Every day, thousands of people stop at public drinking water facilities that claim to be safe and clean. But a project undertaken by students from a city college shows that maybe it’s time to take that notice ‘Drinking water available’ here with a pinch of salt. An analysis of water samples from ten public facilities, conducted by students from the Indian Education Society Management College and Research Centre at Bandra, threw up some alarming statistics. In some places, the quantity of coliforms—an indicator of the amount of faecal matter in water—was 50 times the maximum permissible limit. On the other hand, the quantity of essential minerals, like calcium, chlorides and sulphates, leaves much to be desired.
   The students collected samples from stations, university campuses and other spots frequented by Mumbaikars. “In Andheri station there was just one platform where water was available, but it was filthy,’’ said Nirmay Abhichandani (22), , one of the six students who conducted the study.. The water available at CST station turned out to contain above 1,800 coliform organisms per 100 ml of water, while the desirable limit is a mere 10. Water samples from Churchgate, Kalina University and Mahalaxmi Temple contained 240 coliform organisms per 100 ml of water. “Coliforms give the indication of water contamination. We were shocked to see that the contamination was so high,’’ said Amit Bhinde (23), another student.
   Coliforms are a broad class of bacteria found in the environment, including human and animal faeces. The presence of coliform bacteria in drinking water may indicate a possible presence of harmful, disease-causing organisms. Essential minerals like calcium, chlorides, sulphates and nitrates that a human body receives only through water were very low. “Just as much as 1/50th of these minerals were present in the water in all these samples,’’ said Sharvari Karnik (22).
   The students enlisted the help of a laboratory to test the samples. Rama Deshmukh, head of Raising Youth To Help Mankind, the social cause cell of the college, which undertakes public interest projects every year said: “Getting the samples tested was expensive, but we had help from some our former students who are employed in a lab.’’
   With these results in hand, the students are planning to submit their findings to the BMC. “There can be various reasons for such high levels of contamination. The main reason, I believe, is that water is not being stored in a hygienic manner. In many public places, the storage area of the water is not cleaned for years, and this can lead to such contamination,’’ said Vinay Deshpande, the BMC Chief Hydraulic Engineer. The additional municipality commissioner Anil Diggikar concurred. “The problem with many of these places is that the internal pipelines used for water have not been replaced in ages and leakages have not been attended to,’’ he said.
   Meanwhile, Mumbaikars, ignorant of the hidden danger, continue to quench their thirst—at the expense of their health.

Adverse Effects

Total hardness: Encrustation in water supply structure and adverse effect on domestic use
Calcium: Encrustation in water supply structure and adverse effect on domestic use
Chlorides: Taste, corrosion and palatability are affected Sulphates: Is known to cause gastro-intestinal irritation
Nitrates: Methemoglobinemia, which is a decrease in the ability of blood to carry vital oxygen around the body
Coliforms: Leads to various gastrointestinal diseases