No respite from murky water for Juhu Koliwada locals

For the past one year, residents of the Juhu Koliwada area have been repeatedly complaining to the civic authorities about the muddy and stinky water their taps have been spewing. However, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is yet to solve the issue.

Residents of the area say that every morning for the first 45 minutes, the water is murky, though it gets clean after that. They allege that the civic body has now started opening up six to seven fire hydrants in the area, apparently to flush out the contaminated water. However, the quality remains far from potable.

They say that the civic authorities have told them that the source of contamination is at the H West ward, while the Juhu Koliwada area comes under the K West ward.

However, neither the K West ward office nor the central water department of the corporation is keen to work out a permanent solution, they say. They claim that even RTI queries have not helped. Larson Fernandes, a resident of the area, said that former MP Gurudas Kamat had written to the BMC in August 2012 regarding the dirty water problem.

"I have complained several times to the assistant engineer at the K West ward, who is also in charge of the H west ward, since last year. I have even showed him a sample of the dirty water that we get every day, but nothing has changed on ground," Fernandes said, adding that residents have also fallen sick because of the water.

Assistant commissioner of K west Ward Parag Masurkar was unavailable for comments.