Senthil Kumar & Mohammed Sajid
Port Blair, Dec 02: The Andaman PWD supplies water to majority of residents in Rangat from a Well situated under the Rangat Bridge. But the water source has become a constant source of fear among residents of Rangat, who strongly believe that the water source may trigger an epidemic in the entire area, at any point of time.
According to the villagers the Well is situated in a low lying area near Rangat nallah and during heavy rain the nallah swells and all muddy and dirty water of the nallah come inside the well. A large number of people dump garbage on the said nallah on daily basis and all these darbage goes inside the well after every spell of heavy rain in Rangat Area, triggering the fear of contamination of drinking water. Not only this a large number of people answers to nature’s call sitting along the nallah everyday and all these human waste come inside the said well, in case of flooding.
The matter was taken up with the APWD by people of Rangat in many occasions in past but till now nothing has been done by the APWD to ensure total protection of the most prominent source of drinking water of Rangat Area. According to reports from the said well APWD supplies water to Mithila, Sabri, Sitapur and Yerretta areas.
Andaman Sheekha has photographs, which shows how water from nearby nallah covers the said well, contaminating drinking water, after heavy spell of rain. This is the reason why often muddy water is supplied by APWD to Rangat Residents.
Andaman Sheekha contacted Mr. Balram Singh, SE, APWD to know the reasons behind such negligence. Mr. Balram Singh informed this reporter that he has just joined as SE but after consulting with the officials he said that the tank is completely sealed and there is no question of muddy water coming into the water source. He further added that he has instructed the concerned officials to look into the matter and take necessary action.
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