However, in the past several years the PWB has not conducted a single test to investigate the quality of ground water and validate this claim. In fact, the PWB, does not have any water testing facility.

The Patna Water Board has 89 deep bore tubewells that have been fixed to the best acquifer sites in the city. These tubewells pull up millions of litres that is then pumped into the network of drinking water pipes.

According to this official, the Public Health Institute, sometimes picks up a few samples and tests them. "But usually only two to three samples are collected in a month.

And more than fifty per cent are found to be unfit for consumption," he said. Contaminated water when consumed can lead to a host of health problems and the most susceptible are children.

Nalanda Medical College and Hospital associate professor (paediatrics) Dr A K Thakur said, "About 60 to 80 per cent of all sick children reporting to my clinic suffer from water infections.

I advise the parents to boil water before consuming." In August, the PWB plugged 407 leakages in the city. Obviously, all these leakage points were causing contamination.

"The moment the supply of water is cut off, a vacuum forms inside the pipes and through a leak, any sort of contamination may be sucked in," an engineer explained.

Patna Water Board claims it has recently started thinking about supplying 'safe' water. "We know that the water quality is not very good in a number of places.

So we plan to add bleaching powder that would disinfect the water," said the official. But red tape seems to have got in the way of bleaching powder, a substances that is cheaply and easily available, even in the local market.

For, the Patna Water Board has not managed to procure it. Even when it does, it has not devised any scientific way of adding it to the water. "We plan to prepare a solution of bleaching powder and then add it to an opening near the tubewell, through which the water will pass," he explained.

But he agreed that this method would not maintain any set ratio. A few years ago, a number of electronic chlorinators were purchased but these never worked. "We will also see if we can get these chlorinators repaired," he said.