Dirty water taking toll on Labour Colony residents - Hindustan Times
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Dirty water taking toll on Labour Colony residents

Hindustan Times | By, Ludhiana
May 26, 2014 05:31 PM IST

Residents of the Labour Colony, which lies in the city’s Jawahar Nagar locality, are finding living conditions steadily deteriorating with most basic amenities being absent. Among the problems they have to put up with day in day out are contaminated water supply, nonfunctional streetlights live power cables dangling from poles, all of which pose grave risks.

Residents of the Labour Colony, which lies in the city’s Jawahar Nagar locality, are finding living conditions steadily deteriorating with most basic amenities being absent. Among the problems they have to put up with day in day out are contaminated water supply, nonfunctional streetlights live power cables dangling from poles, all of which pose grave risks.

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Supply of drinking water in the area has been er ratic for months now and often there is no water at all for hours on end. In a bid to ease their woes a few who can afford them have decided to install water pressure booster pumps.

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Ankush, a resident of the locality, who fell ill after drinking contaminated water over a prolonged period, said: “Safe drinking water is a basic necessity, especially during summer when the chances of contracting a waterborne disease are the highest. I fell sick after drinking the impure water and even had to be hospitalized for a couple of weeks. Though some have had a water filtration system installed at their homes, not everyone can shell out the money to buy one”.

A visit to a park in the area will show most of the streetlights are either broken or not functioning. Live electricity wires that are chaotically hanging from poles are another common sight.

Madhu Malhotra, another resident, said, “Going for an early morning walk has become a risky affair as there are half a do zen stray do gs roaming around on our street. We can’t also let our children play outside. Streetlights that are perennially out of order add to our woes, especially when we go out at night”.

Bimla Devi, a local who was recently bitten by a stray dog, said: “Most residents now dread the idea of venturing out alone. Groups of stray dogs wander on the streets in the Valmiki and Narayan parks early in the early morning and after sunset”.

Said Vijay Kumar, another area resident: “Last year the civic body promised us new water pipelines would be installed, ensuring clean water supply in the entire area. Every household was charged Rs 400 for this purpose. But I don’t see anything materializing yet”.

MC joint commissioner AS Sekhon said: “Due to the general elections construction of a building where stray dogs would be sterilised was put on hold. However, we’re resuming work and the structure will be completed in a month’s time”.

Meanwhile, Ravinder Garg, an executive engineer at the civic body, said : “After we received some complaints about contaminated water supply two weeks ago we resolved them by re pairing leaking pipelines. Also, those with domestic water supply connections haven’ t replaced outdated pipelines for years now and some are installing water booster pumps. These factors can also result in water supply being contaminated”.

However, MC zonal commissioner PS Ghuman claimed: “We always try to ensure all complaints regarding broken or nonfunctional streetlights are resolved promptly”.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Sumeer Singh is a staff correspondent at Ludhiana. He covers industry, transport, district courts and sports.

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