Conditions appalling in slums: PAC report

Conditions appalling in slums: PAC report

The Hindu

`Some slums get water supply once in a week'

# Availability of piped water supply throughout the year is 30 per cent
# 77 per cent of the respondents said the water supply is disrupted every week
# 60 per cent of households do not have sanitation
# 90 per cent of the respondents said they do not have access to primary health centres

BANGALORE: The Citizen Report Card, prepared by the Public Affairs Centre (PAC), has given the Government thumbs down for not supplying clean drinking water and providing good medical facilities to people.

The report states that most people in slums have to depend on public taps for water. The frequency of water supply is poor and the supply is often disrupted.

In Mahadevapura City Municipal Council (CMC) limits, the residents get piped water supply in public taps only once a week.

The report card is based on in-depth interviews with persons in 297 households and social mapping exercises in Nellorepuram and Reddypalya slums of Mahadevapura CMC and Sanjaynagar and Manjunatahnagar of K.R. Puram CMC. The data collection was carried out by social workers from the Association for Promoting Social Action and the study was funded by WaterAid India.

The report found that over 60 per cent of the people were dissatisfied with public taps and were willing to pay for individual connections. Several complained of foul smell in the water.

On sanitation front, the report card showed that the Government is not doing enough. At Reddypalya, which has a population of about 2,750 in 550 houses, there is not a single public toilet. At Sanjaynagar, which has a population of 1,875 families and 375 houses, the situation is the same.

The report showed that there is lack of an underground drainage system in all the four slums. Most of the streets have L-shaped or U-shaped open drains that have not been lined properly and get blocked during rain.

Health problems

Over 90 per cent of the respondents in the slums said they had no access to primary health facilities. Two per cent of them said they went to ESI hospitals while the rest said they went to private clinics.

Asha Ramesh from WaterAid said the Government needed to provide safe and adequate water supply to its citizens without looking to the private sector for help.

Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board Executive Engineer S.R. Roopkumar said the board is willing to install more shared meters for customers if such a request is made. "We need people to come forward and tell us about the problems," he said.