KOZHIKODE: Severe water shortage put patients and their bystanders in huge difficulty at the Govt. Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode on Thursday. Ironically, rain, that lashed the city on the previous night, was the culprit for the unexpected water scarcity. Pump sets at Mavoor and Kuzhimal, that supply water to the MCH, were burned in the heavy lightening and shower on Wednesday. With the pumping stopped, water supply to the hospital was cut for the day.
A large queue of bystanders with pots and buckets were seen waiting for water from 5 o'clock in the morning. With water supply cut, authorities brought water from several other sources in small vehicles to meet the large need. On an average, the MCH requires 5 lakh litres of water a day. On Thursday, MCH authorities could only supply 2 lakh litres, which left many patients and their bystanders go without water. "We had to wait in a queue for more than four hours in the morning to get a small bucket of water," said Ramanathan Nair, a bystander.
"This was not even sufficient to clean the patient. This is nothing new to MCH. This is the second incident in the last one week. Many had to depend on the packaged water sold outside the MCH. It took more than an hour for the vehicles to bring the next load of water," he added. However, hospital authorities told this paper that the issue was partially resolved around 5 pm after the pump set at Mavoor was rectified. "We will soon find out alternate sources to tackle similar situations," an official said.
