The Water India drinks

Amongst the infrastructure problems that plague India, even the basic ones like providing consumable water is where India falls way short. This report in the Times of India claims that the water provided to Mumbai (Bombay) the so called commercial capital and biggest city in India contains traces human faeces. Wonder if the Ambanis, the Tatas and the thousands of other multi billionaires including the government officials who live in Mumbai also consume this shit water?

POISONED WATERS

Faecal Bacteria Found In Test Samples

Simit Bhagat | TNN

Quality Worst In Byculla: 42% Samples From Ward Found Unfit For Consumption, 10% Found Contaminated With E. Coli
To state that the quality of water in Mumbai is going down the drain is not to state it correctly. To be accurate, Mumbai is increasingly drinking water fit only for the drain.
According to statistics released by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), 30% of drinking water samples collected all over the city in 2010 were found unfit for consumption. The contamination was owing to the presence of E. coli and other coliform bacteria found in faeces. They cause diarrhoea, besides a host of water-borne diseases.
“It’s not just the presence of E. coli in the samples that we find worrying. We found a host of other bacteria,” said a senior official from the BMC’s G North ward laboratory. “The main source of contamination is leakage in pipelines corroded over time.”
E. coli, short for Escherichia coli (named after the German-Austrian paediatrician Theodor Escherich) originates from faeces. Most strains of the bacteria are harmless, but some can cause food poisoning. The harmless strains are, in fact, beneficial for the gut, where they are naturally present. Such strains produce vitamin K2 and prevent the establishment of pathogenic bacteria in the intestine.
Another coliform found in the samples was Citrobacter freundii, which originates in soil, sewage, food and the intestinal tracts of animals and humans. The bacterium is responsible for causing infections of the respiratory and urinary tracts, and blood.
The worst affected ward is E (Byculla); 42% of water samples collected from here was found unfit for consumption, with 10% found contaminated with E. coli. BMC officials said areas most at risk from contaminated drinking water are the ones which have slums along water pipelines. Such pipelines often have leakages induced by slum dwellers, making it easy for soil-borne coliforms to enter the supply. Other areas at risk are ones with old buildings, which invariably have corroded water pipes. In all, 28,610 water samples were tested, of which 8,551 were found contaminated, 811 testing positive for E. coli. ‘Civic body is shying from responsibility’
Mumbai: Going by the quality of water that comes through the supply lines, the residents of Mumbai are saying that the city is certainly a long way off from reaching world-class status.
“By saying that contamination takes place only in private water tanks, the BMC is shying from responsibility,” said Rajkumar Sharma, coordinator of the NGO Agni. “The majority of water pipelines pass close to storm water drains, which are choked with garbage. This leaves immense scope for bacteria to enter the leaky pipes.”
“The statistics are alarming. If 30% of water samples tested by the BMC were found unfit for drinking, it is a serious issue,” said Vijay Singh, founder of the NGO Hum Log. “It puts a question mark on the safety of the water supplied to Mumbaikars.”
The problem of water contamination is not limited to the big wards like Fort, Chira Bazaar, Grant Road, Byculla, Parel, Kurla and Dadar. All wards across the city are affected to some extent. “Sometimes the water is so dirty that you can neither drink it, nor use it for any other purpose. The water literally stinks. The only difference between sewer water and municipal water is that the latter is not black,” said Milinda Shetty, an activist from Charkop, Kandivali, where supply of contaminated water is routine.
“It seems that hardly any way exists for the BMC to prevent water contamination,” said Dr Vijay Sangole, joint secretary, Pestom Sagar Citizens’ Forum. “Mumbaikars will just have to learn to live with this reality.”
COURTING ANGER Feb 2 Hearing a PIL filed in April 2010, the high court said: “In no civil society can one be allowed to suffer disease due to impure water and air. It is the duty of the BMC to maintain hygiene in the city. Healthy life is a fundamental right.” Feb 17 On the same PIL, the court lashed out at the BMC, saying: “People’s tolerance should not be tested. Why should they be provided with dirty water and be allowed to reside in unhygienic environments?”