Diarrhoea outbreak in Mataur

Akash Ghai

Tribune News Service

Mohali, January 18 

Around 300 persons including children and women of a locality are said to have been suffering from diarrhoea at Mataur village, located in Sector 70, Mohali. Though the medical authorities are yet to react to the situation, the teams of Public Health and Water Supply and Sewerage Department have visited the village and collected water samples. 

“The water seems to fine and potable but we have collected the samples for examination,” said an official. 

The village residents including Jaswant Singh, Harjit Kaur, Balwinder Kaur and others claimed that around 300 cases of diarrhoea, stomach ache and other water borne diseases have been reported in past five days.  “Most of the cases were being reported from a certain locality of the village. The reason behind is garbage and open drains in the streets with full of filth which mixes with the water supply pipelines,” alleged Jaswant Singh.  Social worker Harjit Kaur, a resident of the village, alleged that the village has a civil dispensary, sans any doctor for last six months. “In absence of any doctor at the dispensary, the residents are forced to visit private doctors,” said Harjit Kaur. 

A private doctor confirmed that there was sudden increase in cases of diarrhoea in last few days.  During their visit, the officials of public health distributed packets of ORS and advised residents to drink boiled water.

Village is in municipal limits

The village is surrounded by the residential area of Sector 70, one of the newly-built sectors of the town. The maintenance of civic amenities is the responsibility of the Mohali Municipal Corporation (MMC) as it is one of the six villages of the district, which comes under MMC limits. The residents alleged that the condition of the area worsened after the village was included in the MMC limits.