Past Checks On Other Parameters One-third of Lucknow drinks water from the river Gomti but it has never been tested whether that water is fit for consumption. Now, a high court order will make the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board do so for the first time. On Tuesday, the high court had directed UPPCB to collect samples of Gomti water from four points between Gaughat and Bharwara and present a report on it within a month. The court wants to know whether the water is fit for consumption. The pollution control board monitors the quality of Gomti’s water regularly. It is tested for level of dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), fitness for irrigation and bathing and level of coli form bacteria, but testing it exclusively for “drinking” purpose has never been a norm. “Agencies such as the Jal Nigam and Jal Sansthan are designated to test if river water is fit for drinking. Even UPPCB does regular monitoring on various norms but now monitoring will be more focused to find if the water is fit for drinking,“ said principal secretary forest and environment VN Garg. A day after the court passed the order, none of the monitoring agencies had any explanation for why the river water was not tested regularly. Sources in the office of the general manager of Gomti pollution control unit, Jal Nigam, rest the responsibility on Jal Sansthan, which supplies drinking water to households. An executive engineer in the office of the general manager of Jal Sansthan said, “Quality of river water is tested every time before supply. Samples are tested in the presence of health officials. We can give you that report but the quality of Gomti wa ter otherwise is monitored by UPPCB”. Apart from tube wells and Sharda Canal, it’s water from Gomti that is supplied for drinking to households in Aishbagh and Balaganj. UPPCB member secretary JS Yadav, said, “We will now also test the samples tested by the Jal Sansthan. Besides, we will also test samples at four points that the high court has identified and hand over a report”. He added, “We know what the outcome would be. Gomti water is unfit for drinking without proper treatment”. Agencies like Jal Sansthan depend heavily on ‘chlorination’ technique to make the water free of impurities. “Every time these agencies get to know we would collect water samples from a particular area, they would heavily chlorinate the supply,” say sources in the pollution control board.