20 fall ill, residents of Sec 81 society blame water contamination

GURGAON: A day after water samples from Orris township in Sector 85 were found unfit for consumption, around 20 residents of Vipul Lavanya in Sector 81 reported falling ill due to alleged water contamination. Residents say they have been experiencing symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting and mild fever for the past 5 to 7 days. The society, which mainly gets its water supply from the GMDA, is currently home to more than six hundred families.
Ankur Verma, one of the residents, said that her two-year-old son has been suffering from vomiting and diarrhea this past week. “Initially, I didn’t even realize it might be because of water contamination but three-four days ago, people started sharing messages on the society's groups about some of their kids falling ill with similar symptoms,” she said.
A team of GMDA officials visited the society on Thursday and carried out the on-site testing.
“Our team visited the society and upon enquiry, it was found that there has been leakage in the society's water pipeline for some days, which hasn’t been rectified by them. Further, they were using private water tanker services during the past few days, not the GMDA water supply, to meet their needs. The TDS level in the water in the domestic tank is 690 mg/l and the presence of required chlorine was nil, while the TDS of the water collected from the inlet point was 182 mg/l. We have also collected samples for further examination,” said Abhinav Verma, executive engineer of GMDA.
The RWA, however, has refuted the GMDA’s claims and maintained that they are only using water from the GMDA pipeline.
“There was a slight leakage, not some major damage in the pipeline, which also has been fixed. After getting the connection six months ago, we haven’t obtained water from private tankers and only rely on GMDA’s supply,” said Sanjay Singhvi, secretary of Vipul Lavanya RWA.