City flooded, but water scarcity in children’s hospital

“She was waiting as there was no water and her pain increased,” said the young girl’s mother, who was staying with her at the hospital. 

Another parent at the hospital said she was forced to clean the bathroom after water supply was resumed as children and their parents continued to use the toilets even when there was no water. “I could not let my daughter use the toilet in that condition. Children dirty the bathrooms and there is no water to clean it,” she said. 

Even though the hospital gets water from the Metro tankers besides the borewell supply, it continues to suffer from water scarcity. As the supply is limited, the hospital runs out of water and must wait till more supply arrives from Metro Water. 

Stating that the main reason is their dependency on Metro Water, a staff from the hospital said that whenever there is a delay in the arrival of the tankers, patients tend to suffer.

Resident Medical Officer at the Hospital Dr RS Raghunathan said, “Previously, we had problems of water shortage and had to depend on the tankers. As the borewell water supply was not enough, we got supply from Metro Water. As Metro Water has resumed regular supply, now we don’t face any issue.”

Alleging that the water in the bathrooms was being misused, a staff said, “Mothers of patients are washing clothes in the bathroom. Sometimes, if they turn on the taps and find no water, they leave the taps open. It results in wastage of water.” While water wastage is found to be a problem, the RMO said that patients tend to break the pipes as well. “There have been instances wherein once we put the brass taps, they are immediately stolen”. 

The 837-bedded hospital sees over 1,000 out patients daily. “We usually get 50,000 litres from open and bore wells (ground water sources) every day, and 16,000 from Metro Water but due to severe scarcity in the city, we had to depend on 10 to 12 tankers that come each day. Previously, we were getting piped supply. However, it slowly reduced over six months ago and eventually stopped. Now, as most of the reservoirs are filling up after the rains, we are hopeful that there will be no shortage,” added Dr Raghunathan.