Lizards, crow droppings float in CMCH tanks

COIMBATORE: Dead lizards, bird droppings, insects and other foreign particles, including pieces of worn out tyres were found floating in some of the overhead water tanks on the premises of the State-run Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) on Monday.The heavy contamination came to light when conservancy workers of a private agency began cleaning up the tanks after 24 nursing students fell ill due to alleged water contamination on Sunday evening. It is suspected that students who consumed water from these tanks fell ill.However, resident medical officer Dr P Sivaprakasam was non-committal on this and insisted that overhead water tanks were regularly cleaned. He attributed the mass illness to a viral fever caused by seasonal climatic change.Nonetheless, a surprise inspection conducted by district collector M Karunaka­ran on Monday brought to the fore the unhygienic conditions prevailing in the Nurses’ Quarters— Overflowing garbage, broken sewer lines and food cooked out of dingy kitchens.Conservancy workers who removed the lizards and foreign particles from the tank said it appeared that the tanks were not cleaned for long. “Roots of trees have penetrated the sump and hence cracks developed resulting in seepage of drainage water. Since the tanks were not covered, they were exposed to lizards, dry leaves and bird droppings. At the Nurses’ Quarters we found three cement tanks and two Sintex tanks without lids,” said one of the workers.Hospital sources said they had not seen PWD staff chlorinate the water at regular intervals.Rejecting this, Dr Sivapra­kasam held out a log book and said that the last chlorination was undertaken on November 7 during the monsoon as a precautionary measure. “Health officials have taken water samples. Only after the test reports come, we will be able to confirm whether the sample was contaminated or not,” he said.