BMC plays down spurt in water contamination cases

BMC on Tuesday played down reports of a spike in water contamination cases in the city

BMC on Tuesday played down reports of a spike in water contamination cases in the city. The civic body claimed that the eight per cent rise in unfit water samples collected for June was caused by heavy rainfall received last month at Bhatsa catchment area.

Bhatsa lake supplies 59 per cent of the citys water need. Every year when there is heavy rainfall,there is turbidity in the water. It does not mean the water is contaminated. As it rained heavily in June,the unfit samples rose from 12 per cent in May to 20 per cent, said a senior civic official of water supply

department.

Last week,there was a problem with the Bhatsa pipeline the raw water mixed with the treated water as a valve near Panjarpol water treatment plant malfunctioned. The problem has been fixed so the number of unfit samples will reduce, the official added.

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Additional Municipal Commissioner Rajeev Jalota said,As many housing societies did not clean their water tanks after the turbidity issue,this water reached residents homes.

The corporation also blamed the house galli system prevalent in old neighbourhoods. Most of the contaminated water samples were found in B,C,D and E wards.

Water contamination is mainly caused by leakages and the problem has worsened because of house gallis. During monsoon,a lot of liquid is generated from garbage near water pipelines. This mixes with the treated water if there are leakages in the old pipelines,

said Jalota.

The corporation estimates that there are 1.4 lakh such pipelines in the city.

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