Delhi water row: Posters questioning Kejriwal over incidence of diarrhea, cholera appear in city

Amid a raging controversy over the quality of Delhi's drinking water, posters have come up at ITO questioning the AAP government on the high number of diarrhea and cholera cases registered in the city in the last four years.

According to a Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) report released by Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on November 16, all water samples collected from Delhi failed a quality test.

Refuting the findings of the report, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is also the chairman of the Delhi Jal Board, has accused Paswan of misleading people on the issue.

"The Delhi Jal Board chairman should answer how 21,88,253 cases of diarrhea were registered in Delhi in the last four years if the water is clean," read one of the posters.

"Hospitals (in Delhi) registered 19,283 cases of cholera during the period and 36,426 water-related complaints were registered in 2018," it said.

Early this week, posters bashing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for forcing people to drink "poisonous" water were seen in parts of Delhi.

In the first phase of its survey, the BIS had found all the 11 samples drawn from Delhi did not comply with the quality norms and the piped water was not safe for drinking purpose.

Testing of water samples was conducted to check organoleptic and physical parameters and know the chemical and toxic substances and bacteriological quality besides virological and biological parameters.