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Water shortage at Maternity Hospital fuels patient search

— Photo: T. Singaravelou

WATER SCARCITY? A relative of a patient taking water from a drum kept outside an eatery near the Government Maternity Hospital in Puducherry.

PUDUCHERRY: As the sun beats down on Monday afternoon, patient attendants at the Government Maternity Hospital walk out with bottles in hand to fetch drinking water from the nearby hotels and tea stalls.

In fact, this has become a regular practice for many owing to an inadequate water supply at the hospital.

The maternity hospital, which receives over 400 out-patients and 330 in-patients every day, has not been able to cater to the drinking water requirement of patients and their attendants for sometime now.

The hospital runs short of water, especially during the afternoon, a number of patient relatives complained.

However, senior hospital authorities denied there was scarcity of water and said that they had not received any such report till date.

“There are only two drinking water taps on the premises. This is not sufficient for so many patients who come to the hospital along with their relatives. The problem reaches the peak especially during lunch time as several persons line up near the taps,” a patient attendant said.

As a result, scores of attendants depended on the hotels and tea stalls situated near the hospital for drinking water.

“When water supply is insufficient in the hospital, we go outside and take water from the shops here. This is nothing new for us,” a relative of a patient said.

Though the hospital had made arrangements for supplying water through purifiers, water only trickles from the filter, another patient attendant said, adding that it took more than 15 minutes to fill a bottle leading to a long queue near the taps. On Monday, for instance, water supply from one tap had stopped in the noon and a number of persons waited to get a bottle of water from the filter.

“With shortage of water on one side, the place near the filter is dirty and is filled with heavy stench. We are forced to stand here for a long time,” another patient attendant pointed out.

The hospital authorities said water supply was constant and there was no complaint of shortage.

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