New Delhi
Residents of Kalindi Colony in southeast Delhi alleged they were receiving contaminated water supply and raised health concerns, alleging many residents have fallen sick with gastrointestinal disorders over the past week. The residents’ welfare association (RWA) said it has advised residents not to use the water supplied through the pipeline and instead, use water supplied by tankers and packaged water.
The issue at Kalindi Colony comes on the heels of a similar issue reported by residents of Maharani Bagh. In both cases, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has so far been unable to trace the point of water contamination, leaving around 800 residents to fend for themselves.
A DJB official who visited Kalindi Colony said that initial surveys showed that a pipeline coming from Maharani Bagh had a fault and engineers were trying to locate the exact point of contamination. “We are coordinating with all nearby engineers to locate the point of fault,” the DJB official, requesting not to be named, said.
Residents said that the issue has been affecting them for the past week, with no end in sight.
“Kalindi Colony is an A-category colony. We pay the highest rate of property tax, on par with Chanakyapuri and Lutyens’ zone; still, the water infrastructure is unplanned and undocumented, which is forcing ground-level DJB staff to locate defects in a haphazard manner,” Rajiv Gupta, RWA president, said.
Gupta said roads were dug up in an unorganised manner and “years of neglect, lack of maintenance and absence of proper pipeline blueprints” have delayed the repair and further weakened the infrastructure.
“We have advised residents to use tanker water for household use to avoid further health ailments,” Gupta said.
Seventy-one-year-old Ravi Kumar Jain, another Kalindi Colony resident, alleged that eight members of his family were down with gastrointestinal issues. “My wife and I are forced to take antibiotics for stomach ailments due to contamination, which are not good for our health,” he said.
Rashmi Mangla, another senior citizen who lives in B Block of the colony, said 18 members of her household were suffering from a stomach-related ailment. “The quality of water provided in the tankers is also not satisfactory; so, at this point, we are dependent on mineral water mostly,” she said.
Medical experts said contamination could lead to an array of viral and bacterial ailments. “Viral Hepatitis A and E can hamper liver function and can be fatal; early diagnosis is the key. In case the patient is suffering from fever or yellow colouring of eyes and skin, they should get tested as early as possible,” said Dr Rommel Tickoo, internal medicine at a multispecialty hospital in Saket.
DJB officials, meanwhile, said they are making efforts to resolve the issue at the earliest.
A DJB spokesperson said: “Leakages found in the network have been plugged, but no significant improvement in water quality is achieved yet.”
The problem has been observed in nearby areas of Maharani Bagh and DJB staff quarters, the spokesperson said.
“Water supply in Kalindi Colony has been curtailed and water is being supplied through tankers. It shall be continued till the problem is resolved,” the DJB spokesperson said.
Shiv Mehra, the president of Maharani Bagh RWA, said the issue was resolved and water made contamination-free at some pockets of the locality, but not in entirety. “The point of leakage into the pipeline is yet to be located; situation remains the same,” he said.
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