Class 8 Civics Chapter 9 Important Question Answers - Public Facilities

PUBLIC FACILITIES 
Ques 1: What are public facilities? What are its important characteristics? 
Ans: Primary requirements like food, water, shelter, sanitation, healthcare, education etc which are necessary for survival are referred to as public facilities. The important characteristic of public facilities is that the benefits provided by public facilities can be shared by many people. 
For e.g- A school in a village will enable many children to get education. 

Ques 2: Why do you think that there are so few cases of private water supply in water? 
Ans: There are so few cases of private water supply in world as 
It is more expensive and private companies only think of their profits so people cannot afford it. 

Ques 3: Why most of the private hospitals & private schools are located in major cities and not in towns or rural areas? 
Ans: Most private schools and hospitals are located in major cities because in small towns and rural areas there is not a constant supply of electricity and hospitals and schools need constant supply. Hence rural areas hospital & schools are not available. 

Ques 4: Write a short note on “Water a part of fundamental Right to Life”. 
Ans: 1. The constitution of India recognized the right to water as being right to life as a part under article 21. 
2. This means that it is the right of every person, whether rich or poor to have  sufficient amount of water to fulfill daily needs at a price they can afford. 
3. There should be “Universal access” to water.

Ques 5: Do you think water is available in Chennai and affordable by all? Discuss. 
Ans: 
• Water supply in Chennai is marked by shortages.
• Municipal supply meets only about half the needs of the people of the city, on an average.
• There are areas which get more water regularly than others. Those areas that are areas that are close to the storage points get more water whereas colonies further away receive less water. 
• Apart from the availability of water access to ‘safe’ drinking water is also available to some and this depends on what one can afford. 
• The burden of shortfalls in water supply falls mostly on the poor. 
•The middle class, when faced with water shortages are able to cope through a variety of private means such as digging bore wells, burying water from tankers and using bottled water for drinking. 

Ques 6: How is sale of water by farmers to water dealers in Chennai affecting the local people? Do you think local people can object to such exploitation of ground water? Can the government do anything in this regard? 
Ans: Many private companies are providing water to cities by burying it from the farmers living in nearly villages. This affects the local people in the following ways:- 
• Ground water levels have dropped drastically. 
• Water is taken away for agriculture. 
• Drinking water supplies of the village is also affected. 
• It will result in like of water rate. 
Local people can object to such exploitation of ground water since it takes away their fundamental rights – right to life which includes right to water. Yes, the govt. can take certain steps to prevent such situation

Ques 7: Do you think the distribution of public facilities in our country is adequate and fair? 
Ans: While there is a no doubt that public facilities should be made available to all, in reality we see that there is a great shortage of such facilities. 
• The burden of shortfalls of facilities falls most on the poor. 
• The middle class when faced with such shortages are able to cope through variety of private means. 
•IT is quite true that people who can’t afford to pay such facilities will be deprived of the opportunity to live a discus life. 
For Example-
• In Anna Nagar, Chennai lives Mr. Ramagopal who is a rich man. This area looks lush & green with lawns maintained by a generous spraying of water. Bungalows here have tap water for major part of the day. 
• On days, when water supply is inadequate, Mr. Aanagopal calls to a senior official whom he known is the municipal water board and a water tanker is easily arranged for his house

Ques 8: What do you think can be done to conserve water and improve its supply? 
Ans: 1. Wise and judicious use of water is the most important step to conserve water. 
2. Several initiatives for rainwater harvesting to improve ground water level needs to be taken. 
3. It also requires the use of services of private companies for transporting and distributing water to ensure regular supply. 
4. Every citizen of the country has the right to all the facility provided by the government in an equitable manner. 

Ques 9:  Why do you think that government must assume the overall responsibility  for public facilities even if it gets private companies to do a part of it? 
Ans: 1. Private companies operate for profit in the market. 
2. In most of the public facilities there is no profit to be made. Thus private companies will probably not interested in undertaking such work. 
3. Private companies provide public facilities at prices that only some people can afford. Hence not available to all at affordable rate. 
4. Public facilities relate to people’s basic needs. The constitution guarantees the Right to life for all Indians. 
5. Therefore the responsibility to provide public facilities must be that of government only.