More than 30 Maha districts facing water contamination: Report

Water samples collected from over 30 districts of Maharashtra were found to have contaminants, a report by the state's Public Health Laboratory has stated.

The Maharashtra Public Health Laboratory has found that water taken from various sources like bore wells, wells, public tanks and water tankers in rural and urban areas of several districts had traces of contamination.

It informed that the samples, taken from 34 out of the state's 36 districts, excluding the two districts that make up Mumbai, were tested in several of its labs in March this year.

The report said that the problem was most severe in Washim district as 27 per cent of the samples tested turned out to be contaminated.

Hingoli, at 24 per cent, and Chandrapur, with 21 per cent contaminated water samples, stood second and third respectively, the report stated.

It said that 20 per cent of water samples from districts like Aurangabad, Nanded and Raigad had contaminants while it was 15 per cent in Akola, Buldana, Yavatmal, Jalna, Gondia, Palghar and Sindhudurg districts.

The report added that districts such as Nagpur, Bhandara, Thane, Solapur, Satara, Osmanabad, Parbhani, Amravati and Latur have reported contamination in 10 per cent of the samples.

The districts which saw just five per cent contaminated water samples were Ratnagiri, Kolhapur, Sangli, Nandurbar, Wardha, Gadchiroli, Dhule and Jalgaon, it said.

"The districts with very high percentage of contaminated water samples need to be worried because using such water for potable purposes can lead to illnesses. People need to be made aware to use clean water," said Dr Suhas Bakare, deputy director, health services, State Health Laboratory.