Elderly man dies after diarrhoea outbreak in New Gautam Nagar

An elderly man identified as Iqbal Singh, a resident of the New Gautam Nagar in Bashirpura, died of diarrhoea after he contracted the disease on consumption of contaminated water. Iqbal Singh died at a private hospital on Friday night due to a prolonged stomach infection. The diarrhoea outbreak in the area has affected 70 residents.

Blaming contaminated water supply and the Municipal Corporation Jalandhar for the fiasco, Iqbal’s family said their father fell extremely sick on Thursday, following which his health deteriorated on Friday. Residents said for the past three months, the Bashirpura areas were getting extremely dirty water supply. Old supply pipes in the area led to water contamination, they said.

At 11 am on Friday, Bashirpura residents held a five-hour dharna against the Municipal Corporation while complaining of contaminated water supply in their area. Congress leader Rajinder Beri, who participated in the dharna, alleged that it was Municipal Corporation’s negligence in cleaning of pipes which led to contamination of potable water supplied in the area.

BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia also reached the dharna site to lend his support to residents. The Jalandhar MC changed the JE, Operation and Maintenance, after protest by residents.

On Friday, teams of the Health Department took five water samples from the Bashirpura areas. Seventy cases of diarrhoea have been reported from Bashirpura of which 48 were referred to a hospital.

Repeated calls to MC officials from Thursday onwards by residents went unanswered. Residents said no official responded to their calls for checking the contaminated water supplied in their area. While people saw first signs of illness on Thursday, severe diarrhoea cases started coming in from Friday onwards.

Meanwhile, teams of the MC have deployed machines to detect and plug leakage in water supply pipes. Epidemiologist, Dr Shobhna said, “Severe contamination in the water supplied to the area caused diarrhoea infection among residents. So far, 70 cases have been reported of whom 22 have mild infection, while 48 were referred to a hospital. Twenty-three people have been discharged. We are holding a relief camp from morning till evening to provide aide to people.”