About 20 residents of a society in Ghaziabad fell ill after drinking contaminated water.
After about 20 residents of KW Srishti Housing Society in Ghaziabad fell ill after drinking contaminated water, the health department confirmed the presence of coliform bacteria in water samples on Wednesday, September 25. Times of India Reported
According to the report, more than 5000 people live in the apartment complex with 1500 flats. Over the past two weeks, residents have been complaining that water is reaching their taps. This became even more evident as 20 people complained of abdominal pain after drinking the water.
District Surveillance Officer RK Gupta said 39 water samples were collected from overhead tanks of 11 towers of the housing society and a borewell – the society's main water source – earlier this month and for further testing. was sent to the district lab.
The report confirmed the presence of coliform bacteria in all the samples. Coliform bacteria can cause serious illness in humans, if left untreated. It can also cause symptoms of infection including abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, etc.
Meanwhile, Assistant CMOR K Gupta urged residents not to use tap water until the superchlorination process is complete. Superchlorination is a water treatment process in which a large amount of chlorine is added to water to disinfect it.
Also, accusing the society's maintenance team of 'negligence', Assistant CMO Gupta said that if the situation continued, there could be an outbreak of diarrhoea.
“The developer has been directed to set up a dossier pump for superchlorination by next week. RNE is a GDA scheme, so we have written to the authority in this regard. The Department of Health and Family Welfare A report has also been submitted to the Director General.” TOI has said referring to it.
What do residents say?
Anuj Bansal, a resident of KW Sarshti, told the publication that whenever such an issue is flagged, people are asked to pack their bags and leave.
Whenever a problem is flagged, the maintenance team, instead of finding a solution, tells the residents to pack up and leave. It has always been so. We have no idea if they clean these water tanks at all,” he said.
However, Bala Dutt Upadhyay, manager of the society's maintenance firm, claimed that the water tanks are cleaned every six months but the scheduled July cleaning was delayed due to the monsoon.
“Heavy rains and wet conditions made it difficult for our crews to access the tanks and clean them properly. Hence, the cleaning of the tanks was rescheduled for October. We suspect the delay in cleaning,” he said. may have caused the problem.”