Assessment of Drinking Water Accessibility and Quality in the Indo-Bhutan Himalayan Foothill Region of Assam, India

Abstract

Despite fairly heavy rainfall, the Bhutan Himalayan foothill region of Assam has been facing serious water scarcity problems mainly due to the subsurface structure and soil condition. The local people of the region with their community efforts and traditional knowledge have developed a water management system locally known as Dong-bandh. This traditional canal water system provides the most reliable source of water to the people residing in the area. Besides the canals, they also collect water from the streams, natural springs, and wells. The quality of water is getting deteriorated over time under the influence of the growing population and their activities in the upstream areas. The present study is an attempt to investigate the status of water accessibility in the area and the quality of the drinking water used by the people. For this study, data and information have collected through field investigation, GPS survey, focus group discussion, and interviews with some key informants. A total of 14 drinking water samples were collected randomly from 14 foothill villages (both from the ground and surface) and tested to determine various physiochemical characteristics. The results were compared with the WHO and BIS/ ICMR water quality standards. Finally, the status of water quality was analyzed in terms of the Water Quality Index (WQI). The WQI values were found to lie between 21.75 to 502.38.