Accessibility, Availability and Potability of drinking water in rural households of Udupi Taluk, Karnataka, India-2012

Background: The water and sanitation are one of the primary drivers of public health. About 1.1 billion people in the world were lacking access to the safe drinking water supply in 2002 and 86% of these people were living in rural areas. Objectives: Primary: To assess the bacteriological potability of drinking water by H2S method. Secondary: To assess the availability and accessibility of drinking water. Settings: The study was conducted in rural households of Udupi taluk, District Udupi, Karnataka. It was a community based cross sectional study. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in the year 2012 using Bactoscope- water potability kit and interview schedule. A total of 180 households were interviewed and sample of drinking water was collected from each of the households using two stage sampling. Analysis: The analysis was done using SPSS 15 statistical package. The results were expressed in percentages and proportions. Chi square test was applied to find any association with bacteriological potability of water Results: 52.8% of the household were using bacteriologically non potable water for drinking purposes. Below poverty line and katcha or semi pucca house was significantly associated with bacteriologically potable water. 62.8% of the households were collecting the water from open wells. 98.3% of households reported that drinking water is available round the year and majority of them collected the water from the source on a daily basis Conclusion: Though the drinking water is readily available and easily accessible for majority of the household, the high prevalence of non potable water is an issue of grave concern.