Tamil Nadu - Erode   

Increase in demand for packaged water

R. Sundaram

Water supplied by the municipal administration gives off foul smell: residents

WHERE HYGIENE IS PRIORITY: Residents in Erode spend substantially on packaged drinking water every day. - Photo: M. Govarthan

ERODE: Demand for packaged water here is increasing by the day, as residents claim that water supplied by the municipal administration gives off foul smell and is not potable. The municipal administration supplies over 2 lakh litres of water to residents once in two days. Despite municipal water connections in each house, the residents use borewell water for cooking and purchase packaged water for drinking.

In Erode alone 20,000 cans of 25 litres of water each are marketed and residents spend substantially on packaged water every day. Everyone from Government officials to kalasi workers goes for packaged water. Government functions and meetings also supply packaged water.

Over five firms and hundreds of agents are into the business. Health officials say that availing themselves of the opportunity, some people collected water from borewells and sell them after filtering. Several companies without ISI certification are also into selling packaged water. The officials urge the public to boil even packaged water before drinking.

The municipal administration says that some dyeing and tanning units discharge effluents into River Cauvery. Further, sewage from various panchayats and municipalities also mix with the Cauvery. Hence, the administration strictly follows water treatment methods at the pumping station.

Meanwhile, the Sathyamangalam Taluk CPI Secretary, Mohankumar, demanded the Collector to sink a borewell at Aalampalayam in Punjai Puliampatty. The only borewell functioning in Aalampalayam emanated foul smell. Several people of the area had throat infections after using the borewell water, he said.

A chemical industry that functioned in the area some years back - now closed - was responsible for contaminating the borewell, by discharging effluents, he said. He urged the Collector to send a team to the area for testing the water. He wanted a medical team to be deployed for examining residents.

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