Access to power improves in power-starved Karnataka

Even as Karnataka is facing severe shortage of power, it is inching towards achieving the goal of electricity for all households, with 97.8 per cent of families having access to power at their homes, going by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) of 2015–16.

Karnataka, where 89.3 per cent of households had electricity a decade ago (NFHS 2005–06), has extended it to 8.5 per cent more households by 2015–16, to reach 97.8 per cent. About 99 per cent of families residing in urban centres have power connection, while the figure is 97 per cent in rural areas, making the divide quite narrow.

Several plans, including installation of separate feeders for agricultural and rural domestic consumption, strengthening transmission and distribution systems, and creating new generation capacity, have increased the coverage. A plan to provide power connection only to energy-efficient irrigation pump (IP) sets is under way.

Water and sanitation

The 2015–16 data shows that 89.3 per cent of households have access to improved drinking water in Karnataka against 86.1 per cent a decade ago. Access to improved drinking water included piped water connections to dwelling/yard/plot, public tap/standpipe, tube well or borehole, protected dug well, protected spring, rainwater, and community reverse osmosis plant.

Compared to rural areas, 35 per cent of more households in urban areas have been using improved sanitation facility. The NFHS data has revealed that 77.3 per cent of households in urban and 42.6 per cent of households in rural areas have access to sanitation.

Overall in the State, 57.8 per cent of families have access to the facility such as flush to piped sewer system, flush to septic tank, flush to pit latrine, ventilated improved pit/biogas latrine, pit latrine with slab, and twin pit/composting toilet, which are not shared with any other household.

Rural-urban divide in fuel

The survey has revealed that only 32.1 per cent of rural households use clean fuel for cooking, while it is 83.8 per cent in urban areas. Clean fuel includes use of electricity, LPG/natural gas, and biogas.