Image courtesy of SocialButterflyMMG from Pixabay

Ever wish your tap water could get ya loaded? Some lucky folks in southern India lived the charmed life recently as the result of a plum plumbing issue poised to leave people plumb plastered.

As reported by the BBC, the residents of an apartment building in the state of Kerala noticed a curious thing on February 3rd: The stream pouring from their kitchen taps was smelly and brown.

Interested parties contacted the authorities, who discovered the community’s well had be contaminated — with booze.

As it turned out, officials had previously stashed 6,000 litres of alcohol after it had been seized on court orders.

The liquor had been dropped into a pit, but all that gassed goodness had seeped through the soil and into a well.

That would be, the water source for 18 flats in the Thrissur district.

Subsequently, the faucets flowed freely with an intoxicating mix of beer, brandy, and rum.

Complex owner Joshy Malyiekkal marveled to BBC Hindi’s Imran Qureshi, “We were so shocked.”

Purportedly, the strong smell of alcohol encouraged people not to drink it. (Really?)

And the pedestrian-pipes-turned-open-bar not only left everyone thirsty, but dirty, too:

Luckily, the strong smell put people off consuming the water. However, the discovery meant there was not only no drinking water for the families, but they were also unable to wash.

“The children couldn’t go to school and even their parents couldn’t go to work,” Mr Malyiekkal said.

Eventually, complaints brought a governmental effort.

But the process of pumping the well will likely take a month, so for those who don’t wanna brush their teeth with beer or bathe in brandy, a fresh version of the clear stuff’s being imported.

Still, there’s good reason to wine:

“They’ve been supplying about 5,000 litres of water daily but it is not enough to cover all the families in our building,” Mr Malyiekkal said, pointing out the well was their main source of water.

Perhaps not merely coincidentally, the state of Kerala has the highest consumption of alcohol in all of India.

-ALEX

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