Mandi, March 17
Forty more cases of hepatitis-E have reported for the treatment during the past 48 hours in the Regional Hospital and private clinics. According to doctors, persons develop symptoms of jaundice six weeks after the consumption of contaminated water.
Meanwhile, the Chief Engineer, IPH, Mr J.N. Sharma, along with the SE, XEN, Assistant Engineers and Junior Engineers visited various sectors of the town today to get first-hand information about the quality of water being consumed by the people and to ensure that the drinking water pipelines were in order. They also looked into the allegation that leaking pipelines were sucking contaminated water of the lanes and found it to be baseless.
The IPH team also held corner meetings with the consumers to generate awareness about water-borne diseases and advised them to take only tap water which had been found to be bacteria free. People were asked to maintain utmost cleanliness and wash their hands before consuming anything. They were instructed that stagnant water in the storage tanks should be daily chlorinated before consumption to avoid jaundice.
Mandi town is served by two water supply schemes and 95 per cent of the cases pertain to one scheme. Water under this scheme is stored at Motipur and is lifted from the Beas. For other localities where water is supplied from other supply scheme the cases reported were negligible.
A detailed study conducted by this correspondent revealed that at many places the pipelines for the supply of drinking water were very close to sewer lines and the possibility of contaminated water entering the drinking water supply lines could not be ruled out.
The other reason for the spread of the disease is lifting of contaminated and polluted water from the Beas. The Motipur drinking water supply scheme lifts three lakh litres of water from the Beas every day and after storing it at Motipur it is supplied to the town. The river water is highly polluted as the river is being used as dumping site by hydroelectric projects between Kulu and Mandi. Even sewage from certain private and government buildings is also thrown into the river. The government has done nothing to stop it.
The Municipal Committee , Mandi has been throwing garbage at a place 4 km away from Mandi town for the past many years and this place is situated by the river side. About 12 truckloads of garbage is thrown at this place daily and this waste also contains the hospital waste. The municipal officials , however, deny the charges.
The Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, claimed that the government had taken all necessary steps to control the disease and taken preventive measures and chlorinated all water sources in the area. He said the situation was under control.
