An outbreak of gastroenteritis reported from two colonies in Secunderabad is giving rise to suspicions about drinking water contamination in the pipelines of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB).
Residents of Chintabai and Doodibavi areas of Chilkalguda raised concerns about possible contamination of drinking water with sewage flows due to pipeline leakage.
“For the past one week, we are getting foul-smelling drinking water that is cloudy in appearance. And for the last four days, a large number of people have fallen sick. In my own family, we fell sick one after the other, and have been visiting the clinic at Parsigutta. Diarrhoea, fever and nausea are the symptoms,” shared B. Uday, a driver from Doodibavi.
As a result, people here have stopped consuming tap water, and instead, spending on RO filtered water.
“All four in my family got sick. My daughter is suffering from diarrhoea for the last five days, and unable to consume food. Initially we thought it was dehydration due to summer heat, but later realised that the condition was worsening after drinking water,” Rajesh, a resident of Chintabai, said.
A large number of people complained to the local corporator through social media groups, leading to intervention by water board officials on Thursday.
HMWS&SB officials said that water samples have been collected by the quality assurance teams and sent to lab for testing. Initial samples yielded residual chlorine, which is negative for water contamination, they said.
Officials from the Medical and Health department, however, suspect water contamination to be the ‘culprit’.
An official, on condition of anonymity, informed that a total of 65 cases of diarrhoea and gastroenteritis have been reported in the Basti Dawakhanas, while there may be others visiting private hospitals too. Majority of the patients have been treated as outpatients, while a few have been referred to Gandhi Hospital for administering of intravenous fluids, he said.
“Based on the progression of the epidemic for the past three days, we assume it to be point source outbreak, which means the source could be either food or water. Food contamination has been ruled out, as there was no recent event where everybody from these areas could have consumed food. That leaves only water contamination,” the official said.
The two areas get water supply directly from Marredpally reservoir, as there are no storage tanks at Chilkalguda, he said, hinting at the possibility of pipeline mix up.
An inquiry with the physicians at nearby Basti Dawakhanas revealed that gastroenteritis is a common complaint here, and there are minor outbreaks quite often.
The water board has started supply of drinking water through tankers to both the colonies from Thursday onwards.
