The students of Lal Bahadur Shashtri (LBS) Marg municipal school in Mulund West spent a week without using the school toilet, because the BMC cut the school's water supply. The corporation's T-ward water department severed the supply on January 5, leaving students without any water for drinking and sanitation.
The students of Lal Bahadur Shashtri (LBS) Marg municipal school in Mulund West spent a week without using the school toilet, because the BMC cut the school's water supply. The corporation's T-ward water department severed the supply on January 5, leaving students without any water for drinking and sanitation.
According to officials of the school, which has around 580 students, the building's water pump got damaged on January 5. The same day, T ward's water officials replaced an old pipeline near the school. Since they couldn't find the school's water meter at the time, they shut off their supply, which was linked to the old pipeline given to the school.
The principal and the building in-charge realised that the supply hd been severed only on January 7, when water stored in the tank ran out. While older students were asked to bring drinking water from home, some resorted to getting water from neighbouring restaurants during recess, sources said.
Sandhya Rathod, principal of the school's Hindi-medium section and building in-charge, said, "We realised that our water connection had been disconnected only two days later, when the tank water got over. The cut happened during the pipeline replacement, when the contractor did not find a water meter on the premises. I immediately wrote three letters to the local ward back to back. We had to tell parents of kids in Balwadi (pre-primary section) that their children could stay home till the water supply starts, since all the bathrooms are dirty. We don't want children to fall ill."
The building caretaker, who lives on the premises, claimed that he had to call for a water tanker of 10,000 litres and pay for it out of his pocket. He said water could only be provided to drink and not for washing purposes.
Meanwhile, work to fix water supply to the school was going on till late Wednesday evening.
Dilip Kadam, assistant engineer, water department, T ward, said, "Earlier some BMC schools were provided water without meters. We could not trace the meter of this school so the supply was disconnected. We have fixed the connection now."
Administrative officer Pranjali Gosavi, schools, T-ward was unavailable for comment when this reporter visited the ward office.
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