If private companies are given the responsibility of providing public facilities such as water, they will charge more. In such a situation, only some people will be able to afford to buy water. Thus, even though some private companies are providing the facility of water, this facility is not available to all at an affordable rate. If we go by the rule that people will get as much as they can pay for, then many people will be deprived of the opportunity to live a decent life. The government not private companies should work towards making available public facilities for all and guarantee the Right to Life.

The situation of water supply in Chennai is not  very good. All citizens do not have equal access to water.
Anna Nagar, where senior government officials live, in lush green with-maintained lawns due to generous spraying of water. The bungalows here have tap water for major part of the day. In case the water supply is inadequate, residents here get water tankers arranged easily for themselves.
Mylapore suffers from water shortage. This area gets municipal water once in two days.Residents meet their water needs with the help of private borewells. Borewell water is however brackish, so residents use it in their toilets and for washing. For other uses, water is purchasecd from tankers. For drinking water, residents have installed water purification systems in their homes.
Madipakkam house in this city get water once in four days. Water shortage is an accepted way of life in this area. Residents buy bottled water for drinking.
Saidapet slum dwellers near Saidapet live in hutments that do not have water taps. They collect water for their daily needs from a common tap at the corner of the street. Water is supply to this common tap from a borewell for 20 minutes, twice daily. They get about 3 buckets of water daily. During summer months even this meagre supply is reduced.     

The budget is an account of the expenses the government has incurred on its programmes in the past year and how to spend in the forth coming year. The main source of revenue for the government is the taxes collected from the people. The government is empowered to collect these taxes and use them for such programmes. The government also charges a price for water. For instance, to supply water the government has to incur costs in pumping water, carrying it over long distances, laying down pipes for distribution, treating the water for impurities and finally, collecting and treating waste water. This price is set in a way such that most people can afford a certain minimum amount of water for daily use. 

(i)Water supply in Chennai is marked by shortages.
(ii)Municipal supply meets only about half the needs of the people of the city, on an average.
(iii) There are areas which get more water regularly than others. Those areas that are close to the storage points get more water, whereas colonies further away receive less water.
(iv) Apart from the availability of water, access to 'safe' drinking water is also available to some people and this depends on their afford ability.
(v) The burden of shortfall in water supply falls mostly on the poor.
(vi) The middle class, when faced with water shortage, are able to cope through a variety of private means such as digging bore wells, buying water from tankers and using bottled water for drinking.

Sulabh is a non-government organization, which has been working for three decades to concentrate on the problems of sanitation faced by the lowcaste, low-income people in India. It has erected more than 7,500 public toilet blocks and 1.2 million private toilets, giving access to sanitation to 10 million people. Sulabh enters into contracts with municipalities or other local authorities to construct toilet blocks with government funds. The local authorities provide land and funds for setting up the services, whereas maintenance costs are sometimes financed through user charges.

There are cases of success in government's water departments. The water supply department in Mumbai raises enough money through water charges to cover its expenses on supplying water. In Hyderabad, the department has increased coverage and improved performance in revenue collection. In Chennai, the department has started harvesting the rainwater. It has handed over the services of transporting and distributing water to private companies on government rates.

(i) Many private companies are providing water to cities by buying it from the farmers living in nearby villages.
This has affected the local people in the following ways:
(a) Ground water levels have dropped drastically.
(b) Water is taken away for agriculture.
(c) Drinking water supplies of the village is also affected.
(d) It result in increase of water rates.
(e) Local people can object to such exploitation of groundwater since it takes away their fundamental rights-right to life which includes right to water.
Yes, the government can take certain steps to prevent such situations.

Primary requirements like food, water, shelter, sanitation, healthcare, education, etc. which are necessary for survival are referred to as public facilities. The important characteristic of public facilities is that the benefits provided by public facilities can be shared by many people. For example, a school in a village will enable many children to get education.

(i) The Constitution of India recognized the right to water as being right to life as a part under Article 2l.
(ii) This means that it is the right of every person, whether rich or poor to have sufficient amount of water to fulfill daily needs at a price they can afford.
(iii) There should be "Universal access" to water.

The scarcity of water made way for private companies to make profit. Private suppliers supply water to the cities through buying the right to harness water from around the places. These companies maintain water supply for Chennai and nearby cities through a fleet of 13000 tankers. For this purpose, every month, they pay farmers and get permission to exploit water sources in their land.