use during the lean season, as the
consumers could only use rainwater on rainy days, and practice SODIS/SORAS on
the sunny days. The government should demonstrate a transparent attitude in
accepting the existence of arsenic contamination as a challenge, and adopt pro-active
approaches for mitigation in close collaboration and partnership with all stakeholders
and civil society that may include NGOs, schools, colleges, university departments
with their research expertise and the like.
REFERENCES
[1] Rahman, M.H., Rahman, M.M., Watanabe, C. and Yamamoto, K. 2003. Arsenic
contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh and its remedial measures. In: Arsenic
Contamination in Groundwater- Technical and Policy Dimensions. Proceedings of
the UNU-NIES International Workshop, United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan,
pp. 9-21.
[2] Chakraborti, D., Rahman, M.M., Chowdhury, U.K., Paul, K., Mukherjee, S.C., Saha,
K.C., Chanda, C.R., Lodh, D., Roy Chowdhury, T., Basu, G.K., Dey, S. Paul, B.C.
and Roy, P.K. 2003. Key issues for arsenic crisis and an approach for its
remediation: West Bengal (India) experience. In: Arsenic Contamination in
Groundwater- Technical and Policy Dimensions. Proceedings of the UNU-NIES
International Workshop, United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan, pp. 1-6.
7
[3] Ahmed, M.F. 2003. Policy development for arsenic mitigation in Bangladesh. In:
Arsenic Contamination in Groundwater- Technical and Policy Dimensions.
Proceedings of the UNU-NIES International Workshop, United Nations University,
Tokyo, Japan, pp. 27-28.
[4] Mazumdar, A., Acharjee, P.R. and Bhattacharya, J. 1998. Statistical Profile of Barak
Valley 1998. North Eastern Centre for Advanced Studies, Silchar, Assam, India.
[5] Guerquin, F., Ahmed, T., Hua, M., Ikeda, T., Ozbilen, V. and Schuttelaar, M. 2003.
World Water Actions: Making Water Flow for All. Water Action Unit, World Water
Council, Marseille, France.
[6] http://www.sodis.ch (web reference)