BENGALURU : Residents of Ejipura have been living with a supply of water, mixed with sewage waste for almost six months, with the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewage Board (BWSSB) turning a blind eye to their woes for the longest time. According to residents of 20M Cross, Ejipura, one of the sewage lines seems to have burst and they are getting water which is almost black in colour and frothy, rendering it unusable for any domestic use, let alone drinking.
“The sanitary water is getting mixed with the Cauvery drinking water and this time around it started since Saturday, but we have been seeing this occur repeatedly for six months after some drainage work was done in the area,” said Binoy Pandey, a resident staying at 20 L cross. He added that his family has been falling sick ever since.
Residents in the locality have been exercising caution by purchasing drinking water, even though they receive Cauvery water every alternate day. “The water is black in colour and stinks. I, personally, registered a complaint with the BWSSB, but they are yet to take action. I don't think the BWSSB understands how serious the issue is,” said Janet Yegneshwaran, a resident at 20M cross and RWA member.
“We have been giving written complaints since April to the chairman, executive engineers and every official at the BWSSB, but there is no honest work from their side,” said N S Padmanabha, another resident. “We get water only for one hour and we have to keep the supply pipe open for a while and wait till the water gets cleared. So it is a waste of water as well,” he further added. A few months ago, residents at 20C had seen contaminated water to which BWSSB had taken three months to find the leakage and repair it, he said.
Nagaraj A, BWSSB AEE said, “We are finding it a tough task because we have to dig around at four places to find out where the leakage is happening. It will take 10 days minimum to trace it,” he said. BWSSB chairman Tushar Girinath explained that Ejipura area has some sewage pipeline issue due to residential houses built above it. “We will look into it immediately,” he said. Last week, City Express had highlighted the situation at Kanaka Nagar where residents faced a similar water contamination issue.