The New Sarita Cooperative Housing Society in Kalyan East has turned out to be its residents’ bogeyman. One after another, 52 occupants of the building have developed jaundice. While initial symptoms of jaundice were brushed off as a viral infection, it was only after residents of 25 of the 27 flats in the four-storey building began taking ill did the Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) go looking for the source of the problem. What it found sent the residents scurrying for cover — the drinking water pipeline of the housing society had developed a leak, leading to contamination of the water with sewage.

The worker sits beside the water pipeline of New Sarita Cooperative Housing Society in Kalyan East that’s under repair