Water woes and vulnerabilities: a case study of Bally-Jagachha block of Howrah District in West Bengal, India

ABSTRACT Water is one of the most contended resources on the planet. The need and the un-ubiquitous nature of the resource is a reality faced by the Bally-Jagachha block in Howrah, West Bengal. Here, the available water sources are tube-well and piped water, both having Water Quality Indices of more than 300 and 200, respectively. This indicates that drinking water is unpalatable, making people vulnerable to diseases. Additionally, as is evident through the Water Poverty map, inaccessibility is an expensive, debilitating problem, as people have to travel twice in 4–7 min to and from the water source to collect it and then again spend more to filter the same. The Ridit scores thus state that people are overcome by water woes in supply, availability, consumption, quality, demand, etc., but yet have no alternatives like rainwater harvesting (RWH), despite people’s acceptance to it. Thus this paper attempts to collate all the problems regarding water and suggest ways by which the Gram Panchayats here can safely implement RWH and resolve the situation for the future.