Mandi, March 16
The Superintending Engineer, Irrigation and Public Health, Mr Ashok Mahajan, while addressing a news conference here today disclosed that the results of the samples taken of over a dozen natural water springs and tanks, in the wake of the outbreak of hepatitis-E (jaundice), had been found to be contaminated. He advised people of the town not to consume water of the tanks.

He called upon the people to use only tap water as various samples of the same had been found to be bacteria free. As a precautionary measure the water from the handpumps should also not be consumed till the results of that were available. All handpumps with contaminated water would be plugged and it would be prominently displayed that water was not fit for drinking. Two handpumps — one at the hospital and another near the Seri Pavilion had already been closed as their water was not found fit for drinking.

Mr Mahajan further asked the consumers to ensure that their domestic tanks were clean and chlorinated and did not breed bacteria. He also stressed on the need to replace leaking or rusted pipelines so as to avoid the hazard of consuming dirty water.

He claimed that the coordinated efforts of IPH, medical department and the Nagar Parishad had yielded appreciable results and the outbreak of jaundice had been fully contained in and around Mandi town.

Mr Mahajan disclosed that state government had drawn up an ambitious plan of Rs 3.69 crore for Mandi, Bilaspur, Hamirpur and Shimla to impart education, communication and information about the proper use and conservation of water and water-borne diseases.

Replying to a question, he ruled out the possibility of drinking water pipelines getting contaminated with sewerage lines and added that teams of the department had thoroughly checked it in all the five sectors of the town.

In reply to another question, he said HUDCO had been approached to provide Rs 2.38 crore for the completion of the drinking water augmentation project which had currently come to a halt for want of money.