Drinking water in city is safe: HMWSSB

Hyderabad, Dec 19 (INN): The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board has claimed that all the drinking water sources in city are safe.

'All the drinking water sources of HMWS&SB are being regularly monitored and analyzed at Environmental Protection Training & Research Institute, Gachibowli, Hyderabad (EPTRI) seasonally for identification of any heavy metals and pesticide residues. As per the latest analysis report, it clearly shows that, all the drinking water sources does not contain any toxic or heavy metals nor pesticide residues and found to be below detectable limits (BDL). Therefore, there is no possibility of heavy metals in the water supplied to the public as the heavy metals are not found in the sources itself,' the Board said in a press release on Saturday.

The water supplied by the HMWS&S Board is monitored by internal and external agencies that check the potability of water throughout the GHMC. There is a very strong surveillance system that is functioning to monitor the quality of water right from the source to the consumer point. Daily 1500 samples are examined by the internal quality wing and 2000 samples are being tested for residual chlorine by the Linemen of O&M Divisions. Further, 700 samples are being tested for RC by the external agencies like Institute of Preventive Medicine, Institute of Health Systems and Self Help Group Volunteers. There are 202 Nos. of chlorination plants installed at WTPs, Balancing reservoirs and service reservoirs for maintaining the sufficient levels of residual chlorine in the distribution system of HMWS&SB.

The Quality Assurance & Testing Wing is comprising of 7 Nos. of laboratories and they regularly analyze all the important Physico-Chemical parameters of all the supplies and adhering to IS 10500-2012 drinking water standards. During routine water quality monitoring by internal and external agencies, if any polluted water is noticed, on war footing the pollution rectification is being taken up within 48 hours by the concerned Managers (Engg.), thereby ensuring that no Faecal coliform bacteria or E-coli are present. Further, due to maintaining sufficient levels of residual chlorine in the entire distribution system, there has been no incidence of outbreak of water borne diseases like ADD, Cholera, Gastroenteritis etc.,

As the water supplied by the board is properly treated at Water Treatment Plants and booster chlorination is done at service reservoirs to ensure sufficient levels of residual chlorine is being maintained till it reaches to the consumers, due to which all the faecal bacteria will be oxidized or destroyed completely, thereby ensuring supply of potable water to the consumers and also states that, there are no heavy metals neither in the sources water nor in the water supplied to the public, the Board added.