“The Jal Jeevan Mission’s ambition to bring safe drinking water to all rural homes is likely to be highly valuable, preventing around 1,36,000 child deaths annually,” it said. “We hope to work with the ministry and assist in this effort by testing possible solutions to water quality treatment such as re-chlorination”.
Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, the government aims to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in rural India. In 2019, at the inception of JJM, more than 50% of the population did not have access to safe drinking water in India.
As per the paper, although geogenic contaminants such as arsenic, fluoride and nitrate are widespread in certain regions of India, the most ubiquitous type of contamination is microbial and diarrhea is the third most common responsible disease for under-five mortality in India.
A recent meta-analysis of 15 randomised controlled trials, as part of the study, suggests that the expected reduction in all-cause under-5 mortality from water treatment is around one in four.
Further, cost-effectiveness analysis also suggests that water treatment is among the most cost-effective ways to reduce child mortality. “This implies that efforts to reach as many people as possible with safe water are likely to have very large net benefits,” it said.
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