The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : No quality check for water

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 09, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

No quality check for water

K.S. Sudhi

Tanker lorry drivers say they have no treatment facilities

KOCHI: It is a free for all when it comes to supply of drinking water through tanker lorries.

At present, there is no permanent system for monitoring the quality of drinking water so supplied in the State.

While the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) has a permanent system for monitoring quality parameters for water supplied by it, that is not the case with the parallel water supply system.

Tanker lorry owners admit that they do not have any treatment facilities or mechanism to ensure the quality of water.

Despite having well-set drinking-water quality norms, neither the Health Department nor the KWA is in a position to ensure the quality of water supplied by them. Quality is checked only when there is a directive from courts or complaint from people.

"There is no permanent system for checking the quality of water supplied by tanker lorries in the State," said T.K. Kuttamani, Director of Health Services.

The water samples are checked when there are some health emergencies. During one such check in Kochi, some water samples were found to be good, whereas some others did not meet the standards, Dr. Kuttamani said.

He was of the view that the KWA was responsible for ensuring the quality standards.

However, C. Suresh Babu, technical member in charge of quality control of the KWA, said the authority was only responsible for the quality of water supplied by it.

The KWA checked quality of water supplied by outside agencies only on request. Other than that, it could not ensure the quality of water provided by other agencies, he said.

M.K. Mukundan, Head of Quality Assurance and Management Division of the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT), felt that only licensed suppliers should be permitted to distribute drinking water. The water should be treated and certified before being supplied, he said.

The CIFT was the European Union-approved agency for ensuring quality of water for drinking purposes and fish-processing plants.

The Bureau of Indian Standards and the World Health Organisation have prescribed chemical and microbial quality parameters for drinking water. The WHO website (www.who.org) cautions, "There are a number of health concerns associated with water supplied by water vendors including access to adequate volumes and concern regarding inadequate treatment or transport in inappropriate containers, which can result in contamination."

If bulk supplies in tankers are used, sufficient chlorine should be added to ensure that a free residual chlorine concentration of at least 0.5 mg/litre after a contact time of at least 30 minutes is present at the delivery point. Tankers should normally be reserved for potable water use. Before use, tankers should be chemically disinfected or steam-cleaned, says the website.

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