Coimbatore: Residents of the Race Course housing unit were shocked at the number of tadpoles found in the drinking water that was supplied through public taps on Friday. They said while they had been spotting tadpoles in the water for the past 20 days, the number of had increased now.
Gomathi, a resident, said, “When we received the drinking water in the morning, we had covered the tap with a white cloth to filter solid particles, including sand grains. After some time, the force of water reduced drastically. We removed the cloth and found tadpoles in it.”
More than 50 families of the housing unit are affected. Drinking water is supplied to them once in four to five days through six water taps in their section.
Another resident, Soundarya, said, “About 10 days ago, my neighbours had informed me about the presence of tadpoles in the drinking water. But I did not notice anything while collecting water. A few days later, when a pot was almost empty, we found tadpoles at its bottom. We then emptied all other pots and purchased water.”
She said she had stopped collecting water from their section of the housing unit and was planning to collect water from one of her relatives’ houses.
“We have been residing here for the past 20 years. The colour of the water would change slightly whenever it rains, but after a few minutes into the supply it would become normal. We have never seen anything like this,” Soundarya said.
Pointing out that the drinking water is stored in a sump before being supplied through the public taps in their section of the housing unit, Gomathi said the sump was cleaned almost a year ago. “The source of tadpoles might be the sump.”
When contacted, a city corporation official said they had received a complaint in this regard and would address the same at the earliest. “While carrying out the model road project at Race Course, workers had accidently broken a drinking water pipeline, which is yet to be fixed. Tadpoles would have originated either from there or at the sump,” he said.