Water Supply Problem of Metropolitan Calcutta & Master Plan Recommendation for its Solution

Calcutta with its surrounding region was one of the endemic foci of Cholera for a pretty long-time. This disease abruptly eruputs especially during the summer, spreads with strange alacrity and plays havoc with human lives. Insanitary environmental condition and the deterioration of quality and quantity of drinking water accelerate epidemicity and endemicity of asiatic Cholera and other water-borne diseases. In 1884 Dr. Robert Koch had to come from Berlin down to Calcutta (at the invitation of British Government) to investigate into and find out etiological agent for the cause of Cholera. He went even upto Jessore where the scourge of mortality rate from Cholera was then abnormally high. Fortunately, he was able after culture to isolate under his microscope the germ of Cholera-comma bacilli, i.e Cholera vibriofrom the stool of the cholera infected person. His hypothesis stood the test of time.