Drinking water at railway platform has bacteria found in human excreta

New Delhi: Drinking water supplied by the railways on platforms and staff quarters in the northern India is contaminated with bacteria found in human excreta.

According to a report in the Hindustan Times, this bacteria can cause stomach aches and loose motions.

The Bureau of India Standards states that presence of thermotolerant coliform bacteria (TCB) is a sign of faecal contamination, which can cause acute gastroenteritis, diarrhoea, dysentery, and tummy cramps.

According to the report, the railways admitted that it continued with a faulty water monitoring procedure, which considered the presence of up to 10 units of TCB in 100ml samples as being ‘permissible’.

“People usually recover within a week, but in children, elderly and people who have a compromised immune system, TCB can cause life-threatening conditions like hypovolemic shock (a decrease in the volume of blood in your body) due to dehydration,” a doctor was quoted as saying.

The reason behind this contamination is that only half of the railways’ 541 water chlorination plants in the north zone are working. Many water supply units are operating without chlorination.