Safe drinking water issue

SHILLONG, JAN 19: The Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) Youth Wing on Tuesday sought the intervention of the state health department to ensure safe drinking water is supplied to the people of the city.

A delegation the KHNAM-youth wing met the state health minister AL Hek, following the report by the King Edward VII Pasteur Institute, Shillong, which declared that the water of the GSWS is ‘unfit for human consumption’.

The testing was conducted based on the water sample collected by the KHNAM from the clear water storage of the Greater Shillong Water Supply (GSWS) at 4 ½ mile on January 6. The report said the pH value of drinking waterbeing supplied in Shillong city has been found to be 5.7 and that the water supplied is highly acidic.

“We have demanded the health department to intervene into the matter by taking upon itself the responsibility to also conduct a test on the water from Greater Shillong Water Supply (GSWS),” KHNAM-YW president Thomas Passah told reporters after the meeting. The party youth wing has also urged the department to institute a committee on the matter.

When asked, Passah said, “He (Hek) has assured the delegation that he would seriously take up the matter to ensure that safe and contamination free drinking water is supplied to the people.”

Earlier, the PHE department had rubbished the allegation made by the KHNAM and stated the water being supplied from the GSWS project so far, were well within the limit of drinking water standards and in no case, acidic water were supplied to the public

According to the department, the GSWS water works is equipped with a laboratory which is manned 24 hours a day where the parameters of incoming raw water and outgoing treated water are monitored at regular intervals.

Expressing dissatisfaction on the recent clarification of the PHE department, Passah however said, “They (PHE) is just trying to mislead the people because the laboratory is useless as it is without a chemist and a microbiologist. It is like a hospital without doctors.”-By Our Reporter