Officials deny there ever was any overflow from the drains, say it will be eight more days before repairs are complete

Residents of South End Road and Sirur Park Road in Malleswaram will have to wait a while longer to breathe a sigh of relief while the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) officials are divided on when the overflowing sewer lines will be fixed or even if they will find the cause.


A murky situation: Secretary of Fortune Paradise apartment Vishwanath
shows the over flowing manhole connected to the drain on South End Road
in Malleswaram. File Pic

Woes
The matter assumed significance on Monday after residents in the area complained that the water being supplied was foul smelling. Upon further inspection, it was found that the smell was emanating from the in-house bore well water supply.

Residents told MiD DAY that the civic authorities had only tried to circumvent the issue rather than finding a permanent solution.

For the past week, residents have stopped using borewells. Some have even developed skin and stomach infections Phanibhushan, Assistant Executive Engineer (Kumara Park, Jayamahal), BWSSB, said, "Residents of two apartments and three houses with bore wells first complained that there was a smell coming from their wells. When we inspected it, all except one house had the stench." He added,u00a0 "We don't know how their bore wells could have been contaminated. There is no sanitary problem with the supply of our water."

His counterpart, Assistant Executive Engineer from Malleswaram, Vivekananda, said, "If there is a seepage of sewage water from one of our pipes then we will find it. The problem is that the borewell pipes are between 600 to 800 feet underground."

He further added, "We have taken every precaution to ensure that there is no problem and if there is in fact some seepage, then we will find it."

Water samples taken from the homes in Malleshwaram were sent for testing by the BWSSB, but the results are not expected for another eight days.

BP Ramamurthy, Chairman, BWSSB, said, "We have already sent workers to fix the problem. But it'll take another week to complete the repairs. The work should've been done this Sunday but the deadline had to be pushed."