Even three deaths due to gastroenteritis and diarrhoea in Preet Nagar were not enough to make the municipal corporation ensure that it was supplying safe drinking water to the area in the first week of August. The first death due to water contamination was reported in Preet Nagar on July 31, followed by a fatality each on August 2 and 4. Even as people died, the MC was supplying contaminated water to the area. Four out of five water samples collected from Preet Nagar on August 4 have been found unsafe for consumption in tests conducted by the health department’s state laboratory. On the other hand, water samples collected from the official residences of all senior MC officials have passed the test. Before the samples were collected on August 4, the MC had stopped the supply of drinking water to Preet Nagar after the first death was reported in the city on July 30 and then continued it a day before the samples were collected. The MC had resumed water supply saying that it was now going to provide chlorinated water. A failed water sample each was taken from an MC tanker and the house of 60-year-old Maninder Kaur, who died due to diarrhoea on August 4. Dr. Ramesh Kumar, district epidemiologist, confirmed the news. “The failed samples have bacterial content, which has contaminated the water and made it unfit for drinking,” he said.