Tamil Nadu: Looming crisis drives Govt hospital to seek metro water help

Chennai: With the city not getting rains yet, this year, hospitals like the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) has been forced to seek the help of the metro water for assistance to cater to the needs of the over 10,000 patients it sees every day.

Stating that the issue of water shortage is the biggest problem the hospital faces, a source at the hospital, said, “We sought help from metro water which has started giving us a large supply of water. In the case of a shortage, we tend to get water from lorries as well.”

The metro water that the hospital would earlier use in the wash areas is now being used for cooking purposes as well as in operation theatres and the intensive care units.

“The hospital depends on metro water to a large extent. On Thursday itself, 26 loads of water were supplied to them.

On a general basis, if the water supply is very comfortable, the hospital would need not more than 20 loads, however, as the heat is getting worse and the city is seeing no rains at all, the need could go up to 40 loads,” said Arun Roy, managing director, Metro Water.

Having dug up five borewells, the hospital now has a third source of water supply. “We use a pipeline and lorry water supply. As two of the five borewells have started functioning, there is a sufficient amount of collectable drinking water. We can safely say that the hospital has not faced any shortage till date,” said medical superintendent of the hospital, Dr Narayansamy.

The hospital is also planning to treat water and utilise it for other purposes like in toilets. “The process is in its preliminary stage and may take some time before it reaches completion. We are yet to get approval from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and seek the help of the public welfare department to before it is introduced,” said dean of the Hospital Dr Narayana Babu.