The Christian gospel has a passage that talks about Jesus turning water into wine when they run out of it during a wedding. This week in Kerala, reports of residents facing a similar conundrum with their tap water at their homes have managed to raise questions. And even as 18 families from the Thrissur district complained about their taps flowing with alcohol instead of water, it's become clear that this is not divine intervention at all.While this phenomenon basically means free alcohol for all, the residents of Solomon Avenue Flat in the Chalakudy municipality of Thrissur are pretty pissed off instead that the water they use for cooking, cleaning, washing clothes and drinking, is now contaminated with old alcohol. There are no reports of anyone getting mistakenly drunk off it (yet), but further investigation has revealed that the excise department is responsible for this toxic mix-up.Turns out that a nearby bar called Rachana was charged with unlawfully keeping 6,000 litres of liquor six years ago and was subsequently shut down. While the general policy is to dispose of the alcohol in distilleries, the excise department thought it wise to dump the seized alcohol in the ground, thinking it’s not that much. So, they dug a hole and threw in the amount we’re assuming they couldn’t finish off themselves. Unfortunately, the well that pumps water to the Solomon Avenue is pretty close by, so the liquor sunk into the soil and seeped its way into the resident’s source of fresh groundwater. Definitely not what the doctor ordered.Now, the residents have appealed to the Chalakudy municipal secretary and the health department to take strict action against the excise department’s callousness. Currently, the water is being drained from the well and a tanker has been stationed to provide water for people. Looks like the residents are bidding farewell to their source of free alcohol.Follow Shamani Joshi on Instagram.
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