NOIDA: For the past two weeks, over 10,000 residents of Sector 137 say they have been getting “contaminated” water in their homes. They say the water is unfit to drink or even to take a bath and their repeated complaints to the Noida Authority have fallen on deaf ears.Some residents say they are also encountering skin problems because of high total dissolved solids (TDS) content in the water.They claim the water being given to them by the Jal Board as well as what they are drawing from borewells to meet the shortfall has a TDS content of over 1700.Noida Jal Board officials, on the other hand, say the TDS levels range between 600 and 800 in most parts of the city, though the permitted levels of TDS in potable water is from 50 to 500. Doctors say exposure to hard water can have a damaging impact on health.Sector 137 is home to eight apartment complexes, but it’s currently not getting Ganga water.“So we depend on supply from Noida Jal Board as well as borewells. The water quality is bad and it is salty and smelly. But we do not have a choice, and have started using RO water for bathing purposes as well,” said Koshlender Singh, a resident of Exotica Frescoe.The total daily requirement of the society — where at present 650 families are residing — is 3.5 lakh litre per day. Of the required quantity, they get 2.5 lakh litre each day from the Jal Board while the rest is sourced from borewells.“The quality of water here has especially dipped over the last 10 days. We took it up with the Noida Authority and were told that there was some problem with the original source of water itself,” said Yashwant Singh, property manager at Exotica.Similarly at Supertech Ecociti, the residents have reported a TDS count of 2400 in one of its two borewells. There are 1,610 flats at Ecociti, of which 1200 are occupied. According to the estate manager, the society has a reservoir of 4 lakh litres, of which 50,000 litres are supplied by the Noida Jal Board and the rest is sourced from underground.“We soften the entire water and then fill in the reservoir, but the softening process is only to reduce bacterial organisms. TDS cannot be treated through softening process. We can opt for more borewells which can source better quality of water, but it is difficult to secure such permission,” said Arun Tyagi, facilities manager at Ecociti.The situation is the same at Paramount Floraville, where 1000 flats are currently occupied.“We received Ganga water for about one month this year. So the water we are using is a combination of normal water supply from the Jal Board and ground water. But it’s contaminated,” said Nandini Srivastava, a resident of Floraville.“Too much exposure to hard water ends up with skin rashes. We want to engage a scientific body to study the ground water quality,” said Vishal Singh, a resident at Ecociti and also a doctor.When contacted, a Noida Jal Board official said, “There is regular water supply to the sector, but yes there is a problem with the TDS levels and we will try to resolve it soon.”

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