Proto Alegre is a city in Brazil. The water supply condition in this city is excellent. The average price of water is very low, so it is easily accessible by all The poor people are charged half the basic rate. The profits is used to improve the water supply.

No, the above public facilities are not shared equally by all the people in my area. The public facilities like water, electricity, healthcare do exist but the richer people have better access to them because they can afford to pay more for those services. Since, the poor cannot afford to pay much, they avail government subsidised public facilities which are very poor in quality.

This is because private companies work for profit and not for public welfare. They provide water supply at a price which only some people can afford. This leads to huge protests by the people thereby forcing the government to take back the service from private companies. This is why, there are so few cases of private water supply in the world.

Private companies work for profits; they do not have people's welfare as their priority. It is the responsibility of the government to monitor the work of the private companies and ensure that it is done well. This is because the government works for the people, it is directly accountable to them and thus; the sole responsibility of people's welfare is of the government.

Municipal water, private borewell, water tanker are some of the various sources of water for household use.

(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.

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.

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.