With the monsoon season slowly setting in, the Chennai Corporation is on a standby mode in anticipation of the spreading of water-borne diseases like cholera, diarrhoea and leptospirosis among others.
Regular monitoring of the residual chlorine levels in the city’s water, checking of packaged water and private water tankers and increased number of awareness drives, informing people about the do’s and don’ts for the monsoon season are currently on the Corporation’s agenda.
“If the diseases do spread, we have a supply of chlorine tablets handy to clean the city’s water. Also, water supply will be stopped and water from tankers will be supplied to the affected areas,” say Health officials. Officials add that the hospitals are reasonably well equipped in case of an outbreak. “We are currently checking if there is any outbreak of diarrhoea, dengue, cholera and malaria. The Communicable Diseases Hospital (CDH) in Tondiarpet can handle up to 200 patients per day and the government general hospitals are always there to provide additional support,”
Though officials say that CDH is well-equipped and can handle outbreaks, it still remains to be seen if it can handle numbers like 2010’s outbreak of diarrhoea when the hospital saw more than 700 cases a day. Officials still maintain that there wouldn’t be any problems, come this monsoon.
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