Jawahar Nagar, a metropolitan city in Tamil Nadu in southern India, averted a significant health crisis this past week when residents were notified that water from compacted sewer lines had entered a drinking water pipeline. The timely response remedied the situation.

Executive Engineer Keshav Shrivastav said the "problem was identified in time and people were asked to drain water immediately." The pipeline was cleaned and the usual water supply remained uninterrupted by late afternoon.

Shrivastav maintained that an exhaustive exercise would be carried out to find holes in the sewage lines.

Meanwhile, senior officials said that if residents have any residual fears about water getting mixed with sewerage, they can use supply from tankers. "We have already cleared the pipelines and will do it again in coming days" said a senior official from the department.