Jaundice outbreak: Mayor urged to stop water supply from tube well

Kolkata: The councillor of Ward Number 99, under the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Debasish Mukherjee has written to the Kolkata Mayor, Firhad Hakim, acknowledging his prompt action to combat the outbreak of jaundice in certain pockets of the city.

The Ward Number 99 is among those areas where jaundice bacteria were detected in drinking water.

Mukherjee has also submitted a memorandum to the Mayor placing some demands.

The councillor urged Hakim to stop the supply of the water extracted from the deep tube well and supply purified piped drinking water in various parts of ward 99 and some areas of Jadavpur to check the spread of disease.

He urged Firhad Hakim to publish a notification on steps the civic body is taking to ease the tension of the people in the affected areas.

He also requested the civic body to mention its observation on the recent eruption of jaundice.

Mayor has also been requested to take some steps to replace old rusted pipes with new PVC pipes.

The councillor made some observations in his letter to the Mayor. He said there were hardly any chances of water contamination where the civic body supplies purified drinking water but in some places such as Jadavpur, Tollygunj and also Ward Number 99, water is supplied through old rusted iron pipes which increases the chances of water contamination in these areas..

Mukherjee pointed out that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has not mentioned what steps were being taken to handle the crisis in affected parts of the city.

The councillor thanked Mayor for his timely intervention.

He said that deputy Mayor, who is in charge of the health department of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, had been on denial mode when the matter came to light.

The chief medical officer of health acted promptly and visited the affected areas and met the people who were suffering from the disease. Senior engineers of the drainage department of the civic body visited the spot and started taking steps to put a check to outbreak of the disease.

Three days ago, Kolkata Municipal Corporation

found coliform bacteria in 12 out of 14 samples collected from various sources predominantly from Vidyasagar Colony area in South Kolkata's Baghajatin. Following the incident, the Mayor confirmed the outbreak of jaundice and assured that steps would be taken on war footing.

Civic body officials also collected samples round-the-clock at least for seven days and tests were done in the laboratory for further confirmation.

Mayor had said daily tests will help in detecting the exact source of the bacteria that had been responsible for causing jaundice in the area.

Around 30 people residing in Vidyasagar Colony at Ganguly Bagan in Baghajatin and some other parts were affected with jaundice and some of them had to be hospitalised.