Groundwater turns hazardous

Kurnool: Large-scale groundwater contamination for the past six months is alleged in the colonies on the outskirts of the city because the tankers that carry hazardous chemicals are being serviced near these colonies. The residents complain of water drawn from the bore wells is emitting foul smell and yellow in colour and hence is not at all potable.

Highlights:

• Two water service centres located in the colonies wash on an average 100 chemical tankers
• Water used in washing the chemical tankers is getting stagnated and seeped into the layers of earth polluting the ground water table
• Residents of Santosh Nagar, Omar Nagar, Baba Officers’ Colony, Paharan Nagar and Rahamat Nagar are purchasing drinking water from water tankers
• Using water from bore well is causing skin diseases to residents

Unable to do anything, the dwellers of colonies, mostly employees and small businessmen belonging to middle classes, are using services of water tankers to meet their daily water needs and using the water supplied by the city civic body on alternate days to quench their thirst and to meet cooking needs.

The residents of the colonies were forced to do so as the use of the water from bore well is causing skin diseases. The problem is so far confined to Santosh Nagar, Omar Nagar, Baba Officers’ Colony, Paharan Nagar, Rahamat Nagar and so on that dot either side of the Bangalore-Hyderabad highway. It was found that there are two water service centres in the colonies that wash on an average 100 chemical tankers.

The water tankers are not serviced in any of the service centres in the city except those on the outskirts. The water used in washing the chemical tankers is getting stagnated at one place because a person obstructed the path of flow taking up constructions on a site claiming to be his. The stagnated hazardous water is getting seeped into the layers of earth polluting the ground water table.

On a tip off, the leaders and officials visited the colonies and promised people to deliver the goods coordinating the efforts of various government departments. The municipal authorities visited the site and got the water servicing units closed down. They said that the officials are busy verifying the records to identify the owner of the site, where construction activity was taken up. But the problem still persists during the current summer.

People are not in a position to spend thousands of rupees to buy water tankers. If their problem is not addressed, residents of the colonies threaten to block the highway breathing fire on the dereliction to duty by the government officials.

By Ramamohan