Tainted water flows again

“The water is usually of different colours; sometimes it’s black”, says Krishna Parmar, a resident of Sandeep Apartment.

Through the crisis, residents have been banking on water supplied through tankers or bore-wells; some have even purchased mineral water. The residents of Vishwas Colony have been receiving water through tankers only for the past three days, says Kamla Park resident Ratna Roy.

The tanker comes once or twice in a day, says another resident of the area. “To be on the safe side we have started even boiling bore-well water,” says Roy, adding that they have to face the embarrassment of guests refusing to drink the water.

Interestingly, the problem has resurfaced in Alkapuri less than two months after the VMC last rectified the fault. At that time, local residents had gone without Corporation water supply for more than a week. The problem now is no different, Roy says. “Last time we used the water purifier but it was damaged; hence this time we are not taking any chances”, she adds.

F Charpot, Executive Engineer of ward number 6 (Sahajanand Apartment), admitted while talking to Express Newsline that cases of water contamination had been reported from several areas, including the hotel. He also said several connections were snapped.

He said the sewage had backflowed from the manhole of a drainage line and then seeped into water pipelines passing through the cable trenches laid by the Telecom Department. The 15-year-old water pipelines have begun to rust, he said, and needed to be changed.

Given the fact that the problem had recurred in a matter of months, Charpot said it needed to be ascertained whether somebody had ruptured the drainage line deliberately. He further stated that the fault is likely to be rectified within a day or two.