Over 100 taken ill by contaminated water

Over 100 people, including 15 children, were taken ill in Indiranagar near Bachupally village in Qutbullahpur mandal, about 35 km from the State capital, following supply of contaminated drinking water on Sunday.

Locals on Monday said dirty water from a huge nala had possibly entered the adjacent drinking water pipeline due to leakage resulting in contamination. While 48 of the villagers got admitted in Pranam Hospital at Madinaguda, the remaining were treated at a local community hall in Indiranagar.

Thirteen were discharged from the hospital on Monday. Condition of those, mostly children, still in the hospital, was out of danger, but it would take a couple of days more for them to recover completely, the officials said. Four bores were drilled in Indiranagar and till recently, water from three wells was pumped to an overhead tank from where it was supplied to houses. Recently, authorities began drawing water from the fourth well leading to suspicions that water drawn from it could have been contaminated.

However, authorities believed water could have been contaminated in the supply lines only.

“If contaminated water was pumped to overhead tank, everyone should have been affected. It appears dirty water from a nala got mixed with a supply line,” the Qutbullahpur Deputy Collector and Tahasildar, S. Venkateswarlu, said.

Supply stopped

People started vomiting and falling sick since Sunday evening prompting the authorities to stop water supply. They brought in packaged drinking water from outside and supplied to the villagers. The technical staff of Rural Water Supply Department and a team from the Institute of Preventive Medicine have collected samples of water from different places in Indiranagar. Action would be initiated based on the test reports of the water samples, the officials said.