Borough 13 office uses tubewell water despite ban

Kolkata, June 19 Despite a ban on the usage of groundwater in Behala and some other pockets of the city after arsenic was detected in the water, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s (KMC) Borough 13 office in Behala is still using water from a tubewell in its premises.

“Using groundwater is banned in certain areas of the city. But if any place does not get the KMC supply, residents have to use ground water,” said Bibhas Maity, director-general, water supply, KMC. But civic officials do not have an answer as to why the office of Borough 13 has a tube-well given that water supplied by the corporation reaches the office and there is a reservoir to store it.

According to Ratna Sur, chairman, Borough 13: “The quality of the surface water is not suitable for drinking purposes that is why we use the tube-well water.”

“Groundwater in Behala got contaminated due to the discharge of industrial effluents, including arsenic. Since the level of arsenic is not monitored regularly, there are chances that arsenic can still be there in the groundwater,” said Bhaskar Das, a research scholar at the School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University.