School principal Praveena Shah says: ``We have been putting chlorine tablets and alum in the water tank whenever we realise that the water is contaminated. "When things get really bad, when the tap water is especially muddy, we instruct our students to get water bottles from their homes.''

The school authorities have been lucky, he adds, that there haven't been any complaints from any parent of a ward taking ill after drinking water at school.

There have been days, especially during the monsoons, when the quality of water goes from bad to worse.

``Students of the primary section have come and complained that they did not want to drink the water after they saw the colour,'' said Shah.

A senior teacher, who has been here for the past 10 years, said prophylactics, including chlorine tablets, were obtained from the corporation office. However, he added, the authorities had not even once enquired what the problem was.

When contacted, area executive engineer K Jaiswal said that he had taken charge in the past week and was not in a position to comment on the problem.

Former area engineer V Tailor, admitting that the problem had existed for some time, said it was primarily due to the choking of drains and could only be solved piecemeal.

Apart from the Mavalankar school, the Narayan Vidyalaya in the same area has been facing the same problem, and another as well: Water shortage. School principal B R Gurjar said that the problem of water shortage in the school was very severe. ``There are times when the school did not have enough water for the 200-odd students in its primary section,'' said Gurjar.