Carriage and Transportation of Drinking Water

1 April, 2016

More than half of the 247 million households in India have to fetch drinking water from outside domestic premises. According to the Census of 2011, 36% of these households have to fetch water from a source located within 500 meters in rural areas or 100 meters in urban areas and another 17% still fetch drinking water from a source located more than 500 meters away in rural areas or 100 meters in urban areas. Even for those possessing a drinking water source at home, disruption of the regular water supply can require procurement of water from outside. Carriage and transportation of drinking water can thus present a formidable task for many, who then have to depend upon different arrangements subject to the available options, manpower, resources, and the quantum of the water required to be carried or transported. The simplest mode of carriage is physically in person. Women and children carrying water pots on their heads or buckets in the hands is a common sight in rural as well as urban areas. In the hilly north-eastern India, water is also traditionally carried by women and girls in bamboo pipes kept in a bamboo basket carried on the back. Sometimes, men and women here also lift buckets by hanging them at the two ends of a bamboo pole. In urban areas of India, where water is collected in big drums and cans, these may be moved over short distances by just lifting them by the handles by two persons. In rural as well as urban areas, older children and men are also found to carry pots and buckets as well as larger cans of water on bicycle, especially where the distance is long and the volume of water required is large. In villages, animal carriages of various kinds are also in use, generally driven by men. Examples include bullock cart and camel cart. In towns, hand-driven and cycle-driven cart are also used. These different kinds of carts are used for transporting bigger loads of water. Motorized options are also in use. Motorcycle can be used to transport cans upto moderate capacity while on jeep, tempo and truck, larger capacity cans and tanks can be loaded. Where large amounts of water need to be transported for large-scale supply, water tanker is used. This photo story provides a virtual tour of the varied modes of carriage and transportation of drinking water used in rural and urban India. The title photograph is from district Kutch, Gujarat.