Without clean water, life on this planet would be impossible.
But a lot water on our pale blue dot is filthy and can kill you. In fact, the WHO estimates that at least 1.8 billion humans around the globe use a water source that is “contaminated with faeces” and causes diseases such as cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio. All in all, dirty water causes 502,000 diarrhoeal deaths each year, and countless more infections.
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Thanks a lot, water.
But that’s the great thing about so-called “drinking water“—you can drink it and not die, at least in principle. In countries like India, where water contamination is a widespread health issue, this semantic difference is literally a matter of life and death. By extension, any claim that water is “drinkable” needs to be closely examined, especially in public places.
Every day, India’s rail system accommodates 10 million passengers. And the train stations that line this complex steel network are all obligated to provide drinkable water to the millions of train passengers who take the train in sometimes sweltering heat.
A recent internal report by Indian Railways has found dangerously high levels of bacteria in the train stations’ water systems, NDTV reports. According to the study, half of the water pumping stations it looked at were lacking functional chlorination plants and 70 percent of the water samples collected tested positive for “coliform” bacteria like E. coli.
Said pumping stations are meant to extract groundwater, chlorinate it to kill potentially lethal bacteria, and then pump it to taps on railway stations. But in light of this report, it would appear that much of the water is basically “untreated,” meaning that it’s packed with whatever human and chemical waste is floating around in the water supply and not fit for human consumption.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) calls for zero bacteria in drinking water but the rail industry thinks the bar should be a little lower, somewhere in the ballpark of “less than four [units] per 100ml of water,” according to NDTV.
These industry figures are not only arbitrary, but also dangerous, according to medical experts. “Any presence of bacteria in water means contamination from possible fecal matter and garbage, which can seriously affect human health,” Dr. Navin Dang, a Delhi-based pathologist, told NDTV.
Cautious train travellers can’t be blamed for opting for bottled water instead of playing a deadly game of tapwater roulette, but they are no further ahead.
Recently, some enterprising companies like Rail Neer have decided to make money off of this health crisis by bottling water and selling it at train stations, but that water wasn’t much better, according to The Mumbai Mirror. Analysis of Rail Neer water found high levels of bacteria that could lead to “diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, stomach ache, vomiting, etc.” citing a high “aerobic microbial count, as against the maximum permissible value.”
If you are living out some kind of Darjeeling Limited fantasy and travelling by train around India, you may be wondering if any of the water is safe to drink at all. Well, you could try drinking none at all. It works pretty well for this guy.
