Mumbai News: 0.99% Of Water Samples Tested At Labs Unfit For Consumption

Mumbai: The latest Environment Status Report (ESR) for 2022-2023 showed that on average, 0.99% of water samples tested were found to be unfit.

The previous report (2021-2022) found 0.33% of tested samples unfit. The highest number of unfit samples were found in B ward (6.7%) which has areas such as Dongri and Umarkhadi.

Water samples collected daily from 24 administrative wards

The water samples are collected daily from all the 24 administrative wards. The BMC takes an annual average to determine the percentage of unfit water samples. The ESR of 2022-23 published in September showed a slight increase in the annual average percentage of unfit water. Other than B ward Dongri (6.7%), R Central (2.1%) Borivali, G North ward Dharavi and Dadar (1.7%) have also seen a rise in the percentage of unfit water samples.

Daily around 200 water samples, and in the monsoon or in an emergency, upto 300 drinking water samples are jointly collected by the public health department and hydraulic engineering (HE) department and sent for routine bacteriological analysis. It looks at 32 parameters to determine whether a water sample is fit for drinking, including odour, colour, taste, pH levels, and chlorine levels as per permissible Bureau of Indian Standards.

A senior civic official of the water department said, “In 2012-13, the unfit water samples for the city was 17%, which was brought down to 0.7% in 2018-19. The raw water from lakes is purified at a filtration plant in the Pise and Bhandup complex. The water is only supplied when it passes the quality test.”

Old, corroded water pipelines

He further added, “Medical health officers from every ward also regularly check the samples. The increase in unfit percentage is found in B ward as most water pipelines there are old and corroded, which will be replaced soon. The unfit samples are sent to wards to check the source of contamination and take necessary measures.”

Sitaram Shelar, convenor of Pani Haqq Samiti said, “No doubt the BMC’s filtration plant is of higher standards, Though the BMC provides good quality of water it gets contaminated during

distribution. Also, 52% of the city’s population still resides in chawls and slums from where the water samples are not been collected, that's why the report lacks the actual figure.”