Solan water coliform-infested
From S.P. Sharma
Tribune News Service

SOLAN, Sept.. 30 — Contaminated drinking water with a high level of coliform is being supplied to residents of this town by the Irrigation and Public Health Department (IPH) and the local municipal committee.
Residents decry that contaminated water is being supplied in their taps.
A recent test of water samples by a laboratory of the government detected 20 to 32 coliforms per 100 ml of water which is considered a high level of contamination. Safe drinking water should be free of even a single coliform.
The IPH Department and the municipal committee, however, blame each other for the poor quality of water. While the department claims the water up to their storage tanks in the town is pure and the contamination take place during supply in the town which is managed by the municipal committee the civic body accuses the department of not properly running its filtration plants.
It is learnt that a senior functionary of the district recently sent seven water samples to the laboratory for testing. Four of these samples failed the test.
The authorities consider all this a routine matter and have not taken any concrete steps over the years to remove the problem.
The department was sticking to its old practice of occasionally chlorinating water with bleaching powder. Contamination was added due to the leaking water supply system in the town.
Experts pointed out that the chlorine content in the bleaching powder got lost as it remained stored in the department godows for a long period and it served no purpose when mixed with water at the filtration plant. Liquid chlorine has not yet been introduced here.
The quality of water in the industrial town of Parwanoo, a short distance away, was equally bad.
The water sources around the town are most polluted as the municipality is itself dumping the entire garbage on the side of the Shimla-Kalka highway at Salogra which is the catchment area of the drinking water supply scheme of the town. Although a garbage treatment plant has been set up here, even the hospital waste gets mixed with the water source.
It is not only here, but almost in the entire state that the drinking water sources were threatened with an increasing concentration of pathogenic organism. Raw sewage from the towns also flows into these nullahs.
Sometime ago, it was pointed out in an official report that there was 98 per cent shortfall in bacteriological testing of drinking water in the state. Only 312 tests of water were conducted against the actual requirement of 15,924. The shortfall of chemical testing was 91 per cent. Only 227 tests were conducted against the required number of 2,654.
Another survey of water-borne diseases conducted by an expert committee in various towns, including Solan, indicated that nearly one-third of the water samples were found to be contaminated with enteric bacterial pathogens. A high prevalence of enteric infections in the state hospitals was documented by the committee. Giardiasis was the most common.
The study indicated that prevalence of 3.7 per cent worm infection and 1.9 per cent intestinal parasites was detected among patients in Solan.