New Delhi:
The water people drink at railway stations may not be fit to drink, an internal report of the Railways submitted to the Delhi High Court earlier this month reveals. The report was prepared after samples collected between January and August this year were tested.
According to the report, accessed by NDTV, half of the 541 water pumping stations of the Indian Railways in North India lack functional chlorination plants. These pumping stations are meant to extract ground water, chlorinate it -treat it by adding chlorine to kill bacteria and other microbes that cause waterborne diseases - and pump it to taps on railway stations and in railway colonies.
While the Railways claims chlorination is done manually when the plants don't function, the situation on the ground appears different. In Ghaziabad, for instance, NDTV found only one of the nine chlorination machines working. Operators at the two pumping stations there said their job is to pump out the water but could not answer questions on how and when they chlorinate it manually.
Under the Lucknow division, seven out of every 10 water samples collected from the stations and colonies tested positive for 'coliform' bacteria. That's also the proportion of the division's 137 pumps that do not have a functioning chlorination machine.
In the Lucknow division, 11 per cent of the tested samples were labelled 'unsatisfactory' by the Railways as opposed to 20 per cent under the Ambala division. The Indian standard set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) mandates zero bacteria in drinking water but the Railway Manual says it should be "less than four per 100ml of water."
The Railways' standards are unacceptable say experts. "Any presence of bacteria in water means contamination from possible fecal matter and garbage, which can seriously affect human health," says Dr Navin Dang, leading Delhi-based pathologist.
The High Court, which is hearing a petition on the quality of water at North India's railway stations, will discuss the report in December.