The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s road repair work has caused some unexpected collateral damage. Residents of Blossom Society in Marol, Andheri (East) were in for a shock when they noticed tiny red worms in their daily water supply. “The problem started some ten days ago when we noticed that the water supplied has suddenly become muddy and infested. This was a shock for us as usually we get relatively clean water,” said Udayatara Nair, a resident.

Residents claim the work carried out by the civic body may have contributed to the problem. “Road widening work was going on at the Maroshi and Marol Road for the past one month. The road just across our housing society has the storm water drain pipeline and sewerage pipelines. The work of laying down more underground utilities was being carried out here. We started noticing tiny red worms some two weeks back just weeks after the pipeline work was completed,” said Imtiaz Khan, a resident and member of the managing committee of the society.

  The housing society has around 11 buildings and over 200 flats in its premises. Incidentally, the problem is not noticeable in some of the flats in the complex. “Some flats which are in the remote corner of the complex have not faced the problem. The flats which are in close proximity to the pipelines are the worst hit,” said Khan.

  Though the repeated complaints of the residents led to cleaning of the pipelines, however, residents are still facing problems. The workers cut open the pipe, modified it and laid it again. But the solution is temporary as we can notice the seepage of drain water in some patches,” said Khan. “If the pipe breaks further during monsoon it will escalate the problem,” added Khan.

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