TN scores in water, housing

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu is way ahead of the national average when it comes to access to homes, basic amenities, as well as assets available in houses, according to the Houselisting and Housing Census.The findings of the census, which included 1.2 million enumerators and 19,000 supervisors who surveyed 1.85 crore households, would help realise the proposals set forth in the Vision 2023 document, said  state planning commission vice-chairperson Shantha Sheela Nair, who released the report along with director of census operations S Gopalakrishnan.The census revealed that the number of households in the state has increased from 1.42 crore in 2001 to around 1.85 crore in 2011 besides substantial improvement in quality of housing both in rural and urban areas.Interestingly, TN has outscored the national average in household assets like electricity, toilets, and availability of tap water; 94 per cent use tap, tube well, hand pump and covered well as the main source of drinking water, while 80 per cent use tap water. Significantly, seven per cent still fetched drinking water from a source located more than 500 metres away in rural areas or 100 metres away in urban areas, and this figure was 12 per cent in 2001, Gopalakrishnan noted.The state has outdone the national average in terms of households with toilets available within the premises with as many as 48.3 per cent of the households having the facility, while it was 46.9 per cent for the country.The number of households having no latrine declined from 64 per cent in 2001 to 52 per  cent in 2011 and Chennai and Kanyakumari topped with more than 95 and 87 per cent having the facility within the premises.The number of households dependent on tap water rose from 62.5 per cent to 79.8 per cent “showing the availability of treated water”.Gopalakrishnan said the number of households reliant on well water and other sources, including bore and hand pump, showed a significant decline.