Drinking tap water in Mumbai, dangerous to Gandhinagar

After Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Dehradun and Jaipur pollute the water, Union Water Minister Paswan's house is not clean.

Gandhinagar is ranked 14th in the list of 21 cities in the country on tap water quality, Mumbai at the top, Delhi at 21st.

(PTI) New Delhi, Ta. November 16, 2019, Saturday

Mumbaiis do not need to have a reverse osmosis (RO) water purifier for safe drinking water. However, a survey of the Central Consumer Affairs Ministry found that water is polluted and not potable in the capitals of the 20 states of the country. Mumbai is ranked at the top of the list of 21 capitals in the country and Delhi is ranked 21st, according to Consumer Ministry's Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

Drinking water samples were taken from 20 capitals of the country, including Gandhinagar, to test the quality of drinking water in accordance with Indian standards.

According to a study by the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, tap water samples collected from Mumbai were found to be drinkable in line with Indian standards.

However, in other metro cities including Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai, the drinking water sample failed in 10 out of the 11 criteria of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). Similarly, water samples taken from other 17 state capitals were found to be incompatible with the Indian Standard (IS) 10500: 2012 for drinking water.

Union Minister for Consumer Affairs Ram Vilas Paswan said that water samples taken from 13 portfolios including Gandhinagar, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Jammu, Jaipur, Dehradun, Chennai and Kolkata did not meet the requirements of Indian Standard.

Announcing a second phase study of the Union Ministry, Paswan said that all 10 samples of tap water from Mumbai in 20 capitals were found to be safer than fulfilling all the 11 criteria of BIS while water samples from other cities failed to meet one or more criteria.

Compulsion to meet the tap water quality standards in the country can solve the problem of safe drinking water. Paswan added that no measures can be taken now as quality standards are not mandatory for tap water. Once the implementation of these criteria becomes mandatory, the government can take action.

The most polluted water in Delhi

After conducting water quality tests in a private lab in 20 capitals of the BIS, it was found that Delhi's water was the most polluted. In Delhi, 12 waterways were also found to be polluted at the home of Ramvilas Paswan, Union Minister of Food and Consumer Affairs, including the Agriculture Ministry, Buradi, Sonia Vihar. Water samples taken from all these locations failed on all BIS parameters. Apart from the high levels of TDS, pH, aluminum, nitrate, detergent, bacteria like E.coli were also found in these waters.

Chennai failed in 10 criteria, Kolkata in nine

According to a recent study conducted by the BIS, all samples of water taken from Chennai failed in all nine criteria like dirt, odor, hardness, chloride, fluoride, ammonia, boron and coliform while Kolkata samples failed in nine. Hyderabad failed on the criteria like 'Phenolic Compounds', Bhubaneswar 'Chloramines' and Chandigarh 'Aluminum' and 'Coliform'.

Quality testing will continue

In a first phase study for drinking water quality, the BIS took 11 samples of tap water from Delhi, which did not meet the quality criteria and the tap water was found to be unsafe to drink. In the second phase, water samples were taken from all the capitals of the country. The third phase will test the water samples from the northeastern states' capitals and 100 smart cities, which are expected to arrive by January 15, 2020. In the fourth phase, it is suggested to take water samples from all the district headquarters in the country.

A study to test tap water quality and safety

Drinking water is being tested in the country by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs for testing organoleptic levels and physical parameters in tap water, as well as by testing virological and biological criteria for the chemicals and toxins in the water and bacteriological quality.