Residents in parts of Maharani Bagh in southeast Delhi on Wednesday said that the water supplied to the area over the past few days has a foul smell, and said that they suspect that it has been contaminated with sewage, resulting in health issues among people in the locality.
The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) said that it has taken note of the complaints, and is working to identify the point where the potable water pipeline may have been contaminated.
Maharani Bagh RWA president Shiva Mehra said that around three days ago, residents started noticing a foul smell in their water supply, and so far, around 15 blocks have been affected. “The issue was escalated to DJB, and their officials have visited the colony multiple times, but no solution has been found so far,” he said, adding that, in the meantime, residents have been forced to order water tankers.
Mehra said that the drainage infrastructure has been weakened by years of neglect and lack of maintenance, which perhaps has led to the mixing of effluents from sewage lines with clean water supply lines.
“We have advised residents to clean their tanks, use mineral water for drinking purposes and washing utensils purposes while using tanker water for other purposes,” he said.
Richa Kumar, a resident of Maharani Bagh B block, said her whole family has fallen sick, and they are relying on mineral water. “The water quality is so bad right now that my water purifier has stopped working. I have bought several litres of water over the last three days as five members of my family are sick due to contaminated water.”
Some residents complained that this is a recurring issue in the area. Anuj Rawal, a resident of the Park Avenue locality, said a similar issue had occurred around three years ago.
“There have been at least three instances in the past ten years when suddenly our water started smelling foul,” he said.
A DJB official who visited Maharani Bagh to inspect the pipelines told HT that there seems to be an issue with the water supply, and engineers are trying to find the root cause of the contamination. “We don’t know exactly from where the water pipes have leaked at the moment but we are trying to find it,” the DJB official said, on condition of anonymity.
A DJB spokesperson said: “Some parts of Maharani Bagh and Kalindi Colony are facing the issue of contaminated water. Our engineers are looking for the point of failure in the pipelines, soon we will find a solution.”
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