Said Komal Bhagchandani, a resident, ``Polluted water supply has become a perennial problem for the 64 bungalows of the locality.'' Several complaints with the authorities of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) have fallen on deaf ears, he said.

According to her, minor repairs were carried out everytime a complaint regarding stinking water was made. However, the problem crops up again in three to four months. ``Since the water pipelines are old and rusted, leakage or damage is frequent, in fact every few months, inconveniencing residents,'' she said, adding, changing the pipeline is the only permanent solution to the problem.

Another resident Jayram Wadhwani said that the VMC had not made any alternate arrangement and residents met their requirements through private water suppliers.

``Each tanker of water from private suppliers cost Rs 75, which everyone can't afford,'' he pointed out.

``While many use alum so that the mud and other particles settle down, others have installed water purifiers in their homes,'' he said, adding some even went over to their friends and relatives' houses to bathe and wash clothes.

A VMC employee, who was supervising the repair work of the pipeline, told Express Newsline that despite digging the pipeline at several places, the leakage hadn't been detected.

When contacted, City Engineer B K Desai said that he had instructed the staff to rectify the fault at the earliest. ``The task is not as simple as it appears. While no one knowns where the fault lies we have to sometimes dig up kilometres of the ground from where the pipeline runs to trace the exact point of leakage. This will naturally take time'', he pointed out.