The overriding issue is that of large scale deprivation of access to safe, potable water for large numbers of the poverty- inflicted urban population. This leads to endemic infectious diseases like diarrhea, a major cause of child mortality. Lack of access to piped water supply leads to great loss of time and energy, for at least two members of a typical urban poor family (usually the woman and an elder girl child) in fetching water from the nearest supply point (tap, stand-post/tanker), and carrying it for long distances.

The second major issue is the cost of supplying piped water to the urban poor households. Municipal bodies are chronically short of finance and cannot bear the associated financial burden. Even if funds for the initial investment are made available, it is likely that water charges have to be levied on the users (with appropriate cross subsidies to ensure equity) to cover at least part of the costs of operation and maintenance. This is a volatile issue which is frequently whipped up by vested interests of political groups and sometimes unfortunately by various sections of the intelligentsia. The latter usually have an assured supply of safe water through pipes and taps installed in their own, relatively affluent homes and freely use or misuse water which they get at a handsome subsidy. They voice thoughtless opinions about the “unfairness” of charging for water as it hits the poor. If equitable user charges are levied, their own assured supply of heavily subsidised water (and their present wasteful use) will certainly come under jeopardy. They are probably unaware or insensitive to the fact that the poor are actually already paying much more heavily for the water that they use, than if a minimal user charge had been levied on them for an assured supply and easier access to safe and potable piped water supply. Many of them directly pay to illicit local private vendors for dubious quality water. Or they pay to local muscle wielding touts who ration Government supplied water from tankers and stand-posts. Apart from these direct costs, indirect costs pile up in the form of daily wages lost by adult persons obliged to spend much of the day fetching and carrying water, children dropping out of school to be available at the right time to queue up for water and carry it home, often, over long distances (the minimum requirement for an average family weighs as much as six heavy suitcases). The poor frequently pay heavily for medical treatment for diseases caused by lack of adequate safe water.