The Hindu : New Delhi News : Four new cholera patients in hospitals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 10, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Four new cholera patients in hospitals

Staff Reporter

MCD and Jal Board play the blame game

NEW DELHI: Even as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Delhi Jal Board traded charges regarding the quality of water being supplied in the Capital, four new cholera cases were reported on Monday, taking the "official'' figure to 40. However, there has been no visible improvement in the efforts being made by the civic body to check the spread of the deadly disease as water trolleys and cut-fruit vendors continued to do brisk business.

According to the MCD officials, four new cholera patients were admitted to various hospitals. Of these one each were from Central and Shahdara (North) zones, while two were brought from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. However, the number of patients could be much more as the civic body has no information of those admitted to private hospitals in the Capital.

Most affected areas fall in the Central, Najafgarh, Shahdara (North) and Sadar Paharganj zones as over the past one-week, more number of cholera cases has come to light. On Sunday alone, over 10 cases were reported. However, the MCD officials say that there was no need to panic as they have already started taking measures to check the spread of cholera in the city.

The main reason behind spread of this water-borne disease in supply of contaminated water. While the MCD has charged the DJB with failing to supply potable water and checking cases of leakage of sewer into water pipelines, the water utility says the fault lay with the civic body as several other source of water supply in the Capital like underground borings, tube wells, water trolleys and private tankers was its responsibility.

Water utility

A senior DJB official pointed out that apart from water being supplied by the water utility to the Capital, there were several other sources on which the DJB has no control. It was up to the MCD to check its quality and take action against the defaulters. He also raised serious question over the poor mechanism and lack of equipments with the civic body to carry out stringent quality checks. Interestingly, sources in the DJB said the water utility conducted random checks of water samples across the Capital and found some of them positive (with chances of bacteria).

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