By Arpita Kamde | Pune
The daily bickering over drinking water turned into a horror for 25 families of Chwal no 6 of Laxminagar slum in Pune's Yerwada district on Wednesday morning when two leeches were spotted swirling in a container which was meant to store drinking water. The two leeches were enough to convince the locals that many more of them may have been gulped down by them, as the water that Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) provides is generally murky, said reports.
According to reports, the PMC was immediately informed about the 'complaint' and the civic body is probing the matter now.
PMC provides drinking water to over 150 residents that stay in three chwals in Laxminagar. The water is available to them from 5-8 am, only three hours a day.
Pune Mirror report says: They claim that since they are habituated to the initial flow of water being regularly unclean, they utilise only the water that comes for the remaining 2.5 hours. In fact, only the last half an hour of water is used for drinking purposes, as it is the “cleanest looking”, residents told Mirror.
However, it was this last half hour of ‘sparkling’ water that emitted the two leeches along with it on Wednesday morning, much to the chagrin of six residents.
Resident Baby Nanda Thorve, a homemaker, said, “Firstly the water is available only for three hours, and the water that comes in the first 10 minutes is uselessly polluted. Clean water comes thereafter, and we now saw those disgusting creatures in it. If the clean water is like this, what must the polluted water be containing?”
Local shop owner and resident Dattatray Nakade said, “Some drainage work was done here by the civic body six months ago. It may have caused damage to the water pipeline, which passes close to it. Unclean water for the initial few minutes is tolerable, but leeches coming with drinking water is unacceptable.”
Mother of two Sana Nadaf said, “We noticed the leeches as they were stuck to the buckets. Now we are wondering if we have seen more such insects before, but just discarded them believing they are trash, like a stick or a dry leaf. I feel disgusted thinking about what I have been drinking.”
Resident Anjana Dende said, “We have been complaining about unclean water for six months, but in vain. This new development is unbelievable. How would you react if a leech came through your drinking water tap? Those of us who fill water in buckets at least have a chance to check it. What about those who directly get their tanks filled — imagine what breeds in those!”
Praveen Geda, executive engineer of PMC water supply department in ward no 14 claimed that there was no fauna in the drinking water. Though he admitted that the water was unclean.
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