Acute shortage of potable water at Churu in the Rajasthan State in India was one of the main challenges to an initiative to improve sanitation in the area.

The state is water-deficient. It has only 1% of the country’s water resources despite representing about 5% of India’s total population.

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Low rainfall and water supply adversely affected agriculture and livestock production. The western part of the state was hard hit by water scarcity.

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The state has a difficult geo-climatic environment with annual rainfall of only 300 mm.

The soil is sandy and rainwater rapidly gets absorbed into it. Below the sand is a limestone layer and the groundwater is very brackish.

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The state has two drinking water problems; first, the availability of water is very low and second, the quality of water is not good for consumption.