If the first day saw just around 2.5 lakh people taking the holy bath, the figure swelled to about four times that in Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda districts on Saturday.
This increase in devotees’ rush causes concern over water quality. According to an estimate, if the normal quantum of eColi bacteria is 5 parts per million (PPM), the figure during Pushkarams can go as high as 2 lakh PPM. The administration has been constantly asking its officers, personnel on duty and volunteers at various ghats to repeatedly keep telling pilgrims not to swallow river water when they take a dip even by mistake.
According to standard operating procedure, water samples are mixed with a testing solution and kept aside for 10 hours. If the colour does not change and the water remains largely transparent, it means all is well, but if it turns blue-green, it means the eColi numbers are certainly above normal. If becomes light yellow, it does not mean the presence eColi, but surely indicates that some bacteria or chemicals that can be harmful to human beings are present.
On Friday, officials claimed that they had tested 270 water samples taken from different parts of Mahabubnagar district and after the mandatory 10-hour wait, they found that the presence of eColi was within the permissible limits.
When contacted, Mahabubnagar Collector T.K. Sreedevi and Nalgonda Collector P. Satyanarayana Reddy said their guard was up. Especially considering the rising number of pilgrims what with Saturday, Sunday and Monday being holidays, they have considerably increased the number of personnel involved in sample collection and testing.
“We agree it’s a cause for concern and are taking all necessary steps,” they chorused, when contacted by The Hindu .
