Water samples okay, supply from Ashwani Khud to resume

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, February 16

With three consecutive samples of water drawn from the Ashwani Khud testing negative for hepatitis A and E viruses, the district administration today gave its nod to resume lifting of water from the source.

Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Kanwar, who convened a meeting with officials of the Health Department, took the decision after pondering over the issue at length. He said three consecutive samples of the untreated water drawn on January 21, January 31 and February 9 had tested negative for hepatitis A and E viruses at the Pune-based National Virology Lab.

The district administration had exercised caution after the first sample of water had tested negative for hepatitis E virus on December 20 and another lifted on January 5 was found infected with hepatitis A virus. The lifting of water from the source was suspended on January 13. Though the virus had only been detected in the untreated water and the samples of treated water were found to be virus-free, the administration had chosen to suspend the lifting of water from the Ashwani Khud.

Following this, measures like hyper-chlorination and thorough cleansing of tanks were undertaken to check the outbreak of jaundice. It had affected more than 800 persons in Solan last year with one death too having been reported.

Since the Ashwani Khud accounts for the major supply of water in the town, shortage was experienced despite the fact that the lifting had been stepped up from the other source — Giri Water Scheme.

The cause of contamination of water had remained undetected though no case of jaundice had come to the fore in Solan after the detection of the hepatitis virus.