KOLKATA: The residents of south-east Kolkata who had been reeling under a severe outbreak of enteric disease are now faced with another dilemma. Water from which source is fit for consumption?

While Kolkata Municipal Corporation officials have said that leaks in the sewer pipes could have triggered the water contamination, mayor Sovan Chatterjee has held packaged drinking water selling briskly in the infected areas as the source of infection. The passing the buck has left more than 2 lakh people in over 10 wards in Baghajatin , Jadavpur, Patuli, Ganguly Bagan, Santoshpur and Nonadanga confused about which water to consume.

“We are confused. Such confusion is not desirable in a crisis situation like this. The corporation is saying that the packaged water could have been the source of the infection, but we have been reading and seeing on television that multiple leaks have been found in the sewer lines which could have contaminated the drinking water,” said Shila Das, a homemaker in Baghajatin’s J Block , which is considered to be the epicentre of the outbreak.

On Wednesday, Biswajit Das, 33, who came to visit a relative in J Block, died of diarrhoea. The death triggered fresh panic, forcing people to avoid drinking water supplied by the KMC and depend on the packaged water.

But doctors and civic officials have advised people to practice caution and only consume reputable brands. A team from the health department collected water samples from packaging plants in Ranikuthi, Bagha Jatin and Sonarpur on Friday to find out that the water was selling without the mandatory Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) mark. The sam-Please check the seal of the container and the brand before purchasing such water,” said a senior civic oficial in the health department.

All this has left the residents more confused. “We cannot trust anybody now and unable to decide which water to drink,” said Bapi Saha, a Bagha Jatin resident.

