Non-chlorinated water supply irks residents

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, July 4

There seems to be no end to the woes of residents in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, a 475 acre colony developed by the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) on Pakhowal Road here. After persistent complaints of roads and streets lying in a state of utter neglect, erratic street lights and poor urban infrastructure in the colony, now, the instances of supply of unsafe drinking water have come to the fore.

Residents of the colony lament that most of the tube wells and submersible pumps installed in different blocks of the colony were supplying non-chlorinated water which exposed them to serious health risk and could lead to outbreak of water-borne diseases – most common during the ongoing rainy season.

Several residents, including those from D, F, G and H Blocks, claimed that during their random visits to the tube well rooms in these blocks, they found that either the chlorination plants were non-operational or the drums, where chlorine was stored and mixed into tube well water, were empty.

“Not only this, many tube wells do not have operators to switch on motors at scheduled hours for water supply and the responsibility of operating the tube wells has been given to some nearby shopkeeper or jhuggi-dwellers, who are not accountable to anybody, which often leads to erratic supply of drinking water in many parts of the colony,” they said.

Officials of the engineering branch of LIT said the operations and maintenance of water supply and sewerage in colonies developed and maintained by the Trust had been out-sourced to the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board (PWSSB). “Some complaints about unsafe supply of drinking water have been received from SBS Nagar residents and the matter is being taken up with officials for redressal,” a LIT official said.

LIT Colony residents’ grouse

The supply of unsafe drinking water, coupled with insanitary conditions prevailing in most parts of the colony due to erratic sweeping of roads and streets as also poor system of disposal of garbage, have become a huge health hazard with the threat of water-borne diseases looming large...