Foul smell greets workers cleaning Tarsali water tank

Vadodara: When work began on cleaning the sump of the Tarsali water tank on Wednesday morning, the layer of sludge at its bottom also exposed the quality of water being supplied to the city. Workers initially refused to enter the tank due to the smell of gas inside it.
The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) has taken up the work on cleaning water tanks that were being supplied water from Nimeta filtration plant. Shoddy work and operations at the plant had led to supply of turbid and yellow coloured water to the eastern and southern parts of the city.
Thick layers of settlement have taken place in the sumps of water supply tanks in the city due to the turbidity in the water from Nimeta. The Tarsali water tank was the second one after Sayajipura where work to clean up the sump was taken up.
Sources said that when workers opened the tank and stepped into it, they got a distinct smell of presence of some gas inside it. This is not observed usually and the workers as well as the contractor were not prepared for the situation. With no breathing equipment or gas masks, the workers refused to enter the sump.
The sump was left open for over half-an-hour to ensure that the gas in it was released. The workers entered the sump only after there was no trace of the smell inside the sump. “There was some problem initially, but it was temporary and work began there later. The tank will be ready for use after work is completed tomorrow,” said in-charge city engineer P M Patel.
A VMC functionary who had visited the tank pointed out that the contention of the workers was true. “There was smell in the tank when they entered it. It could be due to the some gas from the sludge,” he added.