Assessing geographic variations in household water disruptions across 30,109 communities in India in 2021

A household has a ‘safely managed’ water service if water is continuously supplied from an improved source. In India, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of households connected to an improved water source over the past few decades. However, much less is known about the extent to which these households are receiving uninterrupted supply and the geographic variation in water service disruptions. Using new data from the fifth round of India’s National Family Health Survey in 2021, we examined the geographic variations in household water disruptions across states and Union Territories, districts, and 30,109 urban and rural communities. The median community-level prevalence of household water disruption was 12.3% across India, and similar in rural and urban communities. The district-level prevalence of household water disruptions varied considerably within states such as Gujarat and Maharashtra, another indication of varying levels of vulnerability. Furthermore, the community-level prevalence of household water disruptions varied within states and districts highlighting the fact that high-burden and low burden communities exist within the same regions. Finally, households with piped water connections experienced the greatest share of water disruptions at the all-India, rural, and urban levels when compared to other improved sources and unimproved sources. Our findings highlight that while an increasing number of people from India have gained access to an improved drinking water source, future efforts should address the contextually relevant determinants of water disruptions.