Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Prodded out of slumber following Indore’s contaminated water incident, the Urban Administration and Housing Department has issued Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all the civic
bodies.
Along with this, it is also trying to ascertain if the Indore incident was a fall- out of leakage in the Narmada water supply pipeline or due to ground water use, as a large number of people are also dependent on ground water.
A senior officer of the Urban Administration and Housing Department said that short term and long term SOPs had been issued to the civic bodies. It included the surveillance of water supply pipelines, checking the chlorination of water and addressing the problems of aggrieved people.
The SOPs also advise to check leakages if any.
Some more measures are also being worked out to ensure that an Indore-like incident does not occur anywhere else in the state.
In the meantime, it is not very clear whether the Bhagirathpur water contamination was due to leakage or due to people using the hand-pump water. Therefore, things are being ascertained in this regard.
Sources in the Urban Administration and Housing Department said that earlier, sewage and drinking water pipelines were laid side by side but later it was decided that they would be laid separately. Indore’s Bhagirathpura water supply line was likely to have been laid down before the norm of laying down separate lines of drinking water and sewage came into existence.
