SHILLONG: The Public Health Engineering Department’s claim that it is supplying clean water has been debunked by a government panel report that shows that the water in PHE reservoirs is oily and muddy.
The State Development Reforms Commission (SDRC), which visited the site and tested water from the reservoirs, pointed out that though the water in Mawphlang reservoir was found to be apparently clean, the sample of water collected and physically inspected by the Commission from the twin reservoirs at 4½ Mile was found to be oily. The water from the twin reservoirs is then transported to the feeder main that are located in different parts of the city.
The panel asked the PHE Department to take corrective steps.
“The water received by consumers at the end source is not what the PHE Department claimed to have been providing as the water at the disposal of consumers contains particles of mud and when it is boiled oily layer is detected at the top of any container. As a result, people are afraid that water consumed every day might lead to health hazards,” the SDRC said.
According to SDRC, the only explanation offered by PHE officials to the change of the condition of water is due to pilferages, leakages and old pipes connected by private households from local main feeder storages.
Members of the inspection team – SDRC Co-Chairman Sengman R. Marak, former MLA and Co-Chairman Suraj Prakash Thapa, Vice Chairman Vijay Raj and ex-officio member Fenella Lyngdoh Nonglait – offered several recommendations to address the chronic issue on contaminated water received by the consumers in and around Shillong city.
“The department should move a proposal to identify land belonging to the Forest Department and other departments to set up the treatment plant at Upper Shillong so that the treatment water can be directly released from there to feeder main storages in every locality,” it said.
In the interim, laying and replacing of old pipes under GSWSS Phase III should be expedited as it is learnt that the pipes installed since commissioning of the GSWSS first phase 30 years ago have never been replaced and have outlived their longevities, the panel said.
Another suggestion was that a minor hydro-electricity project should be proposed to be set up below the PHE dam at Mawphlang to be able to self-sustain on electricity supply during the monsoon period.
The Commission asked the officers in charge of the different strategic points of the PHE Department to be dedicated, responsible, explore avenues, be innovative, updated in technologies to suggest to the government ways and means to improve quality of water to ensure health of people.
SDRC, which is under the Programme Implementation and Evaluation Department, said it carried out the spot inspection as part of its concern to the public interest of providing safe, clean and pure drinking water to all localities of Shillong town and its adjacent villages after receiving numerous complaints, grievances voiced by the members of the public that PHE water received in public taps of the localities and individual households, especially in the monsoon, is muddy, oily and unsafe for human consumption.
The panel conducted spot verification of the dam of GSWSS at Mawphlang, treatment plant (which was found to be satisfactory), water reservoir at Mawphlang and the twin reservoir at 4½ Mile in Upper Shillong on June 21.
Besides inspections, the panel also held interactions with the officials concerned, technical laboratories’ personnel and the engineers manning the three strategic locations.
Silviculture division
The team also visited the Silviculture division of the Forest and Environment Department at 4½ Mile in Upper Shillong and witnessed the work done by the department to conserve endangered and endemic plants by restocking wild population with tissue grown seedlings. The Commission suggested to the officials present to submit proposals to the government to expand the activities in larger scale and in larger laboratories and storages.
