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| Shocking! NRDWP officials use expired chemicals for water testing in Anantnag | | |
Saahil Suhail
Early Times Report
anantnag, Oct 1: Putting the lives of people at risk, the officials of National Rural Drinking Water Program (NRDWP), working under the administrative control of PHE department in Jammu and Kashmir are using expired chemicals for carrying out water quality tests.
Reliable sources told Early Times that these expired chemicals and reagents are being used in all five water testing laboratories established under National Rural Drinking Water Program (NRDWP) in South Kashmir's Anantnag district
They said that the use of expired chemicals and reagents isn't only putting the lives of people at risk but also leads to wrong experimental results.
"Bacteriological Test Vials and multi-parameter Water Quality Field Test Kits, procured by the department have expired since last year and they are still being used in labs at Bijbehara, Kokernag, Pahalgam and Sagam," they said.
Sources said that at District Water Laboratory Bumzoo-Anantnag, Water Quality Field Test Kits and vials have also expired last year. Each kit cost around Rs 6000 and expiration of these kits establish the fact that NRDWP is not tests water quality in the district as per the norms, they said.
A spot visit by this reporter also found large quantity of expired chemicals- Kits and vials- lying on shelf.
"We agitated and raised the issue with our higher-ups but we were told to use them as they can be," an employee told Early Times over phone; however wished not be named.
AEE Chemical Sub-division Srinagar, Zubair Adhami, however claimed that use of expired chemicals doesn't affect results.
On being asked why the expired chemicals were kept inside the lab and not stocked somewhere else or disposed off, they officer said that they don't have space to stock expired chemicals.
"For disposing of these chemicals we have to fallow a protocol," he added.
Interestingly, Zubair Adhami a few weeks ago visited South Kashmir but didn't spot expired chemicals in laboratories across the district.
The National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme aimed at providing every person in rural India with adequate safe water for drinking, cooking and other domestic basic needs on a sustainable basis.
Under this programme, number of laboratories has been setup in Jammu and Kashmir for checking the quality of water but over all Jammu and Kashmir State has not fared well in satisfactory implementation of program. |
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