The department of environment (DoE), in a recent drive found Coliform Bacteria in the drinking water from 77.5% hotels and restaurants in Barisal metropolitan city.
Mahmud Hasan, research analyst at the department’s Barisal office said they examined samples of drinking water from 120 hotels and restaurants of the city in last six months and presence of coliform bacteria was seen in 97 of them.
After the completion of the test on October 31, DoE found that only 23 out of the 120 hotels and restaurants had presence of coliform bacteria at a tolerable limit, he said.
Sukumar Biswas, director, Barisal regional office of the DoE, said they started serving notices to the hotels and restaurants in Barisal city to ensure safe drinking water after the bacteria was found in their water sample.
Under the Environment Conservation Act 1995 (amended in 2013), one could be sentenced to a year in prison and fined Tk200,000 while Environment Conservation Rules 1997 sanctioned two years imprisonment and Tk1m in monetary penalty for supplying polluted drinking water to the customers of hotels and restaurants, Sukumar Biswas said.
“When presence of coliforms are detected, repairs or modifications of the water system is required thus we have instructed the hotels and restaurants to do so as early as possible,” he said.
“Testing for bacteria is the only reliable way to learn if the water you are using is safe. You cannot say by the look, taste, or smell of the water if disease-causing organisms are in it”, said Dr Prodip Kumar Banik, pathologist of Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital (SBMCH).
“If coliform bacteria is present in your drinking water, your risk of contracting a waterborne illnesses increase,” said Dr Mizanur Rahman, former resident medical officer of Barisal General Hospital.
Sudam Ghosh, one of the leaders of hotel-restaurant owners’ association in the city, said: “Supply of safe drinking water was the duty of the City Corporation. But as the supply is mostly insufficient, we usually collect water from tube wells, and preserve them in plastic containers. And now DoE is claiming they are contaminated with coliform bacteria.”
Md Motaleb, Barisal City Corporation executive engineer acknowledged that at present they could only meet only 40-50% demand of water in the city due to lack of infrastructure.”
However, once the ongoing work of two surface water treatment plants to supply refined water from the Kirtankhola River is complete, BCC could fulfil the demand, he said.
Dr Amitav Sarkar, medicine specialist of SBMCH suggested boiling the water until disinfection after receiving from any supply source. A defective well can often be the cause of the presence of coliform bacteria, he said.