
PURI: Panic has gripped scores of villages under Gopinathpur and Gadishgopa gram panchayats of Kanas block after four persons died and several others have taken ill in the last 15 days in a suspected diarrhoea outbreak.
While 61-year-old Gurei Sethy of Naikulapatana village died on Sunday, the three others include Magi Dalei (77), Sachala Sahoo and Sarathi Pradhan (75), all residents of Naugaon village. All of them suffered from vomiting and loose motion and died during treatment at Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar.
Villagers attributed the deaths to consumption of polluted water from Daya river. Jairam Satpathy, a resident of Kanas, said villagers are being forced to use the polluted water from Daya river for drinking and other purposes since most of the tube wells installed in the villages are lying defunct.
“Despite repeated complaints, the administration has done little to provide safe drinking water to the villages,” local residents alleged. They further claimed the Kanas block hospital and the primary health centres are in complete disarray owing to absence of adequate doctors and life-saving drugs at the facilities.
“A doctor who visited the block around 10 days back to take stock of the situation only referred the patients to Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar,” they rued.
Meanwhile, chief engineer of RWSS Jaynarayan Seet along with superintendent engineer Abhimanyu Das, additional chief district medical officer Girija Rath, ADM Sarat Behera and others visited Nuagaon, Gadishagoda, Gopinathpur, Kalipodar and Jagulai Podar villages under Gopinathpur and Gadishgopa gram panchayats on the day to take stock of the situation.
While a medical team has been sent to the Kanas block hospital to treat the affected patients, the district administration has also asked the RWSS division to install tube wells and make provisions for supply of drinking water in the areas.