NEW DELHI: A study by the ministry of consumer affairs on quality of piped drinking water being supplied in major cities across the country has disclosed that in Delhi and state capitals including Chennai, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Patna, Shimla and others, tap water is not worth drinking.
The only metropolitan city where people can drink tap water safely is Mumbai as all its samples complied with Indian standards.
Testing was conducted for organoleptic, toxic and bacteriological substances and physical and chemical tests in the first stage.
“A majority of the samples have failed to comply with the requirements of Indian Standard in one or more parameters,” the ministry said in a statement.
Union Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday said, “None of the samples drawn from 13 of the state capitals — Chandigarh, Thiruvananthapuram, Patna, Bhopal, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Gandhi Nagar, Lucknow, Jammu, Jaipur, Dehradun, Chennai and Kolkata — complied with the Indian Standard requirements.”
He added that samples were taken from 11 locations in Delhi and all the samples have failed. The samples were taken from the capital city of 20 states apart from the national capital.
“It was done in keeping with the objectives of the Jal Jeevan Mission,” the minister said.
In Europe and other developed countries, it is written whether tap water is potable or not.