Testing of water samples every week
In an attempt to ensure supply of water free from arsenic contamination, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has decided to conduct tests of the water on a war footing. To fight the arsenic problem, the civic body’s tube well department has now decided to conduct arsenic tests of at least 525 samples drawn from tube wells located across the city on a weekly basis.
The department has constituted a task force which would be checking each and every tube well under the civic body’s jurisdiction to prevent any harm that the contaminated water may cause to citizens.
To manage the workload of testing thousands of tube wells in the city for arsenic contamination, the civic board has also decided to utilise the laboratories of eight city-based organisations, including universities, to complete the work in the minimum possible time. According to KMC sources, the board has roped in institutions like Jadavpur University, Presidency University, Bengal Engineering and Science University, state public health engineering directorate, state pollution control board, state water investigation directorate and the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health for the testing of water.
Apart from this, the civic laboratories would also be utilised for arsenic testing of samples drawn from tube wells located across the city. The cost incurred in the testing of the samples would be borne by the KMC and the civic body would provide the respective organisation `250 per sample as the cost for arsenic analysis.
According to KMC sources, there are around 439 deep tube wells in the city with a majority of them located in the added areas of Garden Reach, Behala and Jadavpur. Similarly, there are around 16,000 hand tube wells in the city, out of which around 10,000 are located in the added areas. Tarak Singh, member, mayor-in-council, tube wells, said that the collection of samples is expected to start from this week.
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