The mandatory test of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) to check quality of drinking water has hit a roadblock with its lone vehicle used to collect water samples from sources in the city and peripheral areas being taken away by the District Election Office for poll-related purposes.
The vehicle attached to the quality control wing, a four-wheel drive utility vehicle, was taken over by the District Election Office immediately after the poll notification was issued, depriving the KWA of a vehicle to go round to collect water samples, a senior official with the authority told The Hindu .
The official said the KWA had since stopped the testing of water. “We cannot use other vehicles as a four-wheel drive is a must, because most of the areas from where samples are collected have inaccessible terrain. Many places cannot be accessed with usual vehicles. There is no similar vehicle with the KWA,” he said.
The official said there were around 110 water supply schemes, including distribution points and pipelines at consumers’ end, from where the agency collected samples on a regular basis. From these places, samples were brought to its laboratory to check parameters such as residual chlorine content, pH value, and turbidity.
During summer, there was a probability of water getting contaminated at source, he said.
The solace is that testing conducted in the past did not highlight bacterial contamination in the drinking water supplied, except a high percentage of iron in samples collected from places in the Parassala and the Edava grama panchayat limits, another official said. “We cannot take chances, and the water supplied needs to be checked. Last week, we gave a request to the Collector, who is also the District Election Officer, to release the vehicle so that collection of samples can resume. We are yet to get any reply from the authorities,” the official said.
