Stark inequalities in society

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https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-05-08/how-the-coronavirus-began-as-a-disease-of-the-rich

 

In Nigeria — Africa’s largest economy but also one of its most unequal, where two in five people survive on $1 a day or less. 

Some of the first COVID-19 patients were political figures. Some were believed to have been infected while traveling in Europe or Egypt, drawing snickers from working-class Nigerians fed up with official corruption and the perks enjoyed by a moneyed class famous for its passports and plane tickets.

“A lot of Nigerians were very happy, saying, ‘Maybe all of our leaders will get sick and we’ll get a new government,’”..

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https://thediplomat.com/unraveling-urban-indias-water-challenges-amid-covid-19/  

By Soumyadip Chattopadhyay

April 16, 2020

 

Equally distressing, a significant proportion of urban citizens, especially the urban poor, have no access to adequate water and basic handwashing remains out of their reach, further increasing the risk of COVID-19 spreading further.

 

2011 census data reveals that, contrary to the government of India’s service benchmark of 100 percent water coverage, only 70 percent of households have access to tap water, out of which 62 percent have access to treated tap water. In the slums, the corresponding figure is 74 percent, but slum dwellers access water not through individual connections but by community stand posts. To make matters worse, not all households enjoying access to public water supply have access to it within the their homes. Nearly two-thirds of households do not have access to water within their homes, and 8 percent of households need to fetch water from more than 100 meters away from their households

Moreover, the  duration of the water supply in Indian cities is only 2 to 3 hours on average.

 

Community stand posts.

 

No wonder, I spend 7 days of my 8 day trip to Tiruchirappalli with food poisoning. My maiden trip to India. Subsequent holidays to the Indian sub continent went without a hitch. I learnt my lessons well.

Edited May 16, 2020 by M'Awan

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https://www.usnews.com/news/cities/slideshows/10-cities-most-at-risk-of-running-out-of-water

June 21, 2019

 

Chennai, the sixth-largest city in India (pop : 10 million+), is facing a severe water shortage. With the four reservoirs the city’s population uses for water drying up, residents are forced to line up every day to collect water from trucks that carry water into the city. Chennai is just the most severe example of an ongoing drought that is leaving 600 million people in India suffering from water shortages.

 

https://www.firstpost.com/tech/science/indias-water-crisis

 

BENGALURU, DELHI, CHENNAI AMONG 21 CITIES TO RUN OUT OF GROUNDWATER BY 2020

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2020 by M'Awan