116 suffer from diarrhoea in Cuttack

CUTTACK: As many as 20 new cases of diarrhoea were detected at TalaSahi in Sikharpur, on the outskirts of the city, on Tuesday. With this, the total number of people affected by diarrhoea reached 116, However, no casualty has been reported so far.
Five days ago, the disease was reported from the area due to contaminated drinking water and till now, officially 116 diarrhoea cases have been confirmed.Locals, however, claimed that over 150 have fallen ill.
The Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) has started a drive to contain the disease in the area. Special medical teams have been deployed to treat the patients. Clean drinking water is also being supplied to the dwellers of Tala sahi through water tankers.
According to CMC officials, pipes laid by the public health engineering department (PHED) have developed cracks leading to contamination with sewerage water. "Twenty more cases have been detected and none of them are critical. Adequate measures are being taken to deal with the situation," said health officer of CMC P K Pradhan.
He said the PHED officials have been asked to fix the problem. "The PHED wing has been asked to conduct a thorough check of the supply lines and plug leakages. We have also launched a drive to sensitize the public on prevention as well as the dos and don'ts for diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases," said Pradhan. All wells in the area have been disinfected and halogen tablets are being distributed in every household, he added.
The locals alleged that they had informed the PHED and the CMC officials about the cracks in the pipeline but the authorities paid no heed to them.
"The pipelines supplying water to the area mostly run along drains and sewerage channels and these are in a very bad shape. The PHD officials should take immediate measure to replace the pipes with new ones, "said Pramod Das, a resident of Tala sahi.