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NEW DELHI: While the controversy over the quality of supply water in Delhi refuses to die down, data from the public health department of the BJP-led municipal corporations shows that the sample failure rate this year has been less than 3%. North Delhi Municipal Corporation’s public health officials “picked up 4,523 samples from various locations across its six administrative zones and 130 samples were found not to be meeting the parameters.” The sample failure rate was less than 3%.

Delhi Jal Board vice-chairman Dinesh Mohaniya said that findings of corporations also support Delhi government’s position. “All corporations are led by BJP. We can’t manipulate their findings. World Health Organisation permits a 5% failure rate in the water distribution network. These contaminations can be due to old pipes, leakages or monsoon. We continuously keep on upgrading our distribution system,” Mohaniya added.

He further said that besides 500 samples, which are assessed by the DJB quality testing labs, third party independent assessment by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute as well as civic bodies also shows that failure rates are below 5%.

A senior south corporation official informed that between January 1, 2019 and November 16, 2019, a total of 7,605 samples had been checked and not even one sample was found to be failing the standards. The east corporation took 3,895 samples for testing up to October 28, 2019. “The number of samples that failed the quality test was also well within WHO limits,” said an official.

Standing committee chairperson in north corporation, Jai Prakash, who is also a DJB member, said that while BIS report had tested 21 standards on water quality, municipal corporation teams only test residual chlorine in water. “We cannot base our entire argument on the quality of water just by one test. Delhi government has to explain why BIS found Delhi water samples failing on so many standards,” he added. Delhi government had earlier released a report where percentage of unsatisfactory samples was mere 1.43%.

