Contaminated water responsible for Chattarpur gastro outbreak,says MCD

Ashiq was rushed to the nearby Mission Hospital along with 30 others with severe vomiting and loose motions. The child was declared dead on arrival. A pregnant woman had a miscarriage. The hospital admitted 15 others.

According to Dr Koshi Kurien,the hospital’s director,apart from symptoms of serious gastroenteritis,the villagers were in a state of shock,with “dangerously low” blood pressure.

On Sunday,four were still at the hospital,and seven-year-old Hasan Ali’s situation was still “bad”.

Kurien believes consumption of contaminated water was the most likely cause of the outbreak. The stool samples have been sent for tests.

The villagers,however,say the water is good enough.

“Had the water been contaminated,the rest of the villagers in this 1,100-household village would have been ill too,” said Raheesa Begum,a resident.

They diagnose other causes for the outbreak — the heat and dirt being the two obvious ones.

Most of the residents here are milkmen. And the streets,full of cowdung,sewage and puddles are an open invitation to any vector-borne disease. Being an unauthorised area,there is no sewerage network.

Not every child goes to school,since reaching the main road means a 2-km walk through dirty streets. The nearest government school is three kilometres away. And the children who fell ill the other day,villagers say,were the ones who go to school.

“The children had walked in this heat. The elders who fell ill were those who accompanied them back,” said Zubeida Khatoon,another villager.

Khalil (28),a father of four,had just come home from hospital. He is still very weak,and his blood pressure is still low.

“I had gone to bring my children back from school in Fatehpur Beri,and I thought I had a heat stroke,” he said.

But despite the residents’ claims,the initial inquiry by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi concluded that the groundwater is contaminated. “The water samples are being tested on 24 parameters and all but two tests are over. The report will be completed by Monday morning,” said DJB’s Additional CEO Santosh Vaidya.

The health department said the outbreak occurred after the consumption of a certain “ice candy” allegedly made with the contaminated water.

The water in the village comes from two tubewells dug by the Delhi Jal Board. And though the villagers are supposed to collect it directly from tubewells,they have drawn direct supply lines illegally into their houses.

The DJB officials say the department could not take a position on such an illegal network where the water can get contaminated locally any time.

Vaidya said: “We want to ensure the tubewells get a chlorinator each. But one of these is on the main road,which leaves no room for a chlorinator. But we are trying to work something out.”