After Being Tagged Most Polluted City Worldwide, Delhi's Water Is Of The Worst Quality Too

While Delhi is reeling under a thick and noxious smog for days now, there seems to be another trouble for the residents of the national capital.

According to a report, Delhi¡¯s water is toxic too and not fit for direct consumption.

According to a Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) study, 11 samples of tap water from the national capital failed the BIS test. Hence reaffirming, that the capital city has the poorest water quality, the BIS study put.

However, other metro cities such as Kolkata and Chennai too failed in almost 10 out of 11 quality parameters tested by the BIS which is under the aegis of the Consumer Affairs Ministry.

Similarly, samples drawn from 17 other state capitals were not as per the specification ''Indian Standard (IS)-10500:2012'' for drinking water.

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Mumbai ranked the highest in quality of water among capital cities in states where samples of tap water were tested. In Mumbai, all 10 samples of tap water passed the BIS test.

Hyderabad claimed the second spot where only one sample failed.

On Saturday, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan, said, ¡°Mumbai tops the ranking released by the Bureau of Indian Standards for quality of tap water. Delhi at the bottom, with 11 out of 11 samples failing on 19 parameters."

Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan: Mumbai tops ranking released by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for quality of tap water. Delhi at the bottom, with 11 out of 11 samples failing on 19 parameters. pic.twitter.com/3nuLuXAuqw

¡ª ANI (@ANI) November 16, 2019

Releasing the second phase study, Paswan said, "Out of 20 state capitals, all the 10 samples of piped water drawn from Mumbai were found to comply with all 11 parameters, while other cities are failing in one or more."

The solution to this problem is to make compliance of quality standards for piped water mandatory across the country. The ministry has written to state governments in this regard, he told reporters.

"Stringent actions cannot be taken as the quality standards for piped water at present are not mandatory. Once it becomes, we can take actions," Paswan added.

In the first phase, all 11 samples drawn from Delhi did not comply with the quality standards and tap water was unsafe for drinking.

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Testing was conducted to check Organoleptic and physical parameters and know the chemical and toxic substances and bacteriological quality besides virological and biological parameters.

"None of the samples drawn from 13 of the state capitals -- Chandigarh, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Gandhinagar, Lucknow, Jammu, Jaipur, Dehradun, Chennai, Kolkata --complied with the requirements of the IS," said Paswan.

In the third phase, samples from the capital cities of northeastern states and from 100 smart cities will be tested and their results are expected by January 15, 2020.

In the fourth phase, it is proposed to test samples from all the district headquarters of the country and the results are expected by August 15, 2020.