MUMBAI, AUG 9: Thirteen-year-old Shoa Shaikh has developed a morbid fear of brushing her teeth. ``The water in our area is so dirty, it almost feels like I'm rinsing my mouth in a gutter,'' says the teenager, pointing an accusing finger at the basin tap. Having just recovered from a bout of typhoid, the teenager, a resident of Byculla's upmarket Clare Road, adds: ``The water smells of faeces and is a muddy yellow in the mornings.''Residents of at least seven buildings, which account for about 140 flats, have all but turned off their taps since the last three months. The water supplied by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is filthy - at least the worms stopped crawling out of the spouts a while ago - but the civic authorities merely say they are still testing samples.Meanwhile, mounds of giant mineral water bottles pile up in the drawing rooms of Roshni Building's 20 flats, just as their numerous complaints do at the `E' Ward office. The ward office, which has received 150 complaints from harassed residents in the locality so far, says Metronidazole tablets can be swallowed as a precaution against diarrhoea.``Besides my daughter, several other children have also been afflicated by typhoid. We are simply fed up,'' remarks Shoa's mother, Farhat. Gazing at the empty mineral water bottles in the room, she shrugs: We have already spent close to Rs 10,000 on Shoa's treatment. Her neighbour, Saifee Radiowala, adds: ``All the residents buy bottles of mineral water for survival, daily. Each family spends nearly Rs 2,500 per month on mineral water alone.''Aftab Harianwala, another resident, says the BMC has advised them to keep their taps open for about half an hour in the mornings so that the yellowish water flows out. However, they point out, the gutter-smell remains throughout the day. He says residents of Satnam, Piccadilly and Oxford Chamber, also on Clare Road, have been told to do the same.The 20-litre mineral water bottles cost Rs 70 each, which amounts to about Rs 2,500 on this alone, per month. ``The BMC has changed the name of Clare Road to Mirza Galib Marg, but can't they also change the ancient water pipelines beneath the road,'' comments a shopkeeper.Admittng that the source of the contaminated water had not yet been pinpointed, `E' Ward Officer, K V Acharekar, told Express Newsline: ``We have started identifying the cracks and leaks in the pipelines, but the reports of water sample testing are not yet known.'' He says the BMC Health Department has also been intimated.A civic hydraulic engineer was, however, a little more enlightening. He said the water pipelines at Clare Road may have been damaged over the last six months when extensive digging was carried out by the MTNL as well as by the BMC for road concretisation and repairs of drainage pipes. Still, civic Executive Health Officer, Dr Alka Karande, was none the wiser. Saying she was not aware of the Clare Road residents' predicament, she added: ``When water contamination takes place, the ward office concerned should provide private tanker water to the residents.''Residents say the ward office had promised tanker water though the assurance had merely evaporated. ``Hence we were forced to buy a huge collection of mineral water bottles from a private shop here. But will the BMC ever reimburse us for that,'' asks 66-year-old Mehrunissa Khan.
