NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Civics Chapter 9 Public Facilities

NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Social Science Civics Chapter 9 Public Facilities are given below. These solutions contain answers to all the exercise questions given in the Geography textbook. All our solutions are updated as per the latest CBSE Syllabus and Guidelines. These solutions will also help you to score higher marks with the help of well-illustrated answers. All the questions and answers of Class 8 Civics Chapter 9 Public Facilities are provided here in PDF format.

Class 8 Civics Chapter 9 Public Facilities NCERT Solutions

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Exercise Questions

Question 1: Why do you think there are so few cases of private water supply in the world?

Answer: There are very few cases of private water supply in the world because water is an essential amenity. Water supply is a public facility that every government must provide to all citizens of a State. In cases where water supply was placed in the hands of private companies, the prices of water rose, making it unaffordable to the masses. This resulted in riots, protests and violent demonstrations in countries like Bolivia. Hence, it has been deemed best that the government must handle water supply services.

Question 2: Do you think water in Chennai is available and affordable by all? Discuss.

Answer: No, Water in Chennai is not available to and affordable by all. There is an unequal distribution of water in different parts of the city. Certain areas like Anna Nagar receive abundant water while areas like Mylapore get very little water. Municipal supply fails to meet the 100% demand of water in the city. People from the middle class and upper class buy packaged drinking water or water from tankers. But the situation is worst for the poor people as they cannot afford the expense of tankers or packaged water. In the slum areas, water supply runs for barely an hour every day and that too from a single tap that serves over thirty families for all their water needs.

Question 3: How is the 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 groundwater? Can the government do anything in this regard?

Answer: Due to the shortage of water, private companies have got an opportunity and are selling water to cities by buying it from places around the city. In Chennai, water is taken from nearby towns like Karungizhi Palur and Mamandur villages to the north of the city, using a fleet of over 13,000 water tankers. Every month, the water dealers pay an advance to farmers for the rights to exploit water sources on their land. This way, the water that is taken away is not just creating a deficit for agriculture purpose but also increasing the shortage of drinking water supplies in the villagers. As a result, the level of ground water has dropped drastically in all these towns and villages.

Question 4: Why are most of the private hospitals and private schools located in major cities and not in towns or rural areas?

Answer: Most of the private hospitals and private schools located in major cities and not in towns or rural areas because they offer their services at high prices to earn profits and these services are affordable only by the affluent dwellers in the city.

Question 5: Do you think the distribution of public facilities in our country is adequate and fair? Give an example of your own to explain.

Answer: The distribution of public facilities in our country is inadequate and largely unfair. For example, urban areas are provided with and consume more electricity than villages or townships. Most metropolitan cities consume vast amounts of power for market-places, multiplexes and air-conditioning while villages and towns bear huge power-cuts even in summer so much so that there is no electricity available to them for domestic purposes too. This is a gaping gap in the distribution of just one of the public facilities provided by the government.

Question 6: Take some of the public facilities in your area, such as water, electricity, etc. Is there scope to improve these? What in your opinion should be done? Complete the table.

	Is it available?	How can it be improved?
Water
Electricity
Roads
Public transport

Answer:

	Is it available?	How can it be improved?
Water	yes	Constructing separate water tanks and making water supply available 24 hours.
Electricity	yes	Making electricity supply available 24 hours by keeping a check on electricity theft and its conservation
Road	yes	No improvement needed. But if there are no proper roads, then the construction of new roads, more flyovers and highways will be of help
Public Transport	yes	Public transport is good, but better connectivity to more areas in the city can be achieved by introducing new buses and increasing the frequency of buses

Question 7: Are the above public facilities shared equally by all the people in your area? Elaborate.

Answer: No, all of the above-mentioned facilities are not shared equally in our areas. For example, in the slum areas, people have to manage with a single water tap to meet all their water needs. On the other hand, in a middle-class locality, each house has a separate connection for water. Actually, due to the huge population, people are not able to avail the public facilities provided by the government.

Question 8: Data on some of the public facilities are collected as part of the Census. Discuss with your teacher when and how the census is conducted.

Answer: Census is conducted after every ten years. It counts the entire population of the country. It also collects detailed information about the citizens like their age, schooling, occupations, etc.

Question 9: Private educational institutions – schools, colleges, universities, technical and vocational training institutes are coming up in our country in a big way. On the other hand, educational institutes run by the government are becoming relatively less important. What do you think would be the impact of this? Discuss.

Answer: Education is a basic need and there should be universal access to education. But, as the main motive of private education institutes is earning profits, they charge high fees which are affordable only by the affluent section of the society. Thus, the right to quality education is only fulfilled for the rich class. Similarly, if government education institutes are not up to the mark, then weaker sections are again deprived of quality education. This, in turn, results in the disparity of quality education between the rich and the poor.