: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR – 12-10-2020 #IndiaNEWS #Letters to Editor No Regular Water Supply In Adpai At the Adpai village in Ponda, tap water is available only during late evening and night. For

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR – 12-10-2020 #IndiaNEWS #Letters to Editor
No Regular Water Supply In Adpai

At the Adpai village in Ponda, tap water is available only during late evening and night. For almost the whole day, taps run dry. As a result, household chores like cooking, washing clothes, utensils, bathing, etc get delayed to a great extent. Recently, PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar has informed that the state government has made an estimate of Rs 50 crore to provide clean tap water to every household in the state under the Centre’s ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan’ by 2021. Over the years, we have been noticing that the people in different parts are facing untold hardships in getting water for home consumption and also for undertaking household chores. It is rather unfortunate that till date getting regular tap water is difficult, and more so, in remote areas. Even when the local MLA Sudin Dhavalikar was the PWD Minister, situation was no different and local residents were deprived of the water supply due to taps running dry the entire day. Water being a basic necessity, people should receive it on a regular basis. In fact the availability of tap water for 24 hours is the real need of the hour. However, the same has remained a distant dream. As a matter of fact, merely providing tap connections to households is not enough. What is equally important is that people receive water on a regular basis. Let us hope that the state government would try its best to achieve this in the interest and welfare of the people.

Pravin U Sardessai, Adpai

On Mental Health Care

Mental health is one of the most neglected areas of public health. Close to 1 billion people are living with a mental disorder, 3 million people die every year from the harmful use of alcohol and one person dies every 40 seconds by suicide. And now, billions of people around the world have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is having a further impact on people’s mental health. Yet, relatively few people around the world have access to quality mental health care services. In low and middle income countries, more than 75 per cent of the people with mental, neurological and substance use disorders receive no treatment for their condition at all. Furthermore, stigma, discrimination, punitive legislation and human rights abuses are still widespread. World Mental Health Day is an opportunity for the world to come together and begin redressing the historic neglect of mental health. We are already seeing the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s mental well being, and this is just the beginning. Unless we make serious commitments to scale up investment in mental health care services right now, the consequences will be far-reaching.