Why Indians Pay ‘Triple Tax’ To Drink What Should Be Free under ‘Right To Live’ Article 21 of Indian Constitution
The Supreme Court of India has declared ‘Clean Water’ a Fundamental Right under Article 21 – The Right To Life. In the historic judgement of Subhash Kumar V/s State of Bihar ( 1991), The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India held that Right To Live, under Article 21 includes the right of enjoyment of pollution free water. Still, citizens of a nation blessed with sacred rivers and 4% of Earth’s freshwater are queuing at grocery stores to buy water.
Every morning, millions of Indians perform the same ritual: bypass their government-supplied tap, reach for their filtered or bottled water, and unknowingly participate in history’s most profitable municipal failure. This is the story of how a river-worshipping nation learned to fear its own taps.
Welcome to modern India, where an extraordinary contradiction unfolds daily in millions of homes. Picture this: You wake up, turn on your tap (connected to municipal supply you pay taxes for), fill a glass with water, and then, stop. You reach for your RO purifier, or walk to the refrigerator for bottled water instead.
This seemingly mundane ritual would perplex visitors from most developed nations, yet it reveals one of modern India’s most glaring contradictions: a country that worships rivers has created a society where citizens fear their own taps.
The Economics of Distrust
The numbers behind this paradox are staggering. India’s bottled water industry, racing toward ₹50,000 crores by 2030, grows at 20% annually, not in a water-scarce desert nation, but in a country that considers the Ganga divine. Meanwhile, 40% of urban households have installed RO systems that waste 60% of the water they process, creating a bizarre scenario where families discard more clean water than they consume.
Citizens now pay a triple tax for basic hydration: municipal water bills for unusable supply, 18% GST on purification systems, and 12% GST on bottled water. A middle-class family typically spends ₹500-2000 monthly on water purification and bottles, a cost that should theoretically be zero if municipal systems functioned properly.
Consider the absurdity: the same water that flows from your tap becomes “safe” only after passing through a machine that removes beneficial minerals, wastes most of the input, and requires expensive maintenance. The water industry has successfully monetized municipal failure.
The Global Reality Check
This contradiction becomes stark when viewed globally. In Germany, citizens drink tap water with complete confidence, their municipal supply often exceeds the quality of bottled brands. Americans consume tap water in 90% of households without concern. Even in Brazil, despite infrastructure challenges, the government maintains accountability for water quality rather than forcing citizens to become individual water treatment plants.
The difference isn’t resources or technology, India has both. It’s accountability. When German tap water fails quality tests, officials face consequences. When Indian municipal water causes illness, citizens quietly buy more bottles.
The ₹6 Lakh Crore Question
India hasn’t ignored the water crisis. The Jal Jeevan Mission allocated ₹3.6 lakh crores to connect every rural home to tap water. AMRUT 2.0 committed ₹2.87 lakh crores for urban supply improvement. The National Rural Drinking Water Programme receives ₹1.2 lakh crores annually. Total commitment: over ₹6 lakh crores.
The results show infrastructure success but quality failure. Rural tap connections jumped from 17% to 62% since 2019, a remarkable achievement. Urban supply has improved significantly. Yet families continue spending thousands monthly on alternative water sources because infrastructure expansion hasn’t been matched by quality assurance.
The uncomfortable question persists: if we can mobilize ₹6 lakh crores for water infrastructure, why hasn’t this eliminated the need for household water treatment?
The Accountability Vacuum
The answer lies in a fundamental governance failure. When you buy a defective smartphone, you demand a refund or replacement. When municipal water makes you sick, the corporation faces no consequences. This asymmetry has normalized the unacceptable.
Unlike the EPA’s enforcement powers in America or EU water standards that carry real penalties, India’s Bureau of Indian Standards for water quality remains largely aspirational. Municipalities supply contaminated water with impunity while citizens adapt by creating parallel private water systems.
The bottled water industry thrives on this failure, advertising fear rather than governments ensuring safety. RO companies market uncertainty rather than officials guaranteeing quality. An entire economy has emerged around municipal incompetence.
The Conditioning of Compromise
Perhaps most disturbing is how completely we’ve normalized this dysfunction. Asking for drinkable tap water now seems unrealistic rather than fundamental. We’ve been conditioned to view water quality as a household responsibility instead of a municipal obligation.
This conditioning runs deep. When friends visit from abroad and hesitate before drinking our bottled water (wondering why we don’t use taps), we explain matter-of-factly that “tap water isn’t safe”—as if this represents natural law rather than policy failure.
Parents teach children to avoid tap water as a safety measure, embedding distrust of public systems from childhood. Schools install expensive purification systems instead of demanding municipal compliance. Offices budget for water expenses rather than lobbying for infrastructure accountability.
The Path Forward
The solution isn’t more technology or spending; it’s accountability. Real-time water quality monitoring using IoT sensors could provide transparency. Strict liability laws could make municipalities financially responsible for health impacts from contaminated supply. Corporate social responsibility requirements could redirect bottled water profits toward public infrastructure improvement.
Most importantly, citizens could demand that the Right to Clean Water become enforceable rather than aspirational. If municipal corporations faced legal consequences for supplying unsafe water, loss of funding, official penalties, mandatory remediation, the problem would resolve quickly.
The technology exists. Israel, Singapore, and Denmark prove that water-scarce or geographically challenged nations can provide pristine tap water through governance, not just engineering.
The Civilization Question
Here’s the philosophical challenge: what does it reveal about a society when people living alongside sacred rivers queue at stores to purchase water in plastic bottles? When temples to river goddesses coexist with families hoarding bottled water for basic consumption?
We possess the resources, technology, and financial capacity to solve this paradox. What we lack is the political will to hold those responsible for public water supply accountable for public water safety.
The next time you bypass your tap for bottled water, consider this: you’re participating in a system that has successfully monetized municipal failure. Until we demand accountability rather than adaptation, we’ll continue paying thrice for what every citizen deserves once, clean water from the tap.
A nation that worships rivers but fears its taps has confused reverence with governance. It’s time to remember the difference.
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