The Effectiveness of Drinking Water Quality Improvement Programs in India: A Review

Background and objectives: Access to safe, clean, affordable drinking water is essential for people's well-being. Goal 6 of the united nations' sustainable development goals aim to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitization for all by 2030. According to WHO, about 122 million drink surface water, eight of ten people still lack essential drinking water services live in rural areas, and about half are from the least developed countries. There are an estimated 1.7 billion diarrhea cases and 2.2 million deaths from acute diarrheal disease annually due to poor water consumption, sanitation, and hygiene, long walk carrying water lead to musculoskeletal and meningococcal diseases among women. In order to address the issue of clean drinking water accessibility, affordability, sanitation, and hygiene and associated implications, numerous projects have been implemented worldwide, such as Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH). This study seeks to assess the highest quality evidence available for affordable and safe drinking water interventions to improve the water quality, quantity, and access and reduce health implications and well-being issues among rural communities in India.

Method: This review will be conducted by systematically searching for the literature using electronic databases, including PsycINFO, ProQuest, Cochrane CENTRAL, and Medline. The electronic search only considered peer-reviewed publications for the review. The review is restricted to journal articles published in the English language. The search terms used 'affordabl* drink* water' OR 'safe drink* water' OR 'clean drink* water' OR 'drink* water qua*' OR 'drink* water availab*' 'drink* water access'. All materials were scanned manually to determine whether the search terms were included in the title and abstracts. Eligibility for inclusion has been developed by the reviewer using population, intervention, control, and outcome (PICO) criteria. About 11,907 records were identified from databases.

Results: Seven studies were included in the review after carefully considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The final records include randomized control trials and experimental studies conducted in rural India. A cluster-randomized control trial study conducted in 80 rural villages in India shows improved sanitation facilities by an average of 19% post-intervention. Another reviewed study shows that self-reported water quality increased significantly in both the standard testing arm intervention and the test kit arm intervention between baseline and follow-up one month later. Another experiment study showed that the prevalence of diarrhea was less among children, about 2%, compared to control villages. Furthermore, Faecal drinking water contamination was lower among intervention households than control households. Another study in rural India showed no impact of water treatment on diarrhea prevalence (RR: 0.98) [95% CI: 0.24–4.09].

Conclusion: The review results suggest the positive impact of water quality interventions. Although massive interventions are implemented aim to enhance water quality in India, these programs were evaluated using a narrow range of health outcomes, including diarrhea, and nutritional issues, with a significant focus on children. The impact of water quality interventions on adolescent girls and women is closely associated with domestic drinking water and sanitization, but that has been sparsely studied.