To our knowledge this is the first K

To our knowledge this is the first KAP study to assess water
usage, sanitation and defecation practices in a southern
Indian rural community. The findings are important in that
there is no stigma associated with open air defecation and a
perceived lack of association between safe water and diarrhoeal disease.
The success of the government water supply scheme
in rural Tamilnadu (International Institute for Population
Sciences and ORC Macro, 2001) is reflected in our findings
that the people of Nelvoy village predominantly derived
their drinking water from the government supply. As recently
as 5 years ago, water sources such as shallow bore wells,
operated by hand pumps and open wells were used as
sources of drinking water. With the recession of the water
table, the only reliable source of water has become the deep
bore wells installed by the government.
A surprising finding was that there was a difference in
the volume of water available in the Main village compared
to the Harijan colony, which was both perceived by the residents of the village and measured by individual water usage.
The reasons for the shortage were not apparent, but sociocultural factors are likely to have a strong role. Traditionally,
Harijan colonies and the non-Harijan areas in India have
had separate water sources. In this study and in observations in other villages in this region, not only the sources of
water to the two sections of the village were found to be
different, but also the distribution networks had no interconnections (Prof. Muliyil, CHAD, Vellore, India, personal
communication). The difference in supply is likely to be a
reflection of the continuation of historical segregation of
upper and lower caste people and inequalities that have
remained uncorrected.