So, what then does the UN mean when it says that 94% Indians now have access to safe, clean drinking water? That too it shows that this is a contrast to the 71% in 1990 as per a report the UN recently released titled: "Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water: 2015 Update and MDG Assessment."
Such claims lay the base for justifying the UN's ongoing work in securing the Millennium Development Goals.
In 2011, I had worked on a story from Jharkhand, where villagers were dying due to fluorosis in the impoverished Garhwa district. The district administration had decided to leave that detail out of their briefings to the health department.
After a few critical cases and the news report, the administration suggested that the villagers should eat "chakor ka saag" — a local protein-rich, leafy vegetable.
So, while most of India is still searching for "clean" and "safe" in its drinking water, the UN believes that we have already arrived.
In the 1980s and part of the 90s, along with vacuum cleaners, Eureka Forbes' salesmen would come knocking on the door with water purifiers. Others bought candle filters.
Now, the market is flooded with dozens of brands selling scores of brands of RO plants for the home, office and restaurants. Maybe, the UN is referring to the high use of RO and filtration units we install, when it says that 97% of urban India now has access to safe and clean drinking water. In Bijapur town, I noticed that RO units were quite popular in most homes and this is a town with no hotels. The best restaurant is a man with a cart selling Chikan Beeryani (no relation to the loud sportsbar that sells beer and biryani combo).
The UN report on access to safe, clean drinking water is doing the rounds on social media and through newsreports. And, it's flaunting data that 94% of Indians now allegedly have access to safe and clean drinking water.
Both India and Pakistan seem to have finally beaten Bangladesh at something. As per this same report, while 94% Indians and 91% Pakistanis have access to clean drinking water, only 87% Bangladeshis have access to the same.
On the same trip to Chhattisgarh, I met with a researcher who is now working as a consultant with the Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh government in this same field.
This researcher has seen the United Nations report too and says that it must be based on government data, which cannot be called reliable.
According to this researcher, as per 2014 data, rural Chhattisgarh is heavily affected by fluorosis (The rest of India has other problems too, such as protozoa, virus and arsenic in its water). In Korba district, the state government data shows that 22 gram panchayats (average 5 villages per panchayat) is affected by fluorosis while the central government data shows that 56 gram panchayats are affected with fluorosis.
The UN report that accompanies these statistics of "access to improved sources of drinking water" should perhaps keep their goals and statistics more real and their jargon more accurate.