More than 1,500 residents living across five slum settlements near Jamshedpur's Burmamines area are grappling with a severe and dangerous clean water shortage. The community is being forced to collect contaminated, often muddy and foul-smelling water from the very hydrants installed to supply them with safe drinking water.
Residents Describe Alarming Water Quality
The water hydrants, installed by Tata Steel Utility and Infrastructure Services Ltd (TS UISL) in each slum during 2022-23 on the initiative of then MLA Saryu Roy, have been dispensing polluted water for the past three months. Ashok Pandey, the Mukhia of Sido Kanhu basti, confirmed the issue has persisted for this duration. People from Das Basti, Vinoba Bhave basti, Vinoba ashram basti, Koyla tal basti, and Ram basti are all facing the identical problem.
Local resident Binu Behera noted that while they used to receive clean water initially, the troubling situation emerged only a few months ago. The water supplied twice daily is described as muddy, sometimes black, and carries a persistent bad odour that remains even after boiling, forcing residents to consume the discoloured water regularly.
Health Emergency Feared as Illnesses Rise
The consumption of this dirty water has had direct health consequences. Ram Karmakar, Mukhia of Ram basti, reported a noticeable increase in complaints of jaundice and diarrhoea within the slum areas over the last quarter. The fear of a wider health emergency is now palpable among the community and local leaders.
The matter came to wider attention when a delegation from the JD(U) visited the bastis to verify the complaints. Bablu Kumar Singh, President of Burmamines mandal JD(U), issued a stern warning, stating, "TS UISL has to investigate the matter thoroughly and fix the problem at the earliest; otherwise, the contaminated water supply would cause a health emergency any time soon." He added that if not addressed promptly, slum-dwellers would stage an agitation at the TS UISL office.
Company Identifies Leaks, Announces Interim Solution
In response, TS UISL conducted an inspection and released a statement acknowledging the issue. The inspection initially observed muddy water from a hydrant and further revealed leakages at three locations in the existing 100 mm and 150 mm diameter cast iron (CI) pipelines.
The company announced that repair work on the compromised pipelines is scheduled to commence on January 9. Until the permanent fix is completed, the affected hydrant has been shut off. As an interim measure, TS UISL will supply water to the slum-dwellers via trolley tankers to ensure access to clean water.
While this temporary solution offers some relief, the incident has highlighted critical infrastructure vulnerabilities and the ongoing challenges faced by urban slum populations in accessing a basic necessity like safe drinking water.
