Vizag Gas Leak Fears: Meghadrigedda water safe for drinking

Visakhapatnam: Allaying fears over the gas leak impacting water in the Meghadrigedda reservoir, a preliminary report from the Regional Testing Lab declared it to be safe for drinking.

Located just within a km distance from the LG Polymers where the gas leak occurred, the water from the reservoir is being supplied to various industries and households.

However, after the leakage of the styrene monomer vapour at LG Polymers, doubts were raised over the safety of the water at the reservoir. Keeping this in view, its supply has been temporarily suspended after the tragic incident at the plant.

To ensure that it is safe for drinking, water samples were collected from the reservoir and sent to the Regional Testing Laboratory.

With a capacity of 1 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet), the Meghadrigedda reservoir supplies water to both residential and industrial areas in Malkapuram region.

Further, the reservoir water is being supplied to residential areas located between 45 and 49 wards apart from Mindi.

Water supply to these areas has been suspended following the gas leak at the LG Polymers. With hundreds of people along with trees, poultry birds, animals and reptiles being largely affected due to the gas leak, GVMC officials decided to suspend the water supply from the Meghadrigedda reservoir for a while.

On Sunday, GVMC Commissioner G Srijana inspected the reservoir and took stock of the situation.

Following heavy rain that lasted for more than an hour on Saturday night, the GVMC officials did not give a nod to the water supply from the reservoir, fearing possible contamination.

Assistant Engineer of Meghadrigedda reservoir P Ganesh says, "Though the preliminary report came out to be safe for drinking purpose, supply is yet to resume from the reservoir."