Kolkata: The city’s water supply department has replaced several pipelines in the contamination zone in Bhowanipore to minimize the possibility of a recurrence of last week’s incident when several dozen people became sick and complained of stomach cramps. At least three people have died in the past few days from such complaints. However, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) chairman of the board of directors Firhad Hakim ruled out water pollution as the cause of these deaths, but admitted there might be a problem with the water supply in the pockets.
“I’m not saying that there weren’t any contaminants in the water anywhere in the zone. However, according to medical reports, there have been no deaths from water pollution. Our engineers have taken extensive measures to ensure that people in the crisis zone receive safe drinking water, ”said Hakim.
The KMC engineers decided on Wednesday to expand and intensify their search for the source of contamination as well. Test reports of water samples taken in phases from Sashisekhar Bose Row and Bijay Bose Road have not indicated the presence of pathogens or coliform bacteria in alarming levels. KMC’s director-general Mainak Mukherjee said Tuesday that several water samples from the fault zone had tested negative for contamination.
Sources in KMC’s water supply department said the city government had collected 16 samples in the past three days from areas in stations 73 and 74, including Sashisekhar Bose Row, Rani Sankari Lane, Telipara Road, Parbati Chakraborty Lane and the DL Khan Road. Although no contamination could be found in the samples, KMC engineers did not want to take any chances and decided to examine several household plumbing connections and replace some of them to ensure safe drinking water could be supplied.
“Due to the nature of the complaints from selected areas in Bhowanipore, we decided to expand the scope of our investigation. Over the past three days, we have examined several pipelines in Bhowanipore and replaced several pipelines in some reported contamination zones, ”said a senior official from KMC’s water supply division. He added that they will continue to check for leaks in the pipelines for the next week.
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