Patients going to the SSG Hospital for treatment may be at a risk of catching more ailments.

The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) has collected water samples from all the administrative wards of Vadodara, including the SSG Hospital, where preliminary tests have shown that the water is contaminated.

The samples were collected from the SSG Hospital on Tuesday. The reports are still to come out, but the civic body has already started carrying out cleaning operations. The sanitation officer has also been asked to check the quality of water in the hospital.

Water contamination due to sewage water leaking into water pipes has been a recurrent problem in the slum areas.

The samples from SSG Hospital were taken to ascertain the causes of contamination at the other areas.

When asked why cases of jaundice and gastroenteritis have gone up, Dr Hitendra Patel, Health Committee chairman, VMC, said: “The number of patients has remained the same. There is no drastic change.” He, however, affirmed that the samples were taken from SSG Hospital to ascertain the level of contamination and the TDS levels.

VMC officials said that water contamination is a result of illegal water connections obtained by joining PVC pipelines to the main water pipelines, which leads to leakage and breakages.

“We have found that water is getting contaminated due to illegal connections in several areas,” said Patel.

When asked about the steps being taken by the SSG Hospital to provide safe water to the patients, Dr SL Kantharia, In-charge Superintendent of the hospital, said: “I don’t have any information about water being contaminated here. If it is so, we will take necessary steps.”

When asked about high TDS levels in water, Dr Kantharia said he was unaware of it.