Civic body’s water testing laboratory lying defunct

Charanjit Sngh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 2

In the absence of technical staff, water testing laboratory of the Amristar Municipal Corporation (MC) has been lying defunct for the last several years. The technical assistant who used to work at the lab, established at the MC’s Zonal Office, left the job around six years ago. The MC failed to recruit any other person to operate the laboratory.

The MC receives regular complaints of residents about contaminated water supply, but there has been no infrastructure to verify them.

Officials of the operation and maintenance (O&M) wing claimed they test water samples at the laboratory of the Health Department at Golden Avenue.

As per the rule, the MC should test water of tubewell supply from the source and output point once a month. In the absence of infrastructure, the MC doesn’t test water quality regularly.

Last year, the operation and maintenance wing had initiated process to outsource the firm to operationalise the water testing lab. The officials claimed they had all the required machines and the staff was required.

During a visit to the MC’s Zonal Office, it came out that rooms constructed for the laboratory were allotted to the O&M officials.

Naresh Kumar, Executive Engineer, Operation and Maintenance Wing, said, “We don’t have staff. As a result, the water testing lab is lying defunct. We are planning to outsource the staff to revive the lab. Our routine work is not getting affected. We get samples tested in Chandigarh and at a local health lab.”

It is pertinent to mention that in order to supply drinking water in the Majha area, the state government had planned to set up hi-tech multi-district water testing laboratory in Amritsar under the technical expertise of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai.

This laboratory would test arsenic, uranium and other heavy metals in potable water. The project has yet not been executed.