RAJGURUNAGAR, November 18: The inadequate filtration tank that processes he Bhima river water for a population of 17,729 at Rajgurunagar, 42 kms away from Pune, coupled with leaky supply pipelines running alongside gutters in the town and the absence of a sewerage system are seen as major causes behind the dysentery epidemic that hit the town this week.

A door-to-door survey carried out by a team of medical officers from the Primary Health Centre (PHC) till Sunday night indicated a tally of 482 cases of dysentery. Private general practitioners, though, insist that it was an outbreak of gastroenteritis that had gripped the town since November 11. While the Public Health Department report on water samples and attribute the causative factors would be declared within two days, local bodies are spewing venom at the Government for neglecting the water treatment plant which despite constant repairs cannot hold the crucial `contact period' so essential for water purification.

The Taluka Health Office, Panchayat Samiti, Khed has submitted a report stating that water pumped into overhead tanks at Vada Road and Thigalsthal is distributed without being treated adequately. The fault lies in the fact that the stipulated contact period of water with purifying agents is not being adhered to. The sarpanch Shantaram Ghumatkar points out bitterly that had the Irrigation Department not blocked the downstream K T Weir, the contaminated water that had accumulated at the Bhima from surrounding villages would have been washed away. Ghumatkar rues that despite a Rs 1.35-cr World Bank aided project for modernising the water treatment plant and erecting a settling tank being sanctioned, the scheme is buried in red tape. However, the plant which according to the Gram Panchayat is being maintained by spending Rs 2 lakh annually and cleaned on a monthly basis, cannot store more than three lakh litres. Block Development Officer B N Ubale who has 191 villages, 161 Gram Panchayats and 360 hutments under his jurisdiction, shrugs helplessly, while declaring that the outbreak had been contained.

``In certain areas of the town, the leakage in the pipelines has been plugged, however the reason of the epidemic needs to be ascertained,'' Ubale says, while Vitthal D Chakore, Village Development Officer does not deny that the pipelines are literally worn out.

The woes continue...an open drainage, running taps, no laboratory to test the quality of water, people's resistance towards proper sanitation and the sheer indifference among local bodies to ensure amenities for a safe drinking water supply system that places Rajgurunagar in the hot seat.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.