ASHWAS – “A Survey of Household Water And Sanitation” is a participatory survey effort conducted by Arghyam, the Bangalore-based public foundation that runs the Water Portal. The survey aims to ascertain the status of household water and sanitation in rural Karnataka from a citizen perspective. This one year long effort that covered 17,200 households across 28 districts of Karnataka culminated into a detailed report that presents findings at the state and district levels. Reports are also prepared for each of the 172 Gram Panchayats, to whom the findings will be taken back to enable them to initiate required action. The report was released on 20th of July by the honourable governor of Karnataka, Sri H R Bharadwaj.A website has been set up for ASHWAS: http://www.ashwas.indiawaterportal.org.

Among the major findings of the survey: access to water has improved in most parts of the state but a major concern is the status of quality of water. Fluoride contamination above the 1.0 parts per million (ppm) government norm has been found in 60% of the cases across the states with 27 out of 28 surveyed districts registering its presence. Nitrate contamination was found in 20% of the samples. Typically nitrate contamination is from fertilizer runoff and contamination of water supply with human excreta.

Another alarming finding is the dismal status of sanitation habits as well as facilities, with 72% people still resorting to open defecation (OD). The survey respondents said OD was a great inconvenience and listed financial constraints and lack of space as the main reason for not building a toilet in their homes.

In terms of health and hygiene, menstrual hygiene is a big issue that has yet to find required attention. 94% of women still have to use a cloth for protection, often under unhygienic conditions that are harmful to their health.

The full state survey report can be downloaded here: http://ashwas.indiawaterportal.org/downloads/state/report.pdf
District reports, Methodology and questionnaires can be accessed here: http://ashwas.indiawaterportal.org/download
Status of water in individual gram panchayats can also be queried online.

Reports customized for each Gram Panchayat surveyed will be disseminated to all the Gram Panchayats over the next 3 months.
For more information, please mail sonaliarghyam.org