Water contamination claims two

Two people have died since Sunday due to water contamination in a colony at Aurobindo Marg in south Delhi and several people are being admitted to nearby hospitals.

While the BJP blamed the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) for supplying polluted water, the board said the local contamination should be taken care of by the internal maintenance agency of the colony. According to sources, a four-year-old girl Sanjana died on Sunday at Safdurjung Hospital and Hari Kishan, 45, succumbed on Monday after getting discharged from the hospital.

Hospital authorities refused to either confirm or deny the deaths. “I can’t tell you anything on this. It is a news to me. I have to check it,” said Safdarjung Hospital spokesperson S N Makwana.

He confirmed that in the last couple of days many patients complained of stomach upset and other ailments due to contaminated water.

However, the BJP claimed on Tuesday that three people have died so far. “After drinking polluted water supplied by the Delhi Jal Board three people of the NCERT Colony at Aurobindo Marg died and over 50 people were hospitalised in Safdarjung, Rockland and Moti Hospital in south Delhi.”

Refuting the allegations, Delhi Chief Minister and Chairperson of the DJB Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday told the opposition not to politicise the issue.

“The issue of so called contamination of water should not be politicised as the DJB has been ensuring the quality and purity of drinking water at different levels apart from monitoring the results in the laboratories,” added Dikshit.

The DJB said: “The board provides bulk water supply to the NCERT complex, while the internal distribution is taken care of by the maintenance agency. The contamination in the internal distribution system is required to be addressed by the maintenance agency.

“The bulk water supplied by the DJB has been tested and has been found to meet the  Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS),” it added.

BJP city pradesh president Vijay Goel and former Mayor Arti Mehra met the director of NCERT Colony Praveen Sinkler.

“The director himself admitted that a complaint was received about polluted water being supplied about one and a half month ago and after that the water tanks were cleaned,” Goel said. “Some of the families are suffering from Diarrhea and Cholera.”

The residents of the colony said they have been getting polluted water continuously for nearly two months.

The director complained to the MCD and DJB on Monday after the deaths in the colony, the source said. “The MCD health department officials went there and found that the water is polluted and the tanks should be cleaned,” the source added.

In May, the Delhi High Court had asked the chief executive officers of the DJB and commissioner of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation to ensure contamination-free drinking water to residents of South Extension within a month or face contempt-of-court action.

In April, the DJB had rebutted a report of North Delhi Municipal Corporation that almost 10 per cent of drinking water samples collected from areas under the civic body was found unfit for consumption.