‘Sewage water’ supplied in North Delhi

New Delhi: Residents of North Delhi are getting “sewage-mixed” water in their taps for the last two days. They say, besides being greyish in colour, it also smells of sewage.

Areas like Parmanand Colony, Mukherjee Nagar, Hardev Nagar, Nirankari Colony, and Indra Vihar in North Delhi were not receiving any water for the past 36 hours and when the supply was restored, it was “turbid, greyish, and smelled like sewage.”

“There were particles floating in the water. It was stinking and the house was filled with that stink. I could not use that water so I have come to my parents’ place and will go back tomorrow morning,” said Govind Singh, a resident of West Parmanand Colony, which has around 2,500 households.

Mr Singh said that he called the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) office to complain about the water quality but no one responded. He has now written a letter to the chief minister’s office and to the DJB CEO to look into the issue and distribute chlorine tablets in the areas so that residents can put those in overhead tanks which are filled with the contaminated water.

Amit Manchanda, another resident, said that this is not the first time that these areas have received such poor quality water. The same problem had occurred six months ago as well when the sewage line got mixed up with the pipeline supplying water to the households.

“This is a perennial problem. In fact some years ago I was diagnosed with typhoid because of this,” said Mr Manchanda.

“We are not even using that water for non-drinking purposes. Prior announcement regarding no water supply or any repair work wasn’t made,” said Naveen Tiwari, adding that the family has bought 20 litre Bisleri jars.

When contacted, DJB CEO Keshav Chandra said that he is not aware about the issue but will look into the complaints of the residents.