Treatment sans potable water, cleanliness

Ravi Chandel

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Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 2

Bhai Mani Singh Civil Hospital seems to be ailing as there is little availability of clean drinking water for the patients.

The sanitation of the hospital yard has also been overlooked by the authorities concerned.

Despite repeated complaints by the hospital staff and patients over unclean drinking water and stagnant muddy water in front of the hospital wards, nothing has been done.

A visit to the Civil Hospital revealed that the commercial RO plant and water treatment plant installed on the roof of Women and Children Hospital, which supplies clean drinking water to rest of the hospital wards.

As per the World Health Organisation (WHO), the total dissolved solids (TDS) in drinking water should not be more than 500 mg/litre but the TDS level of the Civil Hospital’s drinking water is from 1,000 to 1,200 mg/litre.

De-addiction ward employees said, “Despite repeated complaints to the authorities, nobody took a serious step to resolve the problem related to unclean drinking water. A number of patients and relatives of patients from Women and Children Hospital visit the de-addiction ward to get potable water, but after drinking this water, they often have an upset stomach and have to be administered lopramide and dyciclomine tablets.”

Ashwin Garg of Prem Environmental Solutions Company, which deals with the commercial RO plant, said, “The problem is not with the RO. The water treated by it gets mixed with impurities in the water pipes at some unknown point, which increase the TDS level of the potable water.”

The department is organising dengue awareness seminars in the district but it has almost forgotten the Civil Hospital yard where possibilities of outbreak of dengue and other vector-borne diseases are increasing due to the accumulation of dirty water around the premises.

Sangeeta Devi, a relative of the patient, said, “Due to the accumulation of dirty water and slush in front of the hospital, it becomes tough to take the patient inside”.

Civil Surgeon Hari Narayan Singh said, “The problem of unclean drinking water will be solved at the earliest. The issue of accumulation of dirty water in the hospital yard will also be sorted out.”