Water storage facilities at Fort St George are not safe. Chennai metro water has made this startling revelation following an inspection of storage facilities at the Fort among other areas.
The inspection was a part of a special drive undertaken by metro water after a diarrhea outbreak that claimed a few lives in the state capital in the recent months.
During the special drive, metro water engineers of all 200 areas went on random inspection, testing and verifying the water quality in different pockets of their area, between 6 am and 9 pm daily.
The engineers reported the test results to the managing director among other top brass at metro water headquarters daily.
Accordingly, the MD also conducted random and surprise inspections at the secretariat, where the storage tanks were found to be unclean, senior metro water officials involved in the exercise revealed to Deccan Chronicle.
When the water supplied to secretariat was tested, the quality was normal and it was potable.
Subsequently, officials inspected the tank and found it to be unclean and it contained lots of sediments, metro officials added attributing the sediments to decline in water quality there.
They have advised PWD officials concerned to immediately clean the tanks to prevent further deterioration in the water quality, officials added refusing to divulge the volume of impurity identified in secretariat tanks.
The month-and-half-long exercise also brought to light that poor maintenance of overhead and underground tanks, particularly several households and residential complexes, was the main reason for water contamination in most parts of the city.
Thanks to the special drive, water supply scenario and its quality had improved in some ‘chronic’ areas of North Chennai, where amenities were appalling till recently. Attempts made to contact the metro and PWD top brass proved futile.