Water woes ail PHCs in Telangana

​Hyderabad: Though the government makes tall claims on spending thousands of crores of rupees to provide potable water to households, there is a lack of similar focus on the Public Health Centres (PHCs) in the rural areas.

This is resulting in PHCs facing several problems related to safe delivery of the child and saving the lives of the mothers. Certain studies carried out by voluntary organisations like Global Citizen and Water Aid indicate that the conditions in PHCs are pathetic.

The study revealed that in Nizamabad, PHCs were deprived of water supply for five months due to depleting level of the water table and the bore wells. PHCs here are dependent on these sources for meeting their water requirements.

A tanker has been arranged to supply water around the village once a day, including the PHC. According to an auxiliary nurse working in a PHC, they mostly get just 50 litres of water a day and on some occasions about 100 litres. She said for one delivery the hospital requires 100 litres of water. Sometimes, they even struggle to find water to give enema to the expectant mother, she said.

According to the nurse, there were occasions when they could not find enough water to wash their hands after delivery. She said the PHC was promised that an overhead tank would be provided and that it would be filled with water every day. The promise is yet to materialise.

Speaking to The Hans India, Telangana United Medical and Health Employees Union secretary K Balaram confirmed that the situation revealed in the case study is prevailing in many of the 670 PHCs. He said that since they are located in the villages, most of them do not have tap water facility.

“Most of the PHCs depend on bore wells to draw water.If they go dry, tankers are the only solution.” Balaram said that the staff brings water from their homes for drinking purposes and advises those attending on the patients’ to get water from home.