Class VIII - Civics

Chapter 9 - Public Facilities

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The Constitution of India recognises the right to water as being a part of the right to life under Article 21.
It is the right of every person, whether rich or poor, to have enough amounts of water to fulfil his/her daily needs at a price that he /She can afford. In other words, there should be universal access to water.
There have been several court cases in which both the high courts and the supreme court have held that the right to safe drinking water is a Fundamental Right.

Like water, there are other essential facilities that need to be provided for everyone. There are two other such facilities: healthcare and sanitation. Similarly, there are things like electricity, public transport, schools and colleges that are also necessary.
These are known as public facilities.
The most important characteristic of a public facility is that once it is provided, its benefits can be shared by many people.

Public facilities are so important, someone must carry the responsibility of providing these to the people. This ‘someone’ is the government.
One of the most important function of the government is to ensure that these public facilities are made available to everyone.
Public facilities relate to people’s basic needs. Any Morden society requires that these facilities are provided so that people’s basic needs are met.
The responsibility to provide public facilities, therefore, must be that of the government.

While there is no doubt that public facilities should be made available to all, we see that there is a great shortage of such facilities.
Water supply in Chennai, is marked by shortages. Municipal supply meets only about half the needs of the people of the city, on an average.
The burden of shortfalls in water supply falls mostly on the poor. The middle class, when faced with water shortages, can cope through a variety of private means such as digging bore Wells, buying water from tankers and using bottled water for drinking.
Apart from the availability of water, access to ‘safe’ drinking water is also available to some and this depends on what one can afford. People who can afford it have safe drinking water, whereas the poor is left out.

The situation in Chennai is not unique. A similar scenario of shortages and acute crisis during summer months is common to other cities of India.
The supply of water per person in an urban area in India should be about 135 liters per day – a standard set by the urban water commission. Whereas people in slums must make do with less than 20 liters a day per person, people living in luxury hotels may consume as much as 1,600 liters of water per day.

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