Muktsar residents committing slow suicide by drinking 7-foot-deep water

Everyday, Kotkapura Road residents, Vivek Sharma and his wife Neetu, get a 10-litre can filled from the Water Works office campus, after it closes.

They don’t get enough potable water from the regular supply of the Water Works department, and can’t risk their lives by drinking groundwater because of the high fluoride content.

Like them, a number of other families too make a beeline at the Water Works campus on the Kotkapura Road to get water for drinking and cooking purposes, while a few families purchase mineral water from private companies for Re 1 a litre. The department is able to provide water only to 40 per cent of the city and that too for only two hours in a day. At times, not a drop flows through the taps.

In such conditions, bore-wells are the only solution with the residents. But with most of them drinking water from seven feet deep bore-wells — declared unfit for consumption — the problem has only aggravated.

D K Bansal, Superintending Engineer (SE), Public Health department, however, said, “One should not drink groundwater from less than 100 feet deep well. If they are doing so, they are committing suicide. We are spreading awareness about this practice.”

However, the lower rank staff gave divergent views. When asked water till what depth was safe for drinking, the field staff replied, “You can get it at seven feet, and it is okay to draw drinking water from 15 feet depth. There is no need to go beyond.”

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