Raichur : A three-year-old boy died and more than 50 people took ill after consuming contaminated water at Rekalmaradi village in Devagurga taluk in Karntaka’s Raichur district, officials said.
As many as 25 people who suffered vomiting and loose motion were taken to a primary health centre on Thursday and more than 30 on Friday. Those whose condition worsened were rushed to Raichur Institution of Medical Sciences (RIMS). As many as 30 people are still undergoing treatment, health department officials said.
Raichur district health officer Dr Surendra Babu said, “Most of the infected were women and children as they were at home and consumed tap water mixed with drain water. All the infected were rushed to PHC at Devagurga and the critically ill were taken to RIMS at Raichur.”
Rekalmaradi village with less than 2,000 population has six borewells which went dry after temperature went up and all the three RO plants which the gram panchayat has set up are not working. People are depending on private borewells and panchayat tap connection from where they get water once in 15-20 days, villagers said.
On Thursday, the underground pipeline that supplies water to taps burst and drain water got mixed with tap water. People fell ill after taking this contaminated water, villagers said.
“The infected were with injected with IV fluids as they were dehydrated. We regret not being able to save three-year-old boy Hanumesh; he die due to continuous vomiting and loose motion. He was brought to hospital late; he would have survived had IV fluid been given. The rest are recovering,” Dr Babu said. “Necessary medicine and IV fluids are being give at the PHC. All the infected may be discharged on Monday.”
Dr Babu said such incidents are common in Kalyan Karnataka region where drinking water is being supplied to every village through tankers in summers. Tap water is not supplied as groundwater level goes down. He said, “The sample of the contaminated water that people drank was sent to a Bengaluru laboratory for test.”
Ramesh Karoshi, a villager from Rekalmaradi, said Devagurga panchayat is to be blamed for the tragedy. “Despite dozens of representations the panchayat officials did not respond. The underground pipeline got broken about a month ago. As the village is being supplied tap water once in 15-20 days, people used the water supplied on Thursday and Friday,” he said.
Kallappa Tore, another villager, said, “People were infected as drain water got mixed up with tap water. The tap water being supplied once in about 20 days, poor people didn’t have other option than drinking the water supplied by the panchayat.”
Karoshi said that after the tragedy, the broken underground pipeline was replaced and ROs were made functional. “The administration which not care despite many petition has now woken up. We would have saved Hanumesh had the administration been sincere,” he said.