‘Pesticide’ smell in water supplied by civic
Water could possibly offer some respite when the summer scorches on, but the city’s residents seem to have a different problem: Not so much the lack of water, as a different smell and taste detected in the water supplied by the civic authorities.An Area Engineer of the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board confirmed that there have been many complaints from people of ‘pesticide’ smell.“We have been adding chlorine, as required,” he assured. However, the difference in the quality of water is due to ‘the excessive formation of algae’ at the source, in Veeranam, he explained.
Experts are of the view that algae, as such, do not exude pesticide smell. One possible explanation is that in an effort to get rid of algae, some pesticide would have been presumably used, noticeable traces of which could have found their way into the city’s water supply.
