Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-11-09

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Access to clean water is a basic human right. Therefore every home should have a water supply that is provided free of charge.

Do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

I truly agree that every home must be provided with a water supply as access to clean water is a basic human right and a neccessity too. Water is the most significant part of our lives whether it is for drinking, washing clothes and utensils or even bathing.

In most of the localities such as urban or luxury areas, there is no shortage of water supply. But if we have a look on unorganised sectors or localities such as rural areas, there is always a mere or no water supply at all. People living in such areas struggle everyday to get water for their basic needs. Some of the people used to fill their buckets from the common wells of the villages and take thode heavy buckets miles away to their homes. Sometimes in such areas, people even die because of dehydradtion or suffer from such diseases.

About 75% of the Earth is covered with water but there is still shortage of clean water. People usually pay for water bills to get proper supply of water in their localities. Government impose heavy charges per house for water that should be provided for free as a basic need or right.

In conclusion, every home in every area whether urban or rural should be provided with a proper water supply. As access to clean water is necessity of every person, government should not impose any water bills on anyone. Along with it, Additional water suplly channels should be built for acess of water in rural areas or small towns.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear: you agree that households should receive clean water without charge, and you give relevant reasons, including the difficulties faced by rural residents and the health risks of unsafe or insufficient water. However, the response is 248 words, so it falls two words short of the 250-word minimum; the nine words copied from the prompt are not included in that count. Some points also need fuller development. For example, you say governments impose heavy charges, but do not explain how free provision could be funded or whether all household use should be free. The claim that about 75% of Earth is covered by water would be more persuasive if you clarified why much of it is not usable as clean drinking water. Develop these points with specific explanation or an example.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a coherent overall arrangement: it introduces your view, discusses unequal access and rural hardship, considers water charges, and ends with a conclusion and recommendation. Paragraphing helps the reader follow this progression, and links such as “But,” “Sometimes,” and “In conclusion” signal relationships between ideas. Some connections are nevertheless abrupt or mechanical. The move from the amount of water on Earth to household water bills, for instance, needs an explicit link explaining scarcity of usable water and the cost of supplying it. The final paragraph also introduces additional supply channels without developing how they relate to free provision. Use clearer referencing and transitions to show how each example supports your central argument, and avoid relying mainly on basic linking phrases.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “basic human right,” “water supply,” “rural areas,” “dehydration,” and “water bills.” This gives you enough language to communicate your main ideas, but the range and control are uneven. Some phrases are unnatural or imprecise, such as “a mere or no water supply,” “have a look on,” and “Additional water supply channels.” Spelling errors in “neccessity,” “dehydradtion,” “suplly,” and “acess” are noticeable and reduce accuracy. There is also repetition of “water supply” and “areas.” Aim for more precise collocations and vary repeated terms—for example, distinguish between access to safe drinking water, household water provision, and water infrastructure. Proofreading spelling and word forms would make your meaning more polished.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use both simple statements and some longer structures, including the opening clause “as access to clean water is a basic human right” and the conditional phrase “if we have a look…”. Most of the argument remains understandable, but errors in sentence construction and grammatical patterns are evident. For example, “there is always a mere or no water supply at all” is not a well-formed construction, while “Government impose heavy charges per house” has a subject–verb agreement problem. In “People living in such areas struggle everyday to get water,” the time expression should be written as two words, and “take… buckets miles away” needs a clearer grammatical pattern. Work on agreement, articles, and complete, well-controlled complex sentences; check punctuation and sentence boundaries as you revise.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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