Trouble began in Vishwas Colony more than a month ago, when residents began receiving water allegedly contaminated by contents of stormwater drains. Despite complaints to the Vadodara Municipal Corporation, precious little was done to rectify the fault.

``It all started six weeks ago. Initially the water supply was turbid. Then the taps started emitting black water'', says Ratna Roy, a resident of Kamala Park Apartments. ``We could not understand what had happened'', she says, adding that they realised something was seriously wrong only when the water turned black.

Thirteen families residing in the `B' part of the building, which does not have a borewell, have to depend entirely on water tankers of the VMC and private companies for the daily supply. ``The VMC supply is often not regular, though we are paying the charges'', says A D Ayachit, demanding that the Corporation supply water free of cost as they were facing contamination problems.

``A Corporation tanker comes to the area and supplies drinking water but that is not enough'', observes Kamal Bhatt, a resident, regretting that the VMC had failed to correct the fault though so many days had gone by.

``It is strange that the civic body has no way of detecting the fault at the earliest'', says Ayachit, pointing out that places all around Vishwas Colony have been dug up. In Kamala Park and several other apartment buildings and houses, the Corporation has yet not restored the water connections, which were cut off about a week ago following contamination.

Bharat Singh Chauhan, a security guard at Galaxy Apartments, said he was told by Corporation personnel that they should be getting clear water. ``The apartment's connections have been restored, but we aren't sure about the quality of water supplied'', he adds.

Geeta Parmar, a resident of Sandip Co-operative Housing Society, says, ``We ourselves told the VMC men the fault was probably somewhere near the Alkapuri Main Road, as that was where a similar fault had occurred three years ago, but they refused to listen''.

Highly placed official sources say the water contamination could be due to the fact that some individual pipelines passed through stormwater drains. ``The rain water believed to have accumulated there has apparently seeped into the water pipelines,'' they say.

Additional city engineer B S Trapasia says faults have been detected at two or three places and that in many flats residents have started receiving clean water. However, the exact position could be gauged after two days, he says, adding that in some cases, the Corporation might have to increase the height of the water pipelines.