Biratnagar, July 13:

Scores of people here are suffering from dysentery due to the distribution of filthy water by the local office of the Nepal Water Supply Corporation (NWSC). According to health workers, filthy water has been coming out of taps for a few days.

The filthy material lining the insides of the pipes gets mixed when the flow of water increases all of a sudden, engineer Khadananda Dev at the NWSC said, adding that the three wells at Munalpath had stopped functioning three months ago and the filthy material had stuck to the insides of the water pipes since then. The wells have already been repaired, he said.

“We are doing our best to solve the problem at the earliest,” Dev said, adding that water of Munalpath, Bargachhi, Tinpaini and Pokhariya areas will be tested soon.

There are three wells at Munalpath, three at Tinpaini, two at Devkota Chowk and one at Rani. The NWSC draws water from these wells and supplies 90 lakh litres of water to consumers daily. There was a water shortage for three months when the wells at Munalpath stopped working.

Koshi Zonal Hospital (KZH) said the number of dysentery patients has increased. “As the water is polluted, the number of dysentery patients is increasing,” medical superintendent at the KZH, Dr Bimal Dhakal said, adding that, on an average, 40 dysentery patients come to the hospital every day.