TIRUPUR: A resident of
VOC Nagar of Lakshmi Nagar here has stopped using water from his borewell after the colour of groundwater turned red.
The resident, A
Parameswaran, was not the only one but a few houses among the 12 line-houses in the area were already buying water for many months now. They suspect that it could be due to endless environmental violations by textile dyeing units. Even after a few Tamil news channels aired the issue on Friday, government authorities were yet to inspect the spot.
"We were witnessing the problem for more than a year. At first, the water became salty and slowly its colour changed. For the past one month, the water coming out of the 500-metre-deep borewell turned red, which was the colour of dyeing water," Parameswaran told TOI.
"Many of our children started suffering from skin problems, and moreover, the colour of water scared us. So, we scarcely use the borewell water now," said Chellakannu Sakthivel, another resident. He added, "After our request to the house owner, he supplies potable water with a help of a commercial water supplier. For drinking purpose, we buy can water."
As the corporation has not given drinking water connection to the area, the residents have to go to nearby public water tank about 200m away to fetch water. "Despite the borewell could satisfy water needs for round the year, we could not use it," said M Prabha, the resident of the area.
Environmental activists regretted that the residents were seeing the issue as water problem and not as environmental violation. Neither the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board nor the city corporation realised it too, they said.
A senior
TNPCB official told TOI, "We have received the complaint about the issue and we will inspect the spot on Monday."
