Vendors selling tap water in government hospitals caught

Chennai: The state's health department may be on their toes to keep infections, especially stomach-related ailments, at bay in the time of drought, but their own backyards lie unattended as government hospitals bristle with vendors selling unhygienic water. On Thursday, two vendors were caught at the women and children's hospital in Egmore selling, what is suspected to be, tap water in bottles.

Based on a tip-off, Tamil Nadu food safety department officials undertook an inspection at the Institute of Child Health and Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and found the vendors selling water from soiled containers with no label. "When we questioned them, they said they had bought it from a dealer nearby for Rs40," said an official who was part of the inspection team. The team tracked the dealer and found that he wasn't attached to a licensed manufacturer. "The dealer procures bubble-top cans and fills them with water. The vendors too keep refilling," said the official, adding 41 of them were seized. They suspect the cans were filled with tap water and sold for Rs8 a bottle.

Dr Raghunathan, resident medical officer at ICH, said vendors usually stand at the hospital gates selling water and food items. "They wait for doctors to leave for the day to enter the premises," he said, adding the hospital had repeatedly complained to the police and corporation to remove these hawkers. When asked if the hospital had sufficient drinking water for patients and attendants, he said it had two reverse osmosis drinking water units, and more are in the process of being set up. Patients, however, said on most days these taps ran dry, a claim supported by senior doctors. "You can't blame the hospital for this. We buy water from Metrowater. Sometimes we have to wait longer for it to come. Water is rationed when that happens," said a senior doctor, not willing to be named.

R Kathiravan, designated officer, Tamil Nadu food safety department, Chennai, said the health department would undertake inspections at hospitals and evict vendors. The department seized nearly 115 soiled or unlabelled cans from various parts of the city.