Dehradun's drinking water toxic; unsafe to drink

ALLinDOON

Staff Reporter

Tue Jun 26, 2012, 11:30 IST

Dehradun: In what would come as a shocker to most Doonites, the drinking water being supplied in Dehradun has been found to be unsafe and not potable. Dr Brijmohan Sharma, Secretary SPECS, made these claims as he addressed the media in Hindi Bhawan yesterday.

Under a special quality control drive, water samples from 51 places in Dehradun were collected and sent for tests. Shockingly, only water from Indira Colony and MLA Hostel in Race Course was found potable and safe to consume.

As part of the drive, drinking water samples were collected from the residences of Doon mayor Vinod Chamoli, Cabinet Ministers Dinesh Agarwal and Dr Indira Hridayesh. While no chlorine was found in the samples from Chamoli’s house, the water samples collected from the residences of Hridayesh and Agarwal were found to be containing traces of faecal coliform, which renders it unsafe to drink.

Water samples collected from former CM Bhagat Singh Koshiyari were found to contain eight times the permitted level of chlorine, which made it toxic and unsafe to drink.

In Mohini road, faecal coliform was found to be 120 ppm, in Ajabpur it was 76ppm, 54 in Patel Nagar, 36 in Kalidas road, 32 in Dhamawala, 30 in Jakhan, 24 in Sahastradhara road and 12 in SP House.

Readers maybe reminded that excessive level of chlorine is dangerous to health and water with excessive chlorine should be allowed to sit from 4 to 12 hours after being poured before it is consumed.