Drought Exposure and Household Drinking-Water Disruption in Arid and Semi-Arid Western India

Abstract Drought can compromise household water security by reducing water availability and placing additional pressure on water-supply systems, yet evidence linking objectively measured drought exposure with recent household-level disruption of drinking-water availability remains limited. This study examined the association between drought exposure and household drinking-water disruption in western India and assessed whether the association varied across residential, socioeconomic, and water-access contexts. Household-level data from the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), conducted during 2019–2021, were analysed for 56,555 households in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Drinking-water disruption was defined as the reported unavailability of water from the household’s main drinking-water source for at least one day during the preceding two weeks. Drought exposure was derived from the Standardized Precipitation–Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI-01) and assigned at the survey-cluster level according to the month and year of interview. Survey-weighted logistic regression was used to estimate the association, complemented by analyses of predicted probabilities, effect modification, and selected subpopulations. Drought-exposed households had higher odds of reporting drinking-water disruption than households without drought exposure (adjusted OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.19–1.69), and the association persisted after adjustment for socio-demographic, socioeconomic, and water-system characteristics. Predicted probabilities showed a corresponding increase in the likelihood of disruption under drought exposure. The association was evident across several residential, social, wealth, and water-source subgroups, although formal interaction tests did not indicate statistically significant effect modification. These findings highlight household drinking-water continuity as an important dimension of climate-related water security and underscore the need to strengthen drought-responsive water-supply resilience in water-stressed regions.