Puri: Patients and attendants at the district headquarters hospital (DHH) are facing drinking water crisis for the last three days as two purifiers have become dysfunctional.

The hospital authorities sitting silent over the issue has created resentment among the patients and their attendants even as the summer is at its peak.

Unable to get any help from the DHH authorities, attendants are collecting drinking water from a purifier installed at a nearby petrol pump, sources said.

Hundreds of patients from across the district depend upon the DHH for better healthcare. The state government has been spending crores of rupees on improving the infrastructure at the hospital. However, the hospital authorities have failed to provide adequate drinking water to the patients, sources added.

“Water purifiers at the DHH usually develop technical snags. Patients and attendants face a lot of inconvenience to avail safe drinking water. The hospital authorities have failed to solve the problem. We will soon launch an agitation to press for better infrastructure at the DHH,” said labour leader Jagannath Deo.

A few social activists, meanwhile, claimed that some nuisance-mongers had dumped a monkey carcass in an overhead tank of the hospital a couple of months ago. However, the DHH officials did not take any prompt action to remove the carcass. “We have raised the drinking water issue with the additional district medical officer several times but to no avail,” said social activist Swadhin Panda.

ADMO Pravat Kumar Sahu said the hospital authorities are aware of drinking water scarcity at the outpatient department. “We are taking steps to repair all defunct water purifiers at the hospital,” Sahu said.

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