HYDERABAD, Dec 16: The district government has claimed that city residents are being supplied safe drinking water according to World Health Organization standards.

A spokesman of the district government said in a handout that under instructions from the district nazim, water from the River Indus was being tested every four hours under the supervision of Dr Ahsan Siddiqui, water technologist from the National Centre of Excellence in Analytical Chemistry, University of Singh.

The spokesman said that the water being supplied was free of contamination.

The release of saline water from the highly polluted Manchu Lake into the river, necessitated by an unwanted rise in the lake water level, has produced fear among the city dwellers that the water they are getting for drinking purpose may not be fit for human consumption.

In May 2004, supply of contaminated water to the city had killed 42 people.

Another source of contamination is discharge of industrial affluent into canals from which water is supplied to the city.