HYDERABAD: The contaminated water supply issue continues to haunt the residents of Vaddera Basti in Guttala Begumpet of Madhapur as one more person succumbed on Monday morning. Chinnamma, who is said to be in her eighties, died while undergoing treatment at Gandhi Hospital after allegedly drinking polluted water.It may be mentioned here that last week a similar incident shook the basti when local resident Bheemaiah died while several other slum dwellers were hospitalised after drinking contaminated water.
Chinnamma’s neighbours said that she died after drinking polluted water but curiously, the HMWS&SB officials claimed that the octogenarian was on dialysis and died due to kidney failure. When police went to the locality, the family members of the deceased refused to lodge a complaint and informed that she died due to kidney failure.
Meanwhile, the number of people falling sick after drinking contaminated water has been increasing steadily. On Sunday, around a dozen people were hospitalised, taking the total number of patients to 120. Of them, 50 are being treated at Kondapur Hospital and five others are undergoing treatment at Gandhi Hospital. Meanwhile, the Central Laboratory of HMWS&SB which conducted the bacteriological tests on the water samples collected from the Vaddera Basti did not find any coliform bacteria. Physicochemical analysis showed that water was “satisfactory for drinking”.