| PHE Department supplying contaminated water in Rajouri | | Years on, cleaning, disinfection of water storage tanks overlooked | |  Ankit Kessar
Early times Report
Nowshera, Jan 24: With sheer negligence on the part of Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department Rajouri, the people of Rajouri, Nowshehara and Sunderbani Sub Divisions are compelled to consume contaminated water being supplied to them as the water storage tanks have reportedly not been cleaned and disinfected since years by the department.
Sources told Early Times that there are around 176 water storage tanks in Nowshehara and Sunderbani Sub Divisions and water is firstly stored in these tanks later supplied to the areas on regular basis but it has been reported that these storage tanks have never been cleaned to make them disinfected.
They further said that as per guidelines these storage tanks have to be cleaned and disinfected once in a year by the concerned PHE Department but these instructions were never adhered to and people are being supplied contaminated water.
In one such instance of village Barari of Nowshera, where people found dead rats in PHE storage tank. Moreover the tank was also full of algae depicting horrible condition of the tank.
While talking to Early Times, about the ill effects of contaminated water, Dr Javed, Senior Resident doctor at GMC Rajouri, informed that contaminated water give birth to many water borne diseases like diarrhea, fever, stomach infection, weak immune system etc.
Executive Engineer PHE Nowshera and Sunderbani said Gurcharan Singh, when contacted, said that department use chlorine and other chemicals for cleaning and disinfection of water in the tanks.
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