And what is worse, repeated complaints made to the Water Supply Department (WSD) are either sloppily attended to, or ignored altogether.
The problem of interruption and contamination of tap water has been plugging the state not only during spring and summer months, but almost all the year round. Not only the cities and towns, but a large number of rural areas too, particularly those along the coastal belts, have been facing the problem of water mixed with mud, dirt and in some cases, even worms and tiny insects. Whatever precautionary measures are claimed to have taken by authorities concerned, it remains toxic, the effect of which are evident in the form of various water-borne diseases, particular gastro-enteritis cases, reported all across the state.
Drinking water projects are undertaken at high cost and inaugurated with much fanfare, but the water supplied by the government is often not fit for human consumption, as proved by increasing number of cases of typhoid, cholera, dysentery and kidney disorders regularly reported in the last few years. In many rural areas, a large number of people are suffering from skin diseases caused by poor quality of water. Growing industrialisation, haphazard mining, unplanned urbanization and widespread use of pesticides, are believed to be the reason behind the deteriorating quality of water and falling water tables. In fact, drinking contaminated water has become a part of life in the state, of late.
The Water Supply Department (WSD) authorities, while admitting that during weekly collection of water samples from various supply junctions they did find occasional evidence of contamination mostly due to mud content, maintained that necessary precautions are taken to maintain the minimum level of residual chlorine, and that the WSD was regularly chlorinating the State’s drinking water at various supply points. If there was no human meddling like shutdowns, puncturing of pipes, etc., the chlorine content in the water would be enough.
Tests conducted by some non-governmental organisations (NGOs), however, revealed that there was insufficient residual chlorine content to ensure that most disease-causing bacteria in the water would be destroyed. NGOs say that very often raw water is being directly supplied to consumers even without chlorinating, leave alone filtering. Due to poor maintenance, ignorance on the part of the staff and non-availability of spare parts, the department’s chlorinators are often declared to be out of order, so these deficiencies need to be restricted if quality of domestic water supply is to be improved, they insisted.
Tragically, despite heavy monsoon rains in Goa, several urban as well as semi-urban areas of the State continue to face acute and chronic drinking water shortage. There are no health guidelines for supply of drinking water from ill-maintained, unhygienic rusted tankers. The Government itself is scared to admit the possibility of dangerous pathogens like legionella pneumophila, the causative agent for bronchopneumonia, which thrive in water supply rich in iron. NGOs have been demanding that the department of preventive and social medicine at the Goa Medical College (GMC) hospital should look at the rising morbidity and mortality profile due to bronchopneumonia, and empirically identify the connection to thriving of the bacteria in domestic water supply. Besides, recent reports have revealed that water supplied by the government, particularly from the Selaulim reservoir to a major part of South Goa, has many more impurities like fluoride, nickel, sulphates, manganese, etc.
Experts have been insisting that the government’s analytical reports of Selaulim water quality need independent empirical scrutiny for excess manganese content in the water supplied to domestic consumers. They pointed out that actual levels of manganese in Selaulim water supply could be very high and would persist till specific, expensive technology such as Ion exchange or Zeolite based or ultrafiltration based for manganese and heavy metals removal is installed. World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines value for manganese in drinking water is 400 micrograms per litre and is calculated for adults older than 19 years, and drinking 2 litres water per day.
According to experts, manganese occurs naturally in both surface and groundwater, as a result of weathered and solubilised manganese from soil and bedrock. Higher than normal levels of manganese in the Selaulim drinking water is not an unexpected news, as Goa’s rocks and soil is rich in heavy metals and their oxides. About six million metric tonne of ore rich in iron and manganese has been submerged below the Selaulim reservoir, and the bacteria oxidizing the minerals are proliferating in the sediment of the reservoir. Besides, heavy metal rich runoff from mines and mining dumps in the catchment area of the reservoir, is further adding to high manganese budget of the raw water. The bitter lessons from Selaulim water contamination should occupy the critical attention of civil society towards Goa’s water security.
Unfortunately, despite guidelines laid down by the Water Quality Assessment Authority (WQAA) and the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the procedures adopted by the State Water Supply department to analyse water do not include specific parameters like odour, taste and color identification, even as the Act makes such parameters mandatory. Experts point out that reports prepared by the WSD also fail to outline important parameters like chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), and total hardness and manganese content as stipulated in the manual of procedures for water treatment under the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department.
Therefore, it is time, people of Goa need to vehemently demand chemicals free, toxins free and pathogens free clean drinking water from the government immediately.
(The writer is a freelance journalist)
