Is ice gola to blame for uptick in gastro cases?

Montly data of this year shows a rise in gastro diseases in the city and some residents have blamed it on the water supply claiming it to be contaminated The BMC however has held roadside ice products responsible for increasing cases saying there has been no check on the quality since the pandemicFor three years before Covid19 hit India in 2020 the BMC and the Food amp Drug Administration collected ice and water samples from roadside stalls and restaurants to check for contamination The samples were always found to contain E coli bacteria that causes gastro diseasesThis year Mumbaikars are out on the streets after a long time and are witnessing tremendous heat this summer Most of them often resort to drinking juice from stalls to beat the heat and stay hydrated But there have been no checks on the quality of ice and water being used at the eateries and this could be contributing to rising gastro cases said civic officialsAccording to the data provided by the BMCrsquos health department on an average 17 people have suffered from gastro diseases daily in April BMC hospitals reported 245 gastro cases in January 343 in February 482 in March and 478 until April 27 The numbers show a steady rise and are expected to be much higher as private hospitals do not report these casesAn official from the inspection department of the BMC said ldquoCollecting and testing samples is not our BMC job It is the job of the FDA but we still did it until we had to stop due to the pandemic It has been almost 10 months since the relaxation of Covid19 restrictions but we havenrsquot received an order to resume the driverdquoA senior official of the FDA said ldquoIn 2020 due to Covid19 and lockdown everything was closed and we havenrsquot collected any ice samples since 2021rdquo Shashikant Kekare joint commissioner food FDA said ldquoDue to Covid19 the focus was on other issues but now we are going to conduct a special drive in which we will collect cold drinks sugarcane and other juice samples from stalls and all other products in which ice is usedrdquo Dr Mangla Gomare chief executive health officer of the BMC said ldquoWe are planning to collect and test ice samples next monthrdquoTap water contaminationNewton Sequeira a resident of Bhakti Park in Wadala said blamed gastro issues on water supply ldquoEntire Bhakti Park has been receiving contaminated water for several weeks We filed complaints and cleaned our tanks too but the problem still persists Our children are also suffering due to gastro infection but BMC denies itrdquo said Sequeira secretary of Odyssey housing societyDr Gomare said the contamination of water ldquosupplied through taps has reduced a lot in the past few years and there are hardly any cases of contaminated water We send water samples from the BMCrsquos pipelines but sometimes there are issues with lines inside private premises or the tanks are unclean We even send samples from such tanks for testing if we get any complaintsrdquoOf the 47716 tap water samples tested in 202122 E coli was found in only 011 per cent of them shows data A doctor from a BMC hospital said ldquoWe are getting threefour gastro cases dailyrdquo Dr Purshottam Vashistha consultant gastroenterologist said he gets at least two patients daily ldquoMost common complaints are diarrhoea and food poisoning Most of these patients find immediate relief after symptomatic treatment and hydrationrdquo