Spare us the s***, at least in water

Spare us the s***, at least in water

You might want to sit down while reading this. And don’t reach out for that glass of water yet. The bad news is, Bangalore, the glorious IT city, galloping towards pinnacles of development, provides some of its citizens drinking water contaminated with faecal matter.

Express learnt of this gross fact when it got samples of water supplied by the BWSSB tested at the Public Health Institute Laboratory, Bangalore. Even ‘respectable’ areas like The National Games Village in Koramangala with 2,534 housing units, home to approximately 12,500 people are not spared of this. The mostly middle-class residents of this area have no choice but to consume water contaminated with faecal discharge.

Shocking study Samples were collected from different parts of the city as per laboratory requirements in sterilised bottles and sent to the laboratory within four hours of collection.

According to Bacteriological analysis report of the laboratory, the water sample collected from NGV could very well be contaminated with faecal discharge.

The approximate number of bacteria per 100 ml of water collected from NGV was found to be 1,800. Differential Coliform, a sort of bacteria, also found in the faeces of humans and other warm-blooded animals, was also found in the NGV water.

A cross-connection? PHI officials were of the opinion that there could be a leakage or a cross-connection in the pipelines, leading to the percolation of sewage into the drinking water pipelines.

Presence of bacteria was also detected in the water sample collected from Jeevan Bimanagar, but there was no faecal contamination in it.

With effective chlorination, the water at Jeevan Bimanagar can be used for drinking purposes. But the NGV water is not potable before the issue of faecal contamination is addressed, lab officials said.