Made to drink contaminated water, residents suffer health hazards

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 28

Problem of limited and contaminated water supply in some areas of the city has been troubling the city residents. They complained of lack of proper water supply. Not only this, the water being supplied is also black in colour, they said. Residents of Mohalla Chaar Marla in the Model House of Ward Number 38 have been suffering a lot because of contaminated water supply.

Navin Soni, a resident, said the problem had been prevailing for the past one month, but for the last three-four days, the quality of water became worse. “Earlier also, water supplied was not clean as it was contaminated with dust particles. But for the past 3-4 days, the situation is grave. Several residents reported having suffered water-borne diseases,” Soni said.

Tarsem Lal, another resident, said they had approached the officials several times last month, but no avail. “This is what we are forced to consume and use,” he rued.

Onkar Tikka, councillor of the ward said several households of the area were affected and people were complaining to him. “However, the MC staff has been trying to look into the problem and we have been assured that problem would be resolved by tomorrow,” he said.

Gursharan Saini, SDO, said this problem would be resolved on a priority basis. “New tubewell had been started and there was problem with scaling which led to this problem but we would certainly look into it,” he said.

Satinder Kumar, Superintendent Engineer, said the matter was in his notice and the work was being done at the site. Councillor of ward number 2, Sushil Kumar and ward number 78, Jagdish Samrai also claimed that the areas such as Salempur Musalmana and Shiv Nagar in their wards complained of contaminated water supply.

Deputy Mayor Harsimranjit Singh Bunty said, “The problems should be resolved on a priority basis. I have asked the Superintending Engineers to visit the areas of the city and send me the report,” he said.

“New water pipes would be installed soon in the areas where these problems are persistent,” the deputy mayor further added.